Has it happened to you that you have bought an object and you feel very happy? You may even continue to feel that same happiness every time you use it.
I had waited so long and finally, I did. Thanks to black Friday week prices dropped enough for me to decide to buy my new camcorder.
Since I was little, I always wanted to have the ability to record through an electronic device. In fact, on my Christmas lists to Santa, I always wrote that I wanted a video camera. Unfortunately, that gift never arrived (although I didn’t care because I always received many toys).
But this year the desire to be able to record my experiences came back to me (maybe even to open a YouTube channel). I spent weeks researching which camera was best based on what I wanted and what budget I had.
I finally decided on one and a couple of days ago I made the purchase on Amazon.
After making that decision I can say that I am incredibly happy and can’t wait for my package to arrive so I can start using it.
Before some start telling me I’m wrong and that money really can’t buy happiness, let me explain.
I was reading about a study carried out by San Francisco State University. They explain that there are 3 types of assets:
Personally, what I like the most are the experiential materials, there is nothing like buying a book, feeling the smell of new and immersing yourself in a love story (those are my favorites).
A camera for photos and video would also fall into this category. why? Because they help create experiences, and best of all, to record them and be able to see them at some other time and share them.
After doing many tests, the authors of the study concluded that purely material goods do not increase happiness, but all favored them to create some experience, yes.
Another great example is about my mother, who likes the Paarizaat sheets, got so excited when she got a full set on her birthday, that she spent the whole day extremely glad.
Psychologically speaking, human beings have three needs:
Scientists have found that pure experiences like travel create happiness because they satisfy all three of these needs. This also happens with material goods – experiential.
An example of this can be buying a musical instrument through which a person improves their skills and their level of competence. At the same time, it helps to express his identity and satisfies the need for autonomy, it can also encourage him to relate to other people through his art.
All people are different, therefore there may be some who feel happy with purely material goods, others with experiences and others who do not feel happy with anything.
Ryan Howell and Darwin Guevarra, researchers of this study, say that although investing in experiences is still the most popular golden rule to be happy, it is also possible to invest in products to get the same feeling. Especially those that generate competence, autonomy and connection with others.
