1148 words
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The Joy of Less
Glossary
Adapted from
Sanburn, J. (2015). The Joy of Less. Time, 185(10), 44–50. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=101512670&site=ehost-live
purchase (v)
to buy something
boom (v, n)
to have high sales, to be popular e.g. Sales of the new iphone are booming. Everybody wants one.
thrive (v)
to be strong and healthy e.g. The company is thriving. Business is good and our profits are healthy.
retail therapy (n)
shopping to make yourself feel happier or more relaxed. e.g. When I’ve had a difficult week at work, I usually go to Yas Mall for some retail therapy on Saturday to relax and cheer myself up.
snub (v)
to ignore somebody or something / to stop communicating with them
anxiety disorder (n)
a mental problem where people frequently feel fear, worry, or nervousness
non-necessities (n)
things you buy which you don’t really need
overseas (adj. adv) outside the country / in another country
garment (n)
a piece of clothing (eg shirt, dress, pair of jeans, hat)
annually (adv)
every year
overconsumption (n)
buying more than you need / buying too much
Americans arguably have more stuff now than any society in history. Children in the U.S. make up 3.1% of the world’s kid population, but U.S. families buy more than 40% of the toys purchased globally. One-click shopping and same-day delivery have driven purchasing to another level altogether, making consumption almost too easy. It would be one thing if all our possessions were making us happier, but the opposite seems to be occurring. At least one study shows that a home with too much stuff can actually lead to higher levels of anxiety. “These objects that we bring in the house have consequences,” says UCLA anthropologist Elinor Ochs, who led a decade-long study on consumerism. Home is the place of silence, where the world outside can seem less complicated if inside there’s a sense of simplicity and order. The idea that our homes and indeed our lives might be improved by reducing the amount of stuff we own is now gaining popularity across America.
New industries are growing to help us deal with and reduce the amount of stuff we’re still bringing into our homes. Business is booming for companies which take away our junk. Professional organizers are thriving. A quirky book by a 30-year-old Japanese “cleaning consultant” Marie Kondo called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up has been an unlikely New York Times best seller since February. Kondo’s simple philosophy urges readers to keep only the things that spark joy while throwing out the rest. If retail-therapy joy lasts a moment, Kondo’s is meant to last a lifetime. Her name has even become a verb: to Kondo your sock drawer.
Our current period of overconsumption began about 30 years ago, when the amount of money used to purchase non-necessities reached 50% of all spending in America. It was the beginning of a decline in the cost of consumer goods, the credit-card and the rise of large discount stores forcing down prices. In the past decade, the cost of cell phones, toys, computers and televisions has dropped dramatically, thanks in part to overseas manufacturing. The rise of “fast fashion” popularized by the growth of clothing outlets like Gap, Forever 21 and American Eagle selling $10 T-shirts and $30 jeans—is now driven by low-cost imports H&M and Uniqlo. Today the average U.S. household has about 248 garments and 29 pairs of shoes. It purchases, on average, 64 pieces of clothing and seven pairs of shoes annually, at a total cost of $1,141 a year, or $16 per item. “One reason we have so much stuff is because we can – lower and lower prices make it possible” says Annie Leonard, executive director of the environmental group Greenpeace USA and the creator of The Story of Stuff, an animated video about excessive consumerism.
The latest wave of overconsumption is led by Amazon. Thanks to the growth of online shopping and quick purchase tools like “1-Click Ordering,” unnecessary spending is almost effortless. When stores were the only places to buy something, there were several points at which shoppers could stop and ask themselves, Do I need this? What will I do with it? Where will it live when I bring it home? As online shopping replaces traditional stores, many of those barriers to buying no longer exist. “The ability to purchase and then possess something has accelerated rapidly,” says professional organizer Andrew Mellen. “It’s instantaneous. And if you’re not reflective, how do you interrupt yourself?”
Studies into the effect of this trend on our mental wellbeing have been carried out by Stephanie Preston, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan. Preston has primed people to feel socially rejected and then measured how likely they were to buy. The result: They took more stuff after feeling snubbed and tended to choose more useful items such as backpacks, flashlights and toilet paper. Preston theorizes that humans expect to have support from fellow humans, and when that’s taken away, we become more selfish, and our survival instincts kick in. Similarly, she believes the more anxious we are, the more we’re inclined to take, take, take. “Feeling anxious is associated with uncertainty,” she says “And historically that was a sign that you might not have access to resources and you better store them up.”
Today, about 1 in 6 Americans suffers from an anxiety disorder for a variety of reasons, something that appears to be not only a cause of our overconsumption but also an effect. To reduce feelings of anxiety, many of us shop, an activity that has been shown to release dopamine in the brain, giving us a temporary feeling of happiness. It’s a sensation that we want to keep reliving, a sensation that can lead to overconsumption. But those anxious feelings can all come creeping back again once we get home and have to deal with all the stuff we’ve already bought.
In the UCLA study led by Ochs, which analyzed 32 Los Angeles families, when the mothers discussed their messiest and most untidy rooms, their levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, went up dramatically. “Bringing all these objects into the house has health effects,” says Ochs. “You work really hard. You buy things – but these things build up in the house. It gets out of control. It’s very difficult to manage having so many objects in the house.”
It should come as no surprise, then, that the mind-set of many Americans has changed. They’re throwing out all their stuff associated with old technologies—CD cases, books, shelving units—and going digital. Books, music and games can be bought or rented online and we stream movies and TV shows rather than buying DVDs. Younger Americans relocating to urban areas tend to cut down their levels of consumption, while many older Americans are throwing out their things for a life of travel in retirement. Both young and old, it seems, are starting to discover the joy of less.
Adapted from
Sanburn, J. (2015). The Joy of Less. Time, 185(10), 44–50. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=101512670&site=ehost-live