Product paradox

At the end of last year, I kept getting advertisements promoting a digital notebook. It promised to streamline my mess of notes by keeping everything in one place. It would have what I loved, the look and feel of paper and pen, but it offered me the opportunity to be better. Better at notetaking, better at learning, and somehow, the chance to be a better human. It would solve my problems. I clicked on the advertisement for this notebook multiple times. I even added it to my cart several times, but I never pulled the trigger.

As with any non-recurring purchase, I did my usual analysis:

1. Does buying this device align with my values?

2. Does buying this device align with my goals?

3. Does buying this device fit in my budget?

The answers to these questions could be yes if I wanted (I am a trained attorney, after all), but truthfully, they were “no’s.” My husband delicately reminded me of another notebook I had purchased years earlier that had similar promises and which I recently threw in the dumpster. Sure, having a clean, streamlined space is a value of mine. Taking good notes and keeping them well organized is, sort of, a goal of mine (I’ve never been a good notetaker). I definitely had not budgeted for this device. I could justify it as a business expense; however, I did not need it. It was purely a want and the advertising gods were selling me an image of myself that I really liked and through their messaging, I thought could only be accomplished by purchasing this digital notebook.

This is not the only time these sorts of sales tactics have captured my attention. I get a seemingly daily email about the next item I need to keep my space clean and tidy. Even organizing and decluttering goddess, Marie Kondo (who I adore), sells you products to solve your problems while preaching her highly effective minimalist philosophy. The objective of the advertising is to make you think you will be a better, more ideal version of yourself if you buy their product.

This got me thinking about these paradoxes that exist. You want to declutter, so you’re persuaded to buy more. You want to pay off your debt, so you’re instructed to refinance. You want to eat healthier, so you’re sold a shake with 40 ingredients you can’t read or understand. You’re given a prescription to control the side effects of the last prescription you were given. All of this makes you feel like you’ve accomplished something, without ever capturing the root problem or goal. This leaves you to fall prey once again, in the not-too-distant future, because surprise(!), there will be a better, newer solution for the things you just changed.

As I looked around my home, I realized how often I have fallen prey. While I didn’t buy the digital notebook, I can see the things that I have bought because the advertising was so compelling in getting me to think that particular product would solve my woes and make me the person I want to be.

So, I realized, maybe sometimes, my analysis needs to go a bit further:

1.     Does this purchase align with my values?

2.     Does this purchase align with my goals?

3.     Does this purchase fit in my budget (i.e. I’m not using debt or foregoing something else I need or could want)?

4.     Is it a need or a want?

5.     Is there another way to accomplish the same without being sold a product? (Am I being sold something truly useful, or am I just enchanted by the image of a lifestyle I want? Can I accomplish that lifestyle without the product or price tag?)

So, here I am, typing this on my computer instead of a beautiful, sleek, digital notebook I didn’t need. And, until I thought of writing this post, I completely forgot about the notepad!

Be wary, my friends. You are complete as you are, and you don’t need a product to make you any better.

To quote Ralph Waldo Emerson, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”