Materialism

Materialism: a system that
eats us from the inside out...... Buying more stuff is associated with depression,
anxiety and broken relationships. It is socially
destructive and self-destructive ...... Owning more doesn't bring happiness: 'the material pursuit of self-esteem reduces self-esteem.'
Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA George Monbiot That they are crass, brash and trashy goes
without saying. But there is something in the
pictures posted on Rich Kids of Instagram (and highlighted by the Guardian last week) that inspires more than the usual revulsion towards
crude displays of opulence. There is a shadow in
these photos – photos of a young man wearing all four of his Rolex watches, a youth posing in front of his helicopter, endless pictures of cars, yachts, shoes, mansions, swimming pools and
spoilt white boys throwing gangster poses in
private jets – of something worse: something
that, after you have seen a few dozen, becomes
disorienting, even distressing. The pictures are, of course, intended to incite envy. They reek instead of desperation.
The young men and women seem lost in their
designer clothes, dwarfed and dehumanised by
their possessions, as if ownership has gone into
reverse. A girl's head barely emerges from the haul of Chanel, Dior and Hermes shopping bags
she has piled on her vast bed. It's captioned
"shoppy shoppy" and "#goldrush", but a
photograph whose purpose is to illustrate plenty
seems instead to depict a void. She's alone with
her bags and her image in the mirror, in a scene that seems saturated with despair. Perhaps I'm projecting my prejudices. But an impressive body of psychological research seems
to support these feelings. It suggests that
materialism, a trait that can afflict both rich and
poor, and which the researchers define as "a value system that is preoccupied with
possessions and the social image they project", is both socially destructive and self-destructive. It
smashes the happiness and peace of mind of
those who succumb to it. It's associated with
anxiety, depression and broken relationships. There has long been a correlation observed between materialism, a lack of empathy and
engagement with others, and unhappiness. But
research conducted over the past few years
seems to show causation. For example, a series of studies published in the journal Motivation and Emotion in July showed that as people
become more materialistic, their wellbeing
(good relationships, autonomy, sense of
purpose and the rest) diminishes. As they
become less materialistic, it rises. In one study, the researchers tested a group of 18-year-olds, then re-tested them 12 years
later. They were asked to rank the importance of
different goals – jobs, money and status on one
side, and self-acceptance, fellow feeling and
belonging on the other. They were then given a
standard diagnostic test to identify mental health problems. At the ages of both 18 and 30,
materialistic people were more susceptible to
disorders. But if in that period they became less
materialistic, they became happier. In another study, the psychologists followed Icelanders weathering their country's economic
collapse. Some people became more focused on
materialism, in the hope of regaining lost
ground. Others responded by becoming less
interested in money and turning their attention
to family and community life. The first group reported lower levels of wellbeing, the second
group higher levels. These studies, while suggestive, demonstrate only correlation. But the
researchers then put a group of adolescents
through a church programme designed to steer
children away from spending and towards
sharing and saving. The self-esteem of
materialistic children on the programme rose significantly, while that of materialistic children
in the control group fell. Those who had little
interest in materialism before the programme
experienced no change in self-esteem. Another paper, published in Psychological Science, found that people in a controlled
experiment who were repeatedly exposed to
images of luxury goods, to messages that cast
them as consumers rather than citizens and to
words associated with materialism (such as buy,
status, asset and expensive), experienced immediate but temporary increases in material
aspirations, anxiety and depression. They also
became more competitive and more selfish, had
a reduced sense of social responsibility and were
less inclined to join in demanding social
activities. The researchers point out that, as we are repeatedly bombarded with such images
through advertisements, and constantly
described by the media as consumers, these
temporary effects could be triggered more or
less continuously. A third paper, published (paradoxically) in the Journal of Consumer Research, studied
2,500 people for six years. It found a two-way
relationship between materialism and
loneliness: materialism fosters social isolation;
isolation fosters materialism. People who are
cut off from others attach themselves to possessions. This attachment in turn crowds out
social relationships. The two varieties of materialism that have this effect – using possessions as a yardstick of
success and seeking happiness through
acquisition – are the varieties that seem to be on
display on Rich Kids of Instagram. It was only
after reading this paper that I understood why
those photos distressed me: they look like a kind of social self-mutilation. Perhaps this is one of the reasons an economic model based on perpetual growth
continues on its own terms to succeed, though it
may leave a trail of unpayable debts, mental
illness and smashed relationships. Social
atomisation may be the best sales strategy ever
devised, and continuous marketing looks like an unbeatable programme for atomisation. Materialism forces us into comparison with the possessions of others, a race both cruelly
illustrated and crudely propelled by that toxic
website. There is no end to it. If you have four
Rolexes while another has five, you are a Rolex
short of contentment. The material pursuit of
self-esteem reduces your self-esteem. I should emphasise that this is not about differences between rich and poor: the poor can
be as susceptible to materialism as the rich. It is
a general social affliction, visited upon us by
government policy, corporate strategy, the
collapse of communities and civic life, and our
acquiescence in a system that is eating us from the inside out. This is the dreadful mistake we are making: allowing ourselves to believe that having more
money and more stuff enhances our wellbeing, a
belief possessed not only by those poor deluded
people in the pictures, but by almost every
member of almost every government. Worldly
ambition, material aspiration, perpetual growth: these are a formula for mass unhappiness. Twitter: @georgemonbiot. A fully referenced version of this article can be found
at Monbiot.com Ta