Archive for the ‘Materialism, money, and modern life’ Category

Can we develop psychological resilience through physical activity?

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

Psychological ‘resilience’ refers to the differences between people in how they respond to and cope with difficult or stressful experiences. People who are highly resilient would be less affected, recover more quickly, and/or might actually find such events to be growth experiences. For people low in resilience, the opposite would be true.
Now here’s [...]

Subliminal Advertising: Should we be worried?

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

In 1957, a gentleman by the name of James Vicary created a new concept: Subliminal advertising. He flashed the words “Eat Popcorn” and “Drink Coca-Cola” for a fraction of a second during a film, and claimed increases in sales of these products of 18% and 57% respectively.
But, there’s one other thing that bugged me [...]

Five things everybody needs to know about materialism

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

“The things you own, end up owning you”
- Tyler Durden (Fight Club)
I’ve seen Fight Club about 58 times. It’s my favourite film. I love it so much I even had the above quote engraved onto the back of my iPod.
In the film, Brad Pitt’s character Tyler Durden is a pretty heavy anti-consumerist. [...]

Is modern life ruining our social lives and our happiness?

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009

“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
- Buddha
“L’enfer, c’est les autres” (”Hell is other people”)
- Jean-Paul Sartre
My favourite sitcom has to be Friends. It slightly, marginally, only just nips Cheers to the post. [...]

Money can’t buy you happiness

Saturday, February 28th, 2009

“Anybody who thinks money can’t buy happiness doesn’t know where to shop”
- Unknown
“Anybody who thinks money will make you happy, hasn’t got money.”  
- David Geffen
Or can it?
We humans are obsessed with money.  To many people, it’s a commodity in and of itself.  And it seems we’re gradually getting more obsessed.  In the 1960s, 80% [...]