The advertising culture is having a devastating effect on our agendas of becoming the media's ideal of perfection, and behind all of this self-sacrifice the media and corporations are the ones succeeding, not us. In Culture Jam, by Kale Lasn, the founder of Adbusters magazine, he attempts to show the reader what our mass media has been doing subliminally. When the average American thinks of consumerism, we believe it is the promotion of the consumer's interests. What Lasn believes is that we're being told what our interests are and to buy into those false interests. We've become disconnected with ourselves and our own interests to fit those that our corporations have designed for us. He uses an example of taking your family to the forest for some alone time to brave the elements and come closer as a family, but after only a few short hours becoming so bored that you begin self-destructing due to lack of technology. Our children have become so reliant on consumerism that they can't possibly enjoy any of the senses you have to use in your most primitive state. After only a short while, they show signs of grief and withdrawl. He writes that we should prioritize the earth as number one, and get back to the basics of feeling that the earth is one with us. If we have this way of thinking, we won't look at helping the environment as something self-serving, but more like helping out a part of our family. As humans, we've learned that buying creates happiness, or so we believe. Most of the time, we're living in a world we've created for ourselves through the consumer process. The environment is what we have purchased; there are no trees or fresh ponds. We become compulsive shoppers when we're bored with our lives, and we look for outside factors to fill those gaps. As a country, we have the most diagnosed mental ailments in the world, even though we're the richest also. This is due to Americans being able to. We can validate our pains, discomforts, and social anxieties through means of doctor's notes. Why we're feeling this way is due to an "unknown" cause draining us of our happiness, and Lasn feels that plentitude is our problem. We have the ability to purchase whatever our hearts desire, therefore there is no satisfaction in earning these rewards in life. We don't have any driven motivations other than monetary,
Tony Hoagland involves the value system in the poem, money is put ahead of everything and yet happiness is just not where it should be. “I am asleep in America too.” We as humans believe that the more we have the happier we become which is not true at all. Material things fill the world and when they are achieved them happiness that we think will come never does. “Each day you watch rivers of bright merchandise run past you.” The choice is yours is it a want, or is it a need? Does it have a every day use or do you just like the way it looks? Marketing departments of companies know this and market along with creating protects that appeal to the
they also wonder how they can make the place they live in a better place for everybody to live
The society uses one’s happiness to seek their own. Starting with the ancient Adam Smith’s theory of a market economy where commodities are sold and bought in a market freely, where sellers and buyers exchange to achieve profit, and happiness is derived from profit. Thus “happiness is both produced and consumed” (Ahmed 3). Happiness is a matter of research for corporates of big companies. They try to figure out which product makes the buyers feel the happiness they need, so that they can produce more for their own profit. So, they cunningly make commercials with people having a good time. Which when watched by the buyers they get the false sense that their life would be so much better if they bought that small bottle of happiness. Once they buy their “Pandora’s box” they hope that underneath all the unnecessary objects there will be happiness, but they are dispirited at the end. Unknowingly the markets are making the society a more dull and sad place rather than distributing
...s? Just like the Once-ler and his family value financial success to obtain happiness, the same goes for contemporary society. Society is convinced happiness is achieved by acquisition and financial possessions rather than a state of mind. According to Rider “Despite increasing material wealth, Americans are not happier” (Rider). Happiness does not come from fortune and many people make the mistake in perceiving it that way. True happiness comes from one’s self and their outlook of life. In the “The Lorax” Dr. Seuss not only spread an important message about taking care of the planet, but also helped his readers become aware that wealth does not lead to happiness. Every person has their own perspective of what it means to be happier and to live a happier life, but it is important to realize that happiness comes from within and not by something obtained.
It's true that this desire for things is what drives our economy. The free market has given us great blessings, but it has in some ways also put us on the wrong path -- the path to a selfish, unhappy society. Michael Lerner, who worked as a psychotherapist to middle-income Americans notes that
The economy-oriented society relies on hypnopaedia to keep consumers eager to spend by them with catchy, consume-driven phrases. For example, one slogan tells people that they "do love flying. [They] . . .do love flying" (33). A resident of London likes being high, using helicopters for all transportation, and the feeling of being safe in an indestructible machine. The gas-guzzling machines cost enormous amounts of money to keep fueled, and so the gasoline market goes up. In addition, the people believe that "ending is better than mending" (35). One is taught to do away with items instead of trying to fix them. Society encourages purchasing new, always buying more and more so as to boost the economy. Furthermore, children are taught that "the more stitches the less riches" (33). Stitching and other repairing of any kind are frowned upon, because it does not cost anything, rather, it saves money. The more one attempts to mend and keep rather than throw away, the less money in circulation throughout the country and thus, the economy suffers. The prosperity of this money cycle is valued highly, and so these three jingles are sleep-taught to all.
The research article "If We Are So Rich, Why aren 't We Happy?" By Professor of psychology Mihaly Csikszentmihaly is written to provide information to people and psychologists, with various examples and techniques from his books. Mihaly is the founder of "Positive theory" (1990), and originator of the "flow" concept, so through his studies Mihaly shows us that people in the United States believes materialism and having and excess amount of money will bring more happiness. This however is not the truth his studies show the opposite in fact, and it is clear that his article is more about providing information to the average person, rather than simply stating the facts of his books for a professional study. This is proven to be true when he talks
...anet and take action to create change. We may not be able to control the laws of nature, but we can control how we affect the land in which reside. The health and quality of living for you and those around you will only continue to degrade and be affected by your choices and how you decide to treat the environment of this planet that we call home. Don’t let the planet fall apart; don’t let your home come crashing down.
From the survey psychologists made, it seems that what makes us happy may not always bring more meaning, and vice versa. Feeling happy was strongly correlated with seeing life as easy, pleasant and free from difficult or troubling events, while none of these things were correlated with a greater sense of meaning. They also find that money is positively correlated with greater levels of happiness. However, having enough money seems to make little difference in life’s sense of meaning. Therefore, perhaps instead of saying that “Money doesn’t buy happiness,” we ought to say that “Money doesn’t buy meaning.” Additionally, in Baumeister’s study, “givers” reported higher levels of meaning in their lives compared to the “takers”. The researchers also point out
As money can be really important, alongside to food to eat, a house to live in, and places to go from here to there, but for all of those things, you need money. So that’s when “money can buy happiness” expression comes in because many people think that since money can buy everything they want in life, then it can easily buy happiness. My parents lived a decent life style, they had the amount of an average person in Amman Jordan. Meaning that we weren 't filthy rich, but we also weren 't poor either. The amount of money we had was enough to make us happy. We didn’t struggle with anything like food or other necessities we needed. My parents always say that "it’s better than nothing" because looking at others who don’t have much money makes me
Material goods don’t make us happy. Acquiring things like houses and cars only have a transient effect on happiness. People’s desires for material possessions crank up at the same, or greater rate, than their salaries. Again, this means that despite considerably more luxurious possessions, people end up no happier. There’s even evidence that materialism make us less happy.
...and consume. The earth isn’t getting any bigger or more abundant- so it’s up to us to take care of it.
..., a person who earns $25,000 is happier than a person who makes $125,000 and an employee who makes $500,000 is only slightly happier than someone who makes $55,000. Lastly, there are more important things in life that and make you happy, for example, friends. They don’t come with a price tag, and if they do, you definitely need new friends. Money won’t make you happy since good times can’t be bought. You don’t need a fancy vacation to have a good time; it’s just a matter of who you spend it with. Over the years, humans have blown the value of money way out of proportion. People make it seem like if you’re not filthy rich, then you won’t live a good life but it’s not true. You can lack money and yet still live a perfect, happy life.
I never really thought the expression, “money can’t buy happiness”, was true. As an infant, just by observing the people around me, I observed when they would obtain money and a huge grin would spread across their face, the corners of their smile spreading from ear to ear. Whenever I would see that grin and a person’s face light up at the sight of a crisp, green bill it would make me believe that I had proved the famous expression wrong. Now that I’ve grown up and matured, my idea of that expression has changed. As of now, I am able to reflect on life more and look deeper into things and particularly into people more than I was able to do years ago. My ideas about this expression changed the most though because of the money situation my family had stumbled upon because of the failing economy. I remember being younger when the economy was doing well and waking up to twenty gifts for each of my three sisters and I. We used to believe that all of those presents, brought in because of money of course, were the best part of waking up on Christmas. Of course all of those toys and material items would make a child happy; however looking back it would only make them happy if it was given to them by somebody who bought it for them with love.