The Poor Man

Seneca said, “It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”

I think that is something that we all can relate to in this day and age. In most cases, we all have more than any average person in history has had. But we still feel like we need more. We are all still depressed that the neighbor has a nicer car or bigger property. Our garages are packed to the ceiling, and yet we still crave more.

If more is better, why do we still feel so bad?  Could it be that our attachment to objects and new things is just trying to dampen the need for human connection. Im an introvert in a lot of ways. With the right people, though, I do enjoy human interaction. It can be freeing and uplifting to spend time with the ones we love. With the wrong people, though, it can feel taxing and laborious. Could it be that with social media, we are all just chasing the wrong people? I think it may have been Dave Ramsey who said it, but it was along the lines of “we spend money we don’t have to buy things we don’t need to impress people we don’t like.” It is a little cynical, but I think in a lot of cases, it rings true. I think we have all done something along those lines.

I haven’t had social media outside of Pinterest and Reddit in almost 10 years. Watching from the outside, though, it seems to make sense. The social media platforms grab our attention and hold us hostage. We have even come up with a scary name for the condition - DOOM SCROLL. I’m not saying it’s an easy task to just step away from all of this. But this constant comparison this platform causes people to do can’t be good. We don’t need to be in competition with each other. I am not on a high horse for this either. I still fall into the trap with the dumbed-down versions of social media. Pinterest and Reddit still allow for a doom scroll and rabbit hole, but it’s less comparative in my opinion. I don’t know any of these people, and I don’t get involved in debates. I just see things I like, and yes, I want them, but I don’t feel like less for not having them.

I spend way too much on random stuff that I think will make me seem a certain way or buy expensive clothes that will make me seem a certain way. That’s my big problem here. Circling back to Seneca’s quote, I have so much to be thankful for and content with, but I still crave more. I think it’s a mentality more than a material need. I have recently found that writing has helped slow my mind and made it possible to catch patterns when I have cravings for more. I have everything I need; I do not need more.

Avoiding comparison is incredibly helpful with this for me. I don’t need to be like the people I see; I have everything I need. Avoiding scrolling helps me avoid the mindset of “If I had that, I would be like”. Using tools like journaling to avoid the downtime for scrolling helps as well. We live in a world where more money than we can count is spent on catching our attention. We can’t completely avoid the hook of all this advertising. But I’m making a case for using our own methods to catch our attention before they do. We can all do this and avoid the doom scroll. We can all take back control. It will be hard. But with perseverance and discipline it can be done.