Why you buy stuff you don't need?

A topic I would like to weigh in is why we buy stuff? Is it to make us feel good? Possibly. However, there are more reasons to explain why we possess compulsive spending habits.

The Sophistication of Marketing

MLM marketers are everywhere. They trick ordinary people into parting away with their hard-earned fiat in believing in an unrealistic dream for 99% of people through their marketing ways. From the outside, it’s hard to conceive that anyone believes the lies that MLM marketers spew. But somehow, they have brainwashed people to giving up their paychecks to buy into these dreams.

One of my favourite books is Born To Buy by Juliet Schor. It not only reports on the sophistication of marketing but chronicles the stealth methods used to convert children into lifelong buying robots. Given that the book was printed in 2004, and the author’s study subjects are adults now, most millennials have already been transformed into consumer zombies.

How Marketers Prey On Us

The author notes that marketers use the word “target” to refer to consumers. I don’t know about you, but it makes me feel victimized. The unveiling reported in Ms Schor’s books informs us that the human population is categorized into every imaginable segment. The research would blow your mind. Entire bodies of knowledge have been created to determine how best to provoke each cross-section of the population to part with their money. No one is left out: every characteristic of life has its annual conference. Boy vs girl no longer breaks down children’s products. There’s baby, toddler, teen, tween, black, white, Hispanic. Maybe even mom-haters or dad-haters.

Advertisers play on our emotions and pinch at the core of our inner needs, generating feelings of lack. By creating ads with poignant undertones, the “targets” imagine a world of excitement or fantasy that would be theirs if they own a particular product. Usually a second-guessing of self-worth is served up. I once read that offering a perfume product is selling hope. Our desire for hope is so strong that it perpetuates the perfume industry to the tune of 6 billion dollars a year. Who knew?

Cultural Shifts

Marketers exploit or promote cultural shifts. A catch-phrase of the ’80s was, Whoever Has The Most Toys Wins. That context tilts your thinking to never having enough, that you’re not a “winner” if you don’t keep accumulating toys.

Television has probably been the most profound societal transformation. Think about how television has influenced your life. I’ll admit that the way I dressed (when I made money to buy my clothes), was based on what I envied on my favourite TV shows. Advertisers are all over this as studies have shown that watching more TV results in buying more products. With every website having mobile capabilities and people glued to their phones, this is a free-for-all for advertisers. There is no limit to the ways they can reach out and grab your attention.

The availability of credit is another cultural transition. Decades ago, most families didn’t have credit cards. Now, wallets are exploding. I guess it’s easy to ignore debt because it’s invisible. I’m amazed at how people can wear a happy face when they’re tethered to a ridiculous amount of debt. I would have to fake my death and change my identity.

The most shocking point I took from Born To Buy was that modern marketing has figured out ways to define us. By showing us what we want or could have, they have designed lifestyles while provoking buy-in. This is some serious manipulation. Pharmaceutical companies have even made their drugs sound good, despite the 150 serious side effects that they’re required to disclose.

Combine all that with the constant bombardment of advertising. I sense a tsunami of ads from the second I open my eyes and feel like I’m virtually followed. Even when buying in stores, they ask for your email address so that they can email you for the rest of your life.

Never Having Enough

All of the above has created a sad cycle of never-achievable satiation, where happiness is always out-of-reach. Don’t get me wrong; I’m all for having nice things. When I first bought my house, I filled it up, just like George Carlin’s monologue. “Your house is just a place for your stuff while you go out and get more stuff.” No one ever thought of it that way until, in unmatched comedic fashion, he opened our eyes to this truth. I continued buying bedding and furnishings until I had no more space to store my summer stuff in the winter and my winter stuff in the summer. Thankfully, I have a small home and reached a saturation point. Now, I only buy things when something breaks.

Let’s Be Happy

I’m so sick of being told there’s something wrong with me, aren’t you? Let’s stop thinking that we’re not good enough the way we are. Let’s stop thinking that we need all kinds of things to make us happy. Let’s decide to see through what the marketers are shoving down our throats. Let’s buy what we need and stop lining their pockets. Let’s be defined by our unique, beautiful qualities, not by what we own. There’s the explanation for why people can’t stop buying. It’s not their fault.

Thank you for reading and hope you have a good rest of the day!

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