A study shows that people break what they want to replace. It is more than just technology like iPhones or laptops, but also they are careless with their lovers and others when an “upgrade” is on the market.
Isn’t this sad? What is the point of upgrading people or things when there is no guarantee that you won’t be replaced if they “upgrade”. At some point you have to be happy with what you have, and have loyalty toward what you have. It seems very short-sighted to focus on upgrades when often being happy is finding peace with what you have. I saw rich people who were always getting upgraded stuff: cars, homes, clothes, whatever. It did not make them happy. They had so much stuff that it overwhelmed them, and they had to hire more people and spend money to pay people to keep track of their stuff. Where does it end?
Of course the opposite side of this is that by upgrading you sometimes solve the problems of your old stuff. There is a balance in life. It is funny but when you have the option to buy stuff or consume stuff, often you don’t really want it. I am thinking of when I was hungry for ice cream, I went and bought lots of ice cream. I had some, but then the rest is sitting in the freezer waiting. The fact that I know I have ice cream available somehow makes it less desirable. It seems to be a peculiar human characteristic that when we get what we want, we don’t want it anymore.
Working in IT I see everyday people buying technology thinking it will improve their lives and it doesn’t. There is no harm is buying technology, but too often its done as entertainment not as a means to an end. To me, I don’t see the value of technology unless it improves something. For a long time I didn’t like GPS because I felt they were for people who were lazy to memorize a map. However after having a friend point out how I often got lost after my “memorizing the map”, I realized that I was wasting time and gas. I grew to respect and even buy a GPS and it did pay for itself with gas/time saved. It is a neat experience to be able to choose different routes in an unfamiliar environment and it has to have prevented accidents from people making last-minute turns.
What do you want, and will you break what is working in your life to get it?
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