Compare and Contrast: Material and Non-material happiness

 In the bustling city, people are now getting busier. Living in a fast pace seems  to give people a large pressure. It becomes really hard for people to enjoy the life, the happiness is lessening. The modern lifestyle demands people to be active and communicative; more and more brands gently hint or directly tell the customers that  their products can make them happier. But in my opinion, happiness lies within ourselves, and the material goods can only bring us temporary satisfaction. People’s     opinions about whether the non-material happiness makes them satisfied or not varies from person to person. Therefore the discrepancies between these two types of happiness must be pointed out.

    Material goods, often seen as the most available avenues to happiness, are relatively easy to obtain; the only problem which may prevent people from taking an item into possession is the price of it. Considering that mass-culture endows material goods with abstract meanings, buying products are almost equivalent to obtaining those qualities, one’s personality, or other values which these goods symbolize. When we buy an expensive thing, we tend to feel good about ourselves. And when we got people’s attention with the product we bought, we are even happier. Material goods stimulate people to seek easy decisions. At the same time, the non-material sources of happiness like-friendships, sense of humor, and sense of beauty-don’t have a exact price compared to their simulations; Therefore, we cannot purchase a non-material happiness, but only experience them. This makes it difficult to obtain.

    Material goods are as easily lost as possessed：Losing its function, loss, being stolen, and other misfortunes easily affect the material welfare of an individual who connects their happiness only with items they have. At the same time, non-material sources of happiness can’t be lost so easily; It happens only when we lose our memories or go through some life obstacles to change in a bad way. For example, we bought a bracelet for the Mother’s Day’s gift. Mother may be surprised and happy at the moment when she received it, and she carries it every day and show it off to everyone she knows. Indeed, she is happy and the happiness can last as long as she possesses it. What if she loses it someday, when she’s not seeing it anymore, she will forget it. At the end, the happiness would fade away.

    Even though material items can make our lives easier to extent, connecting one’s happiness to possessions would be reckless. Material goods are easier to obtain; however; they are only simulations in comparison to the original concepts they imitate. Intangible benefits are more difficult to obtain, as one needs to learn them and develop them as habits; however, this fact facilitates their inalienability and constancy, compared to material goods which are easily-alienated. Therefore,  while possessing material goods and using the benefits they provide, people should strive for developing inner way of happiness.