Your Mental Health is Being Destroyed by Consumerism and Social Media …

How are social media and consumerism affecting your mental health?

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• We are constantly bombarded with advertisements in our daily lives; we see them everywhere we go and on our smartphones around the clock.
• According to market research firm Yankelovich, the average person saw up to 5,000 ads per day in 2007, and by the end of 2022, thanks to the internet and social media that number has increased to 6000–10,000 per day, nearly doubling that of 2007.
• Every advertiser, marketer, and social media influencer is attempting to sell us something; they are all trying to grab our attention and extract money from us. The same society that tells us to accept ourselves as we are, the same social media influencer who preaches self-love, is attempting to sell us something to make us feel whole as if we are not whole yet. And by purchasing their products, we will feel better about ourselves.
• Social media and consumerism culture collectively encourage us to buy bigger and better things. They promise that it will make our lives easier and more comfortable, as well as raise our social status so that people will respect us more, we will be liked by our peers, accepted in a group, or simply make us look cool on social media, and we believe them.

Who are we kidding?

Do you realize how damaging this culture is to our mental health?

Imagine what it does to your self-worth.

• Sorry to disappoint you. Self-worth can’t be purchased on Amazon. It is derived internally by respecting yourself and sticking to your words and promises.
• These companies know how much we care about other people’s opinions, our image in society, and our fundamental need to belong in a community. And they’ve mastered the art of tapping into these vulnerabilities and making us buy things that we do not need.
• A lot of industries will shut their doors when people start accepting the way they are and stop caring about what others people think about them.

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• Louis Vuitton bags range from 400$ to 36000$, what in the world are they putting in those bags? And they are booking 65%-70% gross margins from those bags,
• Do you know why people buy such expensive bags when they can easily buy a bag of similar quality at less than half the price?
• I’ll tell you why that bag is a symbol of their status in society and it raises their social rank even more. They own it because it sends a signal to their peers that look I’m superior to you, and I’m financially so sound that I can afford a bag of thousands of dollars. The purchasing decision has nothing to do with quality, and everything to do with the signal it sends to its peers.
• It is true for every company that is selling products at extravagant prices and still, people are adamant about buying their products.
• They are able to associate their self-worth with those products, Hey look, I’m driving a million-dollar Lamborghini, I’m so valuable, the truth is you are not valuable your car definitely is. Associating our self-worth with the products that we use, that’s about as low as we can get.
• Our mental health is also significantly harmed when we no longer possess those items. We have the impression that our identity has been robbed. Put us in a victim mindset and make us feel like the universe is conspiring against us, and we are unable to deal with our loss because of it.
• These people fail to realize, that we are not our possessions and we should never identify ourselves with the objects that we own. Anyone can make a dig at your watch, car, bag, or anything and put a dent in your self-esteem. Your self-worth should depend on things that can’t be removed from you.

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• Social media isn’t helping either, it has only enhanced our insecurities. Everyone on the internet will make you believe that they are living their best life, a world without insecurities, vulnerabilities, luxury vacations, and unlimited success, all without having to work for it.
• So, News Alert!! Life isn’t real on social media. People on the internet have mastered the art of hiding anything that’s real. But the problem is, we go around seeing their highlight reels (Their best moments) and mistake it as their real life.
• Following these influencers play tricks with our brains. We start to question our self-worth, and our self-esteem begins to crumble. All this eventually leads to anxiety, depression, and other mental disorders.
• They give us the impression that we are inadequate, flawed, and unworthy. However, we seek to feel deserving, flawless, and lovely. So we choose the quickest route out by buying all the stuff that will make us feel the same way.
• We try to make a comparison between our skin’s imperfections and their filtered selfies and fall for that delusion. We can no longer look at ourselves without filters or without cosmetics because we are so self-conscious. We start to feel uncomfortable in our own skin and in the midst of it all our mental health pays the price for it.
• The glitz and glamour of social media and consumerism are after our attention and money but don’t give a damn about our mental health, so we must learn to get our self-worth from our values and beliefs rather than from the stuff we own.
• We need to prioritize it ourselves because nobody is going to do it for us. For the sake of our mental health, we need to learn to get comfortable with our own skin and stop comparing our real selves with something that’s not even real.

And whenever you have the impulse to buy something, pause and ask yourself a few simple questions:

Q1: Do I actually need this stuff, or am I just purchasing it to look cool or to fit in?

Q2: Can I live my life without it?

Q3: Am I buying this product just because everyone is buying it?

Q4: Would Investing in this product save time or money in the long run?

• Filtering your decisions through these questions will help you spend your money wisely and on things you actually need, and believe me, you don’t need much to be happy, productive, and entertained.

That’s it from my side. Do share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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