Living, really living, with less

Graham Hill, internet entrepreneur, writes about materialism…from experience.  Did you know that the “average size of a new American home in 1950 was 983 square feet; by 2011, the average new home was 2,480 square feet. And those figures don’t provide a full picture. In 1950, an average of 3.37 people lived in each American home; in 2011, that number had shrunk to 2.6 people?”

 

Did you know that in a “recent study, the Northwestern University psychologist Galen V. Bodenhausen linked consumption with aberrant, antisocial behavior. Professor Bodenhausen found that “Irrespective of personality, in situations that activate a consumer mind-set, people show the same sorts of problematic patterns in well-being, including negative affect and social disengagement.” Though American consumer activity has increased substantially since the 1950s, happiness levels have flat-lined?”

Hill’s short essay is worth reading and reflecting upon.  Because he is warning us about a trap that any of us, perhaps all of us at some point, can fall into and die.  And he is not railing against materialism as one of those self-righteous posers who pretend to actually prefer tofu to steak.

“…I like material things as much as anyone. I studied product design in school. I’m into gadgets, clothing and all kinds of things. But my experiences show that after a certain point, material objects have a tendency to crowd out the emotional needs they are meant to support.”

Check out his essay.