The Diderot Effect & Why Buying New Things (Might) Make You Sad.

In life, it can be seriously easy to SPIRAL.

One minute, you are enjoying a second glass of wine. The next you’ve ordered a pizza, which morphs in to 3/4 of a tub of Ben and Jerry’s and then, seeing as it’s already Wednesday, you think f*ck it! – let’s skip the gym this week, and start over again next Monday.

Same thing with money – once we start spending it, there are suddenly so many other things we must buy …..to go with all this new stuff.

We buy a new dress, but now we need a new pair of shoes (and bag?) to match it. We renovate our kitchen, and suddenly all our pots and pans need upgrading. We join a new gym, so we clearly need some new sport bras and tights?

Sound familiar? This social phenomenon, and the idea that, “the introduction of a new possession into a consumer’s existence will often result in a process of spiraling consumption,” is known in consumer circles as the Diderot Effect.

Back in the 18th Century, a French philosopher by the name of Denis Diderot, wrote a rather clever essay about being gifted a new, scarlet dressing gown. Soon, Diderot began to realise how shabby the rest of his possessions were, by comparison to this glorious new gown. So, he bought a new chair, better paintings, an elegant writing desk and on and on, until his entire house was decked out all shiny and new. But, instead of now being happy, he lamented, ‘”I was absolute master of my old dressing gown, but I have become a slave to my new one … ‘.

Having recently renovated our apartment, I can feel Diderot’s pain. There is nothing like a new piece of furniture to upstage every other item you own.

That said, my friend, we don’t have to succumb to the spiral.

Instead, we can choose to appreciate what we ALREADY have. We can remind ourselves that our possessions do not define us. And we can be grown up enough to recognise that new stuff won’t always make us happy.

In fact, according to our mate Diderot, it might just be creating a BIGGER void to fill.

This GET RICHER post was brought to you by someone who is sitting at her brand new desk, on her crappy old chair, slowly munching her way through a bag of mini eggs. Happy Easter Y’All!