Buy Experiences, Not Things

This article was written by James Hamblin and was published in The Atlantic journal, which is an American magazine covering different issues of the world, including psychology. The given article was published on 17th October. It includes the studies conducted by psychologist Matthew Killingsworth, Daniel Gilbert and Amit Kumar. The main idea is that buying experiences worth a lot more than purchasing physical objects. One key object is that a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. They say that spending money on experiences instead of buying things is more satisfying.

The key argument is that spending money on experiences provides more enduring happiness. They argue that waiting for an experience means more happiness and excitement than waiting for a material good does. They author uses a chart as a visual aid to help us understand the process. Another argument of theirs is that experience is something that people are less likely to compare with other people’s experience. Another approach is that they say that people who are for instance waiting in line for a concert or any other event tend to be more excited, have a nice conversation with random strangers, thus the waiting itself becomes happier. Especially if it is elongated, it is always a good kind of anticipation, rather than and impatience for something to finally arrive.

The language used in the article is easily understandable, they do not use any specific terminology that would make it hard to understand. All the arguments are supported and proved, also they are all logical and the thought process is easy to follow. Every idea is properly explained and it is easy to see the connection between them and their proof.

I agree with the author’s position, because I also think spending money on experiences is much more worth than buying more and more things. When we have all we need, buying new stuff becomes a kind of luxury, and we only buy it because we like it. But it is easy to get bored by that. Experiences, on the other hand are something that I could never get bored of, it gives me more happiness than an object that I am about to possess.  

All in all, the article is well built-up and logical, it scientifically and psychologically proves their arguments right. One  could be easily convinced even if he did not agree with the main idea itself, because the proof and explanation is rather convincing.