Is ‘affluenza’ eroding our happiness?

Affluenza is a term coined to describe the negative side effects of wealth – lack of motivation or purpose, emphasis on material things, and a sense of isolation.

There’s increasing evidence from psychologists for example that affluent children can be troubled, reckless and self-destructive – by growing up with everything available to them, they struggle to find meaning and create boundaries because they are rarely denied what they want or told no.

While this is an extreme example, it’s not hard to see the concept of ‘affluenza’ at work in contemporary society.

There is a huge emphasis on material things and more and more we use this as a way to pursue happiness and indicate our worth and status in our communities.

It wasn’t always commonplace to purchase a new wardrobe each season to keep up with changing trends, or to replace everyday items like mobile phones, televisions and cars before they were broken.

As a society, we’re now regularly shopping for things we don’t need – buying bigger homes to hold our posessions and running up debt on items that wouldn’t be considered necessities.

At Christmas, society’s obsession with material things is very clear – what started as a religious holiday today is an expensive ritual where we decorate our homes, exchange gifts, host expensive gatherings and attend events where we need new outfits to look the part.

But is all this focus on material things actually adding to our happiness?

Or is it in fact having the opposite effect – our addiction to buying things means we fail to notice what’s truly important in life. And those are things that can’t be bought: family, friendships, love and good health.