Buy experiences – As a child, I always made a wish list for my birthday. After browsing the toy store magazine, I wrote down anything I wanted to get from a Playstation to a Furby.
Over time, my wish-list grew smaller; and this happens for most of us. When we’re older, we don’t feel like we need these products or toys anymore.
And yet, we live in a consumer culture. We might not want to ask a lot of different things for our birthday, but we do like to buy them. New clothes, a new tv, the latest headphones or a new MacBook because the old one is getting slow.
But even though we do like buying new things, it generally doesn’t bring us much happiness. Yes, we need food and shelter and all the basics. And we need a certain level of income too. But after that, we don’t need much more.
Millenials understand: that’s why we should choose experiences over products. To sometimes not buy those headphones, but instead, go to a festival. Or go to Zurich for the weekend.
4 Reasons to Go for Experiences Over Products
Interestingly, there are multiple reasons to buy experiences. For one, you’re creating memories. Memories that are valuable and probably more valuable than any memory you’ve ever had about a product. And even before the experience starts, we plan and build anticipation, and get excited about the thing that we’re going to experience.
Besides, we often do and share these experiences with others. Whether you go to Zurich, do an escape room, go to a festival, organize a meetup, or go the movies, or have any other experience — most experiences we do with others. And considering we’re ‘social animals,’ we generally become happier from interacting with others.
And third, quite often there is (at least some) physical activity involved. In my case, though I was sitting in the train all day on Friday (and again, today), I’ve also walked through the city of Zurich and its surrounding mountains. Generally, experiences mean that you have to go outside and actually ‘do’ something, instead of sitting passively, browsing Instagram, or watching Netflix all day.
And then let’s add a fourth reason. Often experiences make you learn new things. You may discover a new word from a friend — get to know a new culture — or learn new dance moves at that festival. Generally speaking, experiences expand our knowledge and world view; something that most products (except for Duolingo?) don’t do.
With all of that in mind, I think the case is clear. Let’s buy experiences, not products!
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