Hello, beautiful people. Take a moment from the mayhem of savings, 30%, 50% plus spend $100 and get another one free. It is nauseating. Yet that is what we do. You’re standing in line at 4 AM, freezing your bits off for a TV that’s 20% off – a TV you’ll replace next Black Friday because, well, that’s what we do now, isn’t it?
Have our lives become so simple we have nothing better to do than just shop? Here’s the thing about modern consumption: It’s not about need anymore. It’s about that dopamine hit. That sweet, sweet rush of clicking “add to cart” or, better still, “One Click Buy.” Scientists at Stanford found that just anticipating a purchase lights up the same brain regions as chocolate and, oddly enough, puppies.
“The things you own end up owning you.” – Chuck Palahniuk wasn’t just being clever; he was predicting our current reality show of consumption.
You know what’s truly unfathomable? We’re buying storage units to store the stuff we bought on sale to save money. The self-storage industry hit $48.7 billion in 2023. We’re paying to store things we never needed in the first place.
Meanwhile, Netflix is churning out documentaries about minimalism that we watch on our new 85-inch TVs, nodding along while browsing Amazon.
Here’s a radical thought: Maybe the best deal isn’t ‘buy two, get one free.’ Maybe it’s ‘buy none, get your life back.’
What you bought can still be returned. You got the hit. Now revive your bank account, and better yet, find that purpose to truly energize you.
