It’s the season of giving, and I’m giving up.
I’m not giving up on life, nor am I giving up on writing, but I’m giving up on some of these negative habits that I’ve noticed I tend to gravitate towards over the years.
Chasing Deals
I enjoy a good deal. Seriously, in this economy, who doesn’t? Between the various sales that you’d find on e-commerce platforms, social media throwing everything at an alarming pace, and ads looming in every corner, it’s not hard to end up taking part even though you were just checking a meme. The internet landscape changed, and with it, our habits did as well, and you know what? It’s tiring.
FOMO, or the fear of missing out, is a hell of a stimulus. While our decision-making involving FOMO may seem logical at first, when you take a step back, you realize you’ve been delirious.
Hours wasted staring at an item, placing it in your cart all for that extra 20 Peso discount, only for it to be swiped away because, wouldn’t you know it, it’s now out of stock.
I’ve experienced it a couple of times with items ranging from electronics to clothing to collectibles and toys. Sometimes it just isn’t worth the wait because what if it was an actual need and not a want?
I gave up on being stingy time and time again because is it really worth a couple of months for something you could’ve been using way longer than that? Deals are great and all, but the cost of practicality is too great to pass up these days.
Chasing Trends
Now let’s talk about what’s trending. You see an influencer flex a gadget or a destination or even that random karinderia that may or may not be running for politics now. You follow suit and take that pilgrimage you saw that online influencer partake in, charmed by their bewitching words, “NANDITO NANAMAN TAYO SA” so and so, and you realize you just wasted an entire day for something that wasn’t even worth it.
Sometimes you find gold after sifting through all the nuisances online, but is it really worth trusting a guy with 50 thousand followers but only 3 reactions on average? You could buy likes and follows online, but you really need to assess these things better if you’d often get baited into it.
The pursuit of what’s trending is a tiresome ordeal. With how fast technology changes and how fast information spreads, by the time you reach your target, that goalpost has already gone further past. Imagine that iPhone you’ve been looking at that you spent months saving for is now technically an older model because a new one got released.
I gave up on being trendy because the tech degrades quickly, and there will always be something better.
Chasing Old Goals
This one’s a bit of a stretch, but do you ever have these regrettable purchases that make you go, “What was I thinking”? That’s called buyer’s remorse.
Now, for the uninformed, what even is buyer’s remorse? According to the Oxford dictionary, it’s the feeling of regret experienced after making a purchase, typically one regarded as unnecessary or extravagant.
With all the purchases you’ve made from all those “good deals” and “sales,” I’m sure there’s a stack of items gathering dust in the corner or games in your Steam inventory that have gone unopened. Old you, with more time and energy, might’ve enjoyed it, but no, current you is just too busy to truly enjoy it the way you would’ve. This hoarding tendency often stems from not having a certain item growing up.
There’s been this debate recently on how the older demographic doesn’t accept or understand how the current generation has this need to heal their inner child. Different circumstances definitely lead to it, and at the core of it all, it just shows the difference in priorities from both sides.
While there’s nothing wrong with sticking to the past or looking at the present, the future isn’t going anywhere. The holidays are fast approaching, and you know what? It’s time to take things slow. Here’s to decluttering for the New Year!
