America is about freedom. freedom means choice. the more choices we have, the more freedom we have. but the question is, are we happier with all these choices, or do they actually subtract from our happiness even if they make our lives better? I am not going to argue that freedom is a bad thing. I am only going to attempt to analyze how the MASSIVE amount of choices we have in today's society might be harder to deal with.
There are 285 kinds of cookies at wal-mart. 75 Iced teas. 230 soups. 175 salad dressing. and 40 toothpastes. This explosion of choice is everywhere from cars to electronics to health care. 50 years ago there were less things to have choices about. Was it better that way?
All of this choice seems to have negative effects on people. One is paralysis rather than liberation. with so many options to choose from, people find it difficult to choose ONE. so instead they do nothing.
another problem is that even if we overcome the paralysis and make a choice, we are less satisfied with the result than we would've been if we had had fewer options. why? because with so many salad dressings, if you buy one and it's not perfect, it's easy to imagine a better one out there. and what happens is this imagined alternative makes you regret the choice you DID make. this regret detracts from the satisfaction of the choice, even if it was a good one. the more options there are the easier it is to regret anything that is wrong with the choice that you made. with 31 flavors I should be able to find something BETTER than vanilla, chocolate or strawberry. this is an escalation of expectations. this hit me when I went to buy a pair of jeans. i have a favorite pair of jeans I bought back when there were only a couple choices. they fit ok, but soon enough they fit perfectly. with a big hole growing in the back I needed to find a new pair. but now i have to decide, slim fit, easy fit, relaxed fit, button fly or zipper fly, stone washed or acid washed, boot cut, wide cut or tapered. i just want the kind that used to by my only kind. so I spent an hour trying on jeans and walked out with a good pair of fitting jeans. I did good. all this choice made it possible for me to do good. but I felt worse. why? maybe with all of these options available my expectations went up. to the point where I expected the perfect jeans. when they weren't perfect i was disappointed. more choice brings higher expectations, when you compare what you get to what you expected the difference brings disappointment, not satisfaction. even with good results! sheesh.
when there is only ONE choice of blue jeans and they don't fit right, who is responsible? the makers of those blue jeans. but when there are hundreds of choices of jeans and they don't fit, who is responsible? you are. you could have done better. clinical depression has exploded in the industrial world. people blame themselves for being disappointed even when the choice is a good one, but their expectations were to high. because they have to explain why they are disappointed so they blame themselves.
but the scariest conclusion to all of this insane rambling is that the key to happiness becomes lowered expectations!
I don't know if I even believe what I just said.
No comments:
Post a Comment