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When was the last time that you cried over a heartbreak or a broken friendship? Don’t remember? Neither do I. But I do remember the last time I cried over a ruined dress or a cracked phone screen. Which brings me to this point, that we, as a generation treasures material possessions over real companionship. In the make-believe social media race, we all are running like headless chickens, competing for a my life is better than yours trophy. But there are no clear winners. Sometimes someone’s weekend seems better than yours and sometimes they envy your gazpacho andaluz. It’s a vicious cycle and nobody can escape it. We all have designer watches but we don’t have time, we all have the latest phones but we don’t want to talk, we all have the best of both worlds but we refuse to share it with people IRL. Why? You might ask. Let’s get into the psychology behind this weird fascination and attachment towards objects that are not contributing to our long-term happiness.
Social acceptance has long been a part of humankind. We all want to be liked more, praised more, befriended more. Social media has given us the power to give people a sneak peek into our lives without really letting them in. So, we buy more stuff, Instagram about it more so that people want to be around us more. But what we fail to understand is all this is ethereal. One day, soon enough, nobody would care about how many pair of shoes you own or how much alcohol you drank last Friday night. But before it all happens, WE need to stop caring about these things. Sure they’re brilliant memories and yes we should totally take out our $999 phone and click pictures of our wasted friends in high resolution and maybe post it with #MyFriendsAreBetterThanYours. But would you rather live that moment with them instead of re-living it multiple times on your Instastory in absolute solitude? The point I’m trying to make is social media is not a reflection of who people are; it’s a reflection of who people want to be seen as. I might enjoy spending weekends at home with my dog in quiet with a cup of hot chocolate and a book, but I’m the person on Facebook who goes out to party every weekend with cool people because she is #Blessed. This mad rat-race has created an illusionary competition in our heads to have a better life than our compadres. Instead of being happy for our friends, we’ve become the people who want to one-up them because well, we can. This unrealistic attachment to 15-seconds of fame from people we don’t really care about is affecting our real relationships. We are spending on unwanted objects to look cool in front of unimportant people. (Really. When was the last time anybody used a Keurig to make a cup of coffee?) Won’t you rather invest your time in people, and to get to know them better and establish life-long relationships? No matter how much pop culture glorify being on your own, setting the bar high, putting up the walls and all that schbang; at the end of the day, we are social animals and we need people, not objects to have a happy life.