Materialism – leading to a higher level of greed in today’s generation

I recently attended a birthday party of an affluent family’s 8-year-old. I found right from the shoes to the hair band or bow. Everything was branded. To my surprise, I found the majority of the kids sporting branded items. On discussion with my kid, I was given to understand that it is the normal thing whether attending an event or going to a picnic. On asking the reason for the need for everything to be branded, I was told peer acceptance, to be seen as happy, successful, to be popular, to be seen as in touch with the ‘in’ things. Most of today’s generation believe belief that possessions, that too branded, are the most important things in life. The social image that it projects is very important for them. In many families, Parents view children as more expert with regard to products, and they actually wield more purchase influence. So now, even the ads are designed targeting that factor. Funnily, gender does not influence materialism. I found that both are equal in their materialism.
Maybe materialism is important to achieve goals such as success, having a social image, having a luxurious/comfortable life, etc. It can affect a relationship, increase chances of depression and anxiety, make a person less satisfied with themselves, because always there will be a new bag or new car out there to buy. This is increasing greed to a very high level, leading to unkind cruel behaviour also, even in children. Judging others on the basis of what they have. Recently, I came across a quote from a spiritual guru – Sadh-guru “A materialistic person is ruthless with others but kind to himself. A spiritual person is ruthless with himself but kind to everyone else.” Shouldn’t we bring back the link between spiritualism, contentment, and materialism to our schools or education? Maybe we will have a more balanced, kind humans who give more importance to life than possessions.

Submitted July 15, 2023 at 06:49AM by Downtown_Event8476 https://ift.tt/npgqfkC