Youths Today Are Too Obsessed

Totally agree! Youth today are too easily obsess with all kind of thing, not only material thing but also idol, games, something that may attracted their attention. E. g. â€Å"American idol† A new generation has come of age, shaped by an unprecedented revolution in technology and dramatic events both at home and abroad. They are Generation Next, the cohort of young adults who have grown up with personal computers, cell phones and the Internet and are now taking their place in a world where the only constant is rapid change. Did you think anything about your dream, your health or your family; forget about computers, it’s just material things. WHAT IS OBSESSION? It’s a passionate feeling of fascination that often quickly evolves into domination. One who becomes obsessed does so out of a lack of self worth or self esteem. The person they are obsessed with is their object of self worth. They believe that this person, as their mate, will bring value to their life. Th is person also believes they have very little value, which adds to the need to have a mate with value. Even if it’s imagined. Materialism Many people these days seem to have their priorities out of line. They seem to put way too much emphasis on material things such as money, jewellery, toys, games, and other things that they think will bring happiness. They feel that these things will make them happier in life and will make them live better lives. There sure are a lot of problems with that theory. So why is it that so many people are stuck in the train of thought of materialism and in an obsession with material things? Here are some ideas. Many people are lonely and feel that this will keep them entertained and happy and make them feel better and fill the hole that they feel. They don't understand the importance of people in their lives so they try to fill the emptiness with materials thinking that it will make them happy and fill that gap. Another reason is that they just want to show off to people how much they have and own. They think that this will make them a better person because they own these things and that the more they have the better off they are. They believe that it's a race to see who can have the most things, because whoever has the most, is somehow the best. Something is clearly wrong there. Also, many people are insecure, and are obsessed with what other people think of them. They don't comprehend that they are who they want to be and who they become. They instead, rather believe that they are who other people claim that they are and therefore try to get as many cool things as possible, or beautiful things, to make other people wow at what they have. They feel like if other people think that what they have is awesome, then that must mean that they are an awesome person. It is tough for many people to get out of that train of thought. Finally, a lot of people do it without thinking. They are just caught in the wave of people who are materialistic. If they see something cool, they feel that they have to get it and don't completely think through whether or not they need it. Of course, this isn't the situation for all people. Some people just like the look of jewellery or like certain things or collecting items as a hobby. However, for a lot of people they are becoming lost in materialism and need to find the real things that make them happy and not the fake things. They need to locate the big ideas of life and find what truly makes them happiest. If you liked this article, a great book to read would be: The Gospel According to Larry. It is a book on materialism and a boy who tries to fight for a non-materialistic world movement. Trend toward something In this and other countries we tend to have an obsession with â€Å"youth† – especially for females. We have grown into a truly youth obsessed society, and the cosmetic, food, beverage, and supplement offerings are proof of the incredible market there is for anti-aging beauty products. There's a glut of marketing that targets the beauty consumers, where the same products in many of these campaigns can do so much more for our health. Case in point: years ago there was an herbal product that claimed to treat and prevent gray hair. The product was originally formulated to lower cholesterol. During their research, they found that the product not only lowered cholesterol, but a considerable amount of test subjects lost their gray hair. What angle could they take? Health, vanity, health, vanity, health, vanity†¦ not surprisingly, they focused their marketing campaign on the gray hair aspect, not on the cholesterol treatment. I don’t disagree with their logic. Now that I have a few gray hairs, I want to track down this product. I can’t remember what I ate for dinner last week, yet I can remember a beauty product from well over a decade ago. How’s that for case in point? ***As an example, why if I send a bunch of teenage or youth to a village or a country without taking any entertainment gadget such as computer and even cell phones, they certainly will get bored. I love fashion but I’m not obsess with it Things are like this because people are corrupted by society. For many years, we are geared towards wanting the best things, the hottest spouses, and the shiniest sports cars–all so that we can have the bragging rights. By being able to boast about your wealth gives you power. Ultimately, power is what we all want–being able to tell people what to do so that we get what we want, when we want it, and the way we want it. Material objects that cost a mother lode makes us feel good when have it in our possession–a Louis Vuitton bag or a Lamburgini are so damn expensive that when we do have one to flaunt, we feel like we are at the top of the social hierarchy because vitrually no one else can have what you have. YOU can afford the expensive stuff, not â€Å"other people. In short, it's all about greed, pride, lust, and corruption. Clearly, the world is messed up. Reasons Why youth today tend to obsess with material things. â€Å"How long can you go with out using an electrical device? How long would you go without power? Does your bank account reflex your narcissistic materialism or need for survival. The answers to those questions would be a good gauge of whether â€Å"we† are ob sessed. † Good points nicshack. Our culture seems to be obsessed with the acquiring stuff and things. We have a very consumptive economy and ecology and we need to make some fundamental changes on a wide spread social and philosophical level or we might be in trouble as a species. Here's what it boils down to: because we live on this slightly tilted planet Earth, revolving a certain distance from the star Sol, life as we know it can exist and flourish and grow and change and fill this great big Universe with life and light and hope. We owe it to ourselves as a species, our children, and our ancestors; to nurture and live in harmony with our planet and fellow life. So you have to ask yourself, do you help life continue and grow? Or do you tear things apart and consume for the sake of consumption to try to fill a hole that should be filled with love and empathy? I know it sounds really heavy and pedantic, but we seriously need to wake up and evolve, break the cycles of destruction in all forms, and start building and learning. It all comes from self satisfaction. People live their lives feeling very unsatisfied, there are always desires. These desires are a very unskilful attempt at becoming happy. When people become obsessed with material things, it is out of fear – if they already possess the matter, they don't want to lose it because they feel without it, they will be unhappy. Other people desire and cling to money and what not because they feel that if they have it, they will be happy. But in both cases these people are driven by fear. Fear is heads on the coin, Desire is tails. Both complement each other. When people compare, they do this because they're attempting to please the self-identity that they carry of themselves, the idea they have of themselves, of who I am. If the I is better off than others, they feel happy. And if it isn't, they feel that they have to gain more material goods. The reason, primarily, is because we live in a capitalist society and is ‘taught', from the moment we first enter society that the gaining of material wealth is our reason for being. The acquisition of status in our society comes from the striving for and gaining of wealth and the trappings associated with it. Once acquired, the structure or system we live within tells us that we require more to maintain our status and that, actually, we can never have enough. Karl Marx wrote about it in the Nineteenth Century. How many times a day are you bombarded with advertisements, telling you that you ‘need' this, that or the other product? That if you don't have it, you're somehow missing out? While this may sound very obvious and simplistic, it's the stuff we're surrounded by all the time – constant messages informing us that our lives are in some way lacking or incomplete until/unless we have that house, this car, that phone, this brand, etc. We're so used to it that we don't question it. Zombie-like, we believe we ‘need' these things – and that's what keeps everybody on the same treadmill and all the multi-million dollar companies in business. Ways to solve your â€Å"bad habits†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ â€Å"It's like I have to buy things to validate myself. † It sounds to me like you get envious of other people's possessions because you feel inferior or inadequate, and something in you believes that if you just had what they have, you wouldn't feel inferior to them anymore. As far as how you can stop obsessing over material possessions, I think the root cause of your coveting other people's things comes from your own feelings of inferiority and low self-esteem. I think that by building up your own self-esteem, you will be able to love yourself more as a person, completely independent of material possessions. Then when you see other people with nice things, you won't feel like you need those nice things to be â€Å"as good as† that person, because you will know that you are a good person regardless of what you have. One of the best ways that a person can build self-esteem is by volunteering. Helping others actually helps you in ways that you would never anticipate until you do it. Try to find an organization that is close to your heart, and ask if they allow teenage volunteers to help out on weekends. Do you love animals? Volunteer at a pet rescue. Do you enjoy spending time with kids? Volunteer at a children's hospital or in a church nursery. Do you feel for the homeless? Volunteer at your local soup kitchen or homeless shelter. There are also national organizations like the Ronald McDonald House, United Way, The Salvation Army, etc. ho helps people in the community and are always looking for volunteers to keep them up and running. By doing something that helps others, you will help build up your own self-esteem. You begin to see yourself as someone who is important to others, who is able to do something that is valuable and helpful to society. I can tell you from experience that even doing something as mundane as cleaning out kennels makes you feel important when you t hink about the reason WHY you're cleaning those kennels – you're helping that rescue save the lives of more animals that would otherwise be put to death. You are saving lives by doing something as simple as cleaning a kennel or taking a dog on a walk, and that makes you a seriously awesome person. When you see yourself in that light – as someone who is important to others, who is helpful to their community, who can give to others in a positive way – you will really begin to internalize those feelings and feel good about yourself as a person. Also, being able to see others who have a lot less than you will really put those materialistic feelings into perspective. When you go out to a rural community and hand out shoes and coats to kids who are walking around barefoot because their family literally cannot afford to put shoes on their feet, it really makes you think twice about what's important in life. It can be a real good eye opener. I hope that helps! I don't think you're a brat, the fact that you said you don't want to be a brat and don't want to be shallow shows just how much you are not those things. Give yourself more credit, you already sound like a good person who is on the right track in life by trying to do the right thing. Other information that can be used It can seem, in the affluent parts of our globe, that to buy is our fortune. It could also be said that, if buying is good, more buying is better. Of course, we’re in the middle of an economic crisis and some folks might think we need moderation in interaction with the human-created marketplace—that we not treat it as some magically powerful entity that must be worshiped with human sacrifice. Are we completely obsessed with material possessions? Do they mean anything?. Here’s a representative sample of the comments: â€Å"An iPhone to match your sneakers? Sneakers to match your vest? † â€Å"I love clothes and dinners out with friends, and new shiny things but understand the completely vapid nature of these things. † â€Å"They only mean something if you let it mean something. If it makes you happy then buy it. † â€Å"Honestly, if you have the CASH to buy this stuff up front, go right ahead. † â€Å"Few people lie on their death bed and talk about that car they should have bought or that purse that they were so close to buying† â€Å"As someone below pointed out it does have a huge impact on making the world as we know it go round† â€Å"†¦yes we are obsessed, and its not a good thing. And yes, these things are important but shouldn’t be occupying our thoughts and efforts to the extent at which it is. † † Its all one big contest and a race to the finish line. Its a shame most people don’t stop and look around them more often. † I was happy to see, at least, a range of responses in the normally affluent participants on the site. I was very sad about a few of them: â€Å"If it makes you happy then buy it. †, â€Å"Honestly, if you have the CASH to buy this stuff up front, go right ahead. † Here’s where the idea of materialism brings up the idea of human sacrifice. Who suffers for the extraction of the raw materials needed to make all the fanciful things people buy? Who receives no help in their daily lives because they happen to live where the marketeers won’t put their markets? Who sweats away their days making the toys of the affluent? Who can any longer ignore that We are One Human Family and what hurts one hurts all ? Spiritual Quote: â€Å"Whether as world-view or simple appetite, materialism’s effect is to leach out of human motivation—and even interest—the spiritual impulses that distinguish the rational soul. For self-love,’ ‘Abdu’l-Baha has said, ‘is kneaded into the very clay of man, and it is not possible that, without any hope of a substantial reward, he should neglect his own present material good. ’ In the absence of conviction about the spiritual nature of reality and the fulfilment it alone offers, it is not surprising to find at the very heart of the current crisis of civilization a cult of individualism that increasingly admits of no restraint and that elevates acquisition and personal advancement to the status of major cultural values. The resulting atomization of society has marked a new stage in the process of disintegration about which the writings of Shoghi Effendi speak so urgently. â€Å"To accept willingly the rupture of one after another strand of the moral fabric that guides and disciplines individual life in any social system, is a self-defeating approach to reality. If leaders of thought were to be candid in their assessment of the evidence readily available, it is here that one would find the root cause of such apparently unrelated problems as the pollution of the environment, economic dislocation, ethnic violence, spreading public apathy, the massive increase in crime, and epidemics that ravage whole populations. However important the application of legal, sociological or technological expertise to such issues undoubtedly is, it would be unrealistic to imagine that efforts of this kind will produce any significant recovery without a fundamental change of moral consciousness and behaviour. †