All Roads Lead to More
It’s no secret that buying stuff can make you feel good. “Adding items to an online shopping cart or visiting your favorite boutique can provide a psychological and emotional boost,” says psychologist Dr. Susan Albers, “Retail therapy can release ‘happy’ hormones, give you a sense of control, and stimulate the senses.” Psychologically, we get a little dopamine rush every time we get something new, and like a crow discovering an extra shiny paperclip on the way back to the nest, we froth with excitement over our latest doodad.
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“Materialism doesn’t lead to a happy and fulfilled life,” says Tammy Strobel, a psychology researcher, “Buying more stuff brings a temporary boost of happiness, but that boost doesn’t last over the long run.” The double-edged sword of consumerist culture fosters an unspoken desire to buy something new, just for the sake of having something new. Humans are obsessed with collecting possessions and hoarding treasures, and have been doing so since the dawn of civilization (just ask the British Museum). Comparing ourselves to our peers, feeling unfulfilled by our accumulated wealth, FOMO, and our eternal quest for fulfillment has led many overprivileged people into what Michael Easter, a journalist from the New York Times, calls a “scarcity loop.” In humanity’s desperate search for more, we trick ourselves into buying, storing, and hoarding resources as if they were scarce, knowing darn well that we have more than we need. Easter’s book, Scarcity Brain, explains the details of this phenomenon. With Americans spending $1.2 trillion annually on stuff we don’t need, it appears that we may be culturally cooked in the consumerist department.
It’s a miracle that manufacturers can even keep up with the sheer volume of goods being sold, but this rush order of products has reminded us of the proverb about “quantity over quality,” and it’s become quite clear that we can’t have both.
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Fine Wine Takes Time
According to the designers at Riluxa, a luxury handcrafted home renovation company, “Quality is often sacrificed in favour of low price and ease-of-purchase, many people are now crying out for the care, expertise and beautiful results of artisanal products.” Fixated on acquisition and desperate to fill our cupboards with more junk, it’s no surprise that the same instant-gratification-seeking consumers are also obsessed with real, tangible craftsmanship.
With better-quality tools, better materials, and an eye for detail, potters, jewelers, glass blowers, rug makers, seamstresses, blacksmiths, and other makers of handmade goods are booming on social media. Our curious minds are titillated by the tedium of old-world art. Intrigued by the process and precision of craftsmanship, mainstream viewers are captivated by the mere concept of creation, but is anyone patient enough to financially support these small businesses with a purchase? Not as often as you’d think.
Surf Coo, a Scottish brand of handmade, heavy-duty fleece jackets, is owned and operated by a surfing seamstress named Jo-Ann, hailing from the blustery coasts of the Scottish Isles. Each fleece jacket is sewn and made to order, so these products take a while to arrive at your doorstep; on the website, each item is listed alongside its estimated time to manufacture, ranging anywhere between 1 and 8 weeks. Over the years, Surf Coo has become renowned on social media and is booming in popularity due to Jo-Ann’s classic styling and impressive, lifetime-worthy crafting. Despite the outerwear being competitively priced at $185, many customers would rather purchase a mass-produced, cheaply manufactured, REI-coded fleece that’ll inevitably split at the seams simply because they can have them in hand a little bit sooner. Sure, sometimes Surf Coo’s manufacturing is lengthy, delayed, or unpredictable, but that uncertainty doesn’t scratch the itch of a fiending shopaholic.
Fidgety consumers scarcely follow any logic. Because why would you buy for now to satiate your lizard-brain when you could plan ahead and buy for life?
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Round and Round the Potter’s Wheel Turns
In this day and age, well-crafted, handmade products take time—a lot of it. Just like the olden days when a blacksmith worked on a single knight’s shield for months, the highest quality artisans are likely to take their time with the nitty-gritty details. Good things take time, love, care, and attention, and bad things are found on Temu. In spite of many people’s growing interest in artistry or old-world craft, your average Target shopper is far too impatient and consumer-minded to change their day-to-day habits, especially if it impacts their routine. Materialism is too deeply ingrained in our culture, and the acquisition of ‘stuff’ is hardwired into our survival instincts to be changed. So perhaps, in light of humanity’s shortsightedness, the craftsman’s atelier will remain understaffed and underfunded.
Buyers claim to be interested in supporting craftsmen, but ultimately, as a society, we’re too impatient and self-serving to make decisions that don’t immediately fulfill our consumerist gluttony. Because when it comes to instant gratification, the Amazon Prime tickle is only satiated through mass manufacturing, cheap materials, and crappily-made pans that only last a few years before falling apart.
