A new study finds that experiences make us happier than material possessions.
So go ahead - just throw your iPhone right in the trash!
Hey guys, Tara here for Dnews - and no matter how you choose to spend your free time, there
seems to be 2 kinds of people: people who prefer experiences, and people who prefer
material possessions.
It’s not up to us to say which one is better - after all, if it makes you happy, then it
makes you happy.
But a new study published this week in Psychological Science, seems to indicate that on the whole,
experiences make us happier than possessions.
For this study, researchers tracked 100 college students and over 2,200 randomly selected
adults, to see what excites people the most.
And what they found, is that people tend to feel more positive about experiences, than
material goods.
A lot of it has to do with anticipation.
When we’re looking forward to a trip, for example - it’s kind of this nebulous thing.
We have an idea of what’s gonna happen, but the unpredictability of those events,
is what makes them exciting.
It piques our creativity, and we start to think about all the fun things we’re gonna
do.
On the flip side, when we’re anticipating a big purchase - our excitement is usually
tinged with impatience.
The example they use is someone purchasing the latest iPhone.
In this day and age, everyone researches everything - because nobody wants to feel buyer’s remorse.
So we almost always know exactly what we’re gonna get.
We know how many megapixels the phone has, we know what it looks like, we know minute
details of every single feature of most of the products we buy.
And that takes a lot of the excitement out of it.
Even something as banal as waiting in line, is more fun when you’re doing it for an
event, than for a release of the next big gadget.
People are bonding and socializing, and even news reports have shown that people waiting
in lines for material purchases are more likely to end in violence.
Another factor could be money.
People tend to get competitive over material possessions, but that’s not usually the
case with vacations or events.
Interestingly, there was another study done last year, that expanded on this topic.
And it talked about how the kinds of experiences we like, change as we get older.
So while young people tend to prefer new, uncommon experiences, as we get older, we
actually find MORE joy from normal everyday experiences.
And it stems from how we define ourselves.
When we’re young, we build our identity through our extraordinary experiences.
But when we get old, that changes - and we start to define ourselves, through the ordinary
experiences that comprise our daily lives.
Personally, I’ve always enjoyed experiences to material possessions - because possessions
only last so long.
Once you have kids, and your kids have kids, nobody’s gonna care about the time you waited
2 days in line to get the newest iPhone release.
But they WILL like seeing photos from your awesome trip to Fiji where you wrestled a
shark.
Think about it.
While we’re on the topic of adventures, I wanna remind you guys that I host another
show here on Discovery called Anyhoo, and we just shot an episode last week about the
7 different times someone has died while taking a selfie.
Which is horrifying, and kinda makes you think twice about taking photos on your next vacation.
You can find that episode, along with many others, over at youtube.com/revision3.
And in the meantime, let us know in the comments below, which side of the fence YOU’RE on
- is it experiences, or material goods that make you happier?
That’s it for me, but as always - thank you guys for watching!