Evaluation of James Hamblin’s article Buy Experiences, Not Things

Evaluation of James Hamblin’s article Buy Experiences, Not Things

            James Hamblin is an American, Brooklyn-based writer and senior editor at The Atlantic magazine where he developed a health section. His writings have been featured in/on many well-known papers and websites. The article I have chosen was published in 2014 in The Atlantic magazine where he introduces the readers how buying material or experiential things affects our minds and behaviors.

            As I was going through the article, I realized that Hamblin successfully presented the research in an objective way; he only inserted one personal opinion after a particular statement. Throughout the whole article, he mentions the people who conducted the research on this topic; a psychologist, a psychology professor, and a doctoral candidate. However, he uses several direct quotations only from the doctoral candidate, which I would not consider as an error. He presents several examples proving that buying experiences like plane, movie or concert tickets, can actually make people happier than buying a concrete material thing. For all of his statements he uses his sources to confirm them and he draws good conclusions of the study.

            His main idea, to my opinion, is that “experiential purchases are more satisfying than material purchases”. Although, it is not what he states in the introductory part. His introduction is about the “wandering mind” and that "a wandering mind is an unhappy mind”. Also, I am not sure about his topic sentence, I am just guessing that it is the last part of the last sentence that I quoted a sentence ago; "a wandering mind is an unhappy mind”. If we take a look at the title and the introductory part, for me, they have nothing to do with each other. However, the first paragraph is catchy and it keeps the reader’s attention.

            Considering the final, closing paragraph, it is also not too strong. Somehow it manages to conclude the previously written statements, however, just like in the first paragraph, the topic sentence does not really appear. As in the very first paragraph, he refers back to the topic sentence in the last sentence of the last paragraph saying: “And when our minds wander, that's where they'll go”. I think he could have produced a better summarized last paragraph.

            In conclusion, James Hamblin’s writing is nicely written, however, the introductory and the final paragraph were not so convincing for me. As I agree with and have the same opinion about the topic discussed, I was very curious about the whole issue and it kept my attention. The writer included the most important and interesting facts about the study.

Works cited

Hamblin, James. “Buy Experiences, Not Things.” The Atlantic Magazine 7 October 2014,                     http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/10/buy-experiences/381132/.