I was searching an online video sharing website when I came upon a video by a young woman who was criticizing all of the current technology and what it has devolved into. She lamented how society has declined and we now live in an instant gratification society and economy, where everything, including relationships, has become a “throwaway culture.” The term “hedonic adaptation” came about, and, for me it was new, and perhaps you as well. According to an internet search: “Hedonic adaptation is the psychological process of returning to a stable level of happiness after positive or negative events.”
The position of the YouTuber was that the consumer-driven economy is creating people with insatiable appetites for new things, and how the new things only made people happy for a short while. American consumers are desperately spending money for new things that they can barely afford, and the euphoric feelings generated by the new things is quickly lost. Many Americans fail to save any money because they are constantly spending money trying to keep from looking “dated” and that they have a persistent need to be “hip,” “chic” or avant-garde. After all, no one wants to be friends with anyone who isn’t “in the know.”
While the YouTuber had a point, they failed to recognize the triviality of that attitude. This same YouTuber claimed that their life “revolved around a Mac.” I guess I will have to be the one to tell this YouTuber that their life doesn’t have to revolve around a screen. There are more things in heaven and earth, YouTuber, than are dreamt of on your Mac. No one is twisting anyone’s arm here. After enough disappointment, can’t Americans realize that their materialistic lifestyle is about as deep as the screen on their laptop? If you are always feeling “out of date” you might look for things that are timeless. Most of the philosophical mavens of YouTube couldn’t tell you the difference between Plato and Descartes. On the other hand, they can tell you all about the new technology that is a “must have.” There is all kinds of information on the intent, but what is more important is that expensive dinner last night, the new clothes and jewelry that you posted on social media.
When it first emerged, (thanks to Al Gore) the internet was going to change the world, and it has, for the worse. I hate to appear pessimistic, but the bad outnumbers the good on the internet by several magnitudes, if not exponentially. The recent tragic and unforgivable murder of Charlie Kirk immediately generated false “information” like a fire hose watering a clump of daisies. Much like those who need something new every week, internet scoops only value viewership, not veracity.
Life in the United States is a lot more expensive than it was decades ago. While that might be true, life in the U.S. in the twenty-first century is considerably different than it was decades ago. There was a time in the U.S. where the home was small; there was one car that the husband drove to work every day, there was one land-line phone, and one tube television that got maybe five channels. Many could live well in America in a small home with a single landline telephone, a single car, with the most high-tech gadget being a small television that received only broadcast channels. Living in a home with a three-foot television screen that has dozens of channels, several phones, several computers all linked to the internet, along with two or more cars is an expensive lifestyle. Poverty in the U.S. is a lifestyle that Third-World countries would die to attain. Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you got till it’s gone.
