Materialism and Shopping Addictions

物质主义的定义是什么？了解这一概念在检查购物瘾时很重要。在美国等资本主义社会中，消费主义不仅经常猖獗，而且鼓励促进经济，唯物主义是一个严重的问题。

The Nuts and Buts of Materialism

Simply put, materialism is the importance one places on material possessions. These possessions could be anything, such as clothes, shoes, handbags, cars, electronic equipment, and gadgets. One's home also counts as a material possession, even though everyone needs a place to live. Materialistic people don't view a home as simply a place that they dwell in for shelter but a place that reflects their social status in some way.

Someone with a high level of materialism, described as "materialistic," considers material possessions to be central to their life and their identity. They focus a good deal of their energy on acquiring possessions. Someone with a low level of materialism described as "non-materialistic," or "not materialistic," does not consider acquiring possessions to be particularly important, although they vary in the extent to which they acquire material possessions in order to meet other objectives, such as social acceptance.

Why Materialism Is Such a Problem

In the United States, materialism is as American as apple pie and football. It is in many ways a national pastime. The Thanksgiving holiday has largely been overshadowed by Black Friday sales and many department stores even hold sales on Thanksgiving itself, spawning the phrase Brown Thursday. In short, a day that was supposed to focus on gratitude, family and, yes, football, to an extent, is now largely centered on department store sales.

Materialism has spawned other terms such as "shopaholic," "keeping up with the Joneses," and "conspicuous consumption."

The rise of online shopping, which has its own holiday shortly after Thanksgiving, "Cyber Monday," has in many ways made it more convenient to shop and easier to become ashopping addict。人们不必离开房子消耗，但只需单击一个按钮即可。

Consequences

唯物主义有许多后果，即债务。在过度的假期购物，奢侈的婚礼和全年购物过多的假期购物后，数百万美国人在数千美元的债务中发动。

唯物主义也可能影响一个人的自尊。而不是从他们的成就或独特的特质中获得自我价值购物瘾君子可以根据他们拥有的东西，豪华的家或昂贵的手提包来觉得有价值。

Materialism can also lead tohoarding, although in this disorder people may collect items that have no worth at all—such as stacks of newspapers, buttons or other items viewed as junk. Still, when people hoard, they place an emotional attachment to material items rather than turning inward to meet their needs.

If you have a problem with materialism, you may need to consult a psychotherapist about how you can overcome your tendency to shop too much.