Ever wondered why retail therapy feels so satisfying? Unravel the psychology behind the shopping cure, exploring its therapeutic effects and how it influences our mood and mental health. Discover the science that makes shopping more than just a pastime.
When I was at my most burnt out pre-pandemic, traveling constantly for reporting, working all the time, the one thing that would temporarily calm me down was buying shit – not in massive quantities, just things that seemed like they would fix small problems, fill small lacks.
These purchases were a coping mechanism: a moment of fleeting calm within the larger chaos. They also required just the right amount of decision-making and, thanks to the way we now shop online, almost no friction – at least in the moment.
Home improvement:
New exterior door, new exterior trim, repaint and replace the water damaged carpet
- Reminds you of the baby gate from the previous owners that needs to be repainted, do you have time or do you need to work more to buy a new door
What happens when you realize that the animating theme of the rest of your life, without intervention, is dying your hair and breaking down a continuous stream of cardboard boxes?
“Freedom” and “choice” present themselves as the “freedom” to choose between various products; those choices then fill the void where personality or community might have been
- It’s very difficult, in other words, to push back on capitalist imperatives (of family, of career, of existence) when your browser keeps freezing from too many West Elm tabs and skincare companies are trailing your every move on Instagram
- The problem isn’t buying shit, at least not exactly. It’s misidentifying again and again, the source and character of our sadness
- When anything you want materializes before you with a simple request, you spend a lot less time absorbed with wanting and, by extension, improving
- Today, I want the framework of my consumptive desires visible
- I want to denaturalize the compulsion to soothe myself through consumption – make it strange and ridiculous
Big Pharma, Big Skincare, Big Design & Renovation, Big Tech, Big Home Remodel, Big Fitness & Wellness, and Big Fashion
None of these industries actually solve the problems they present as pressing, although they certainly purport to.
- Their products will, however, get you close enough to catharsis (of completion, of solving your problem, of “fixing” whatever you discovered was broken) that you build faith in a brand as solution.
But then the summer came, and that friction began to disappear.
I funneled my enduring pandemic anxiety into leveling up my lawn dad status
- Any level of lawn-dadding requires items
- Potting soil and fertilizer and Neem oil
- A shovel and a spade and a weed ******* – pots and more pots and hanging pots
- Part of the pleasure of gardening is solving problems
- The logic of consumption transforms gardening into yard work: a task, a weight, another task at which to find yourself lacking
- This ethos holds true across bourgeois hobbies and lifestyles
- Everything demands maintenance and amelioration
