It is well known that our generation is more inclined towards experiencing new things all the time rather than simply holding on to the money we cash in. We are more about enjoying ourselves, discovering new places and growing as an individual constantly. That, to our parents’ generation, sometimes sounds a bit like just a reason to spend our money. Our very hard earned money. However, our parents generation is not the one making the decision or clicking the booking button online. Plus, not everyone has the wanderlust gene, so how could some understand?
Like with all things that we tend to do, there has to be a reasoning behind it and most probably this is one of the most important goals human beings currently have: to be happy. In our search for happiness we, most of the time, buy things. Not that a pair of shoes will keep us smiling for more than a few hours. Well, maybe for a bit more if we are talking about a nice pair of Louboutins or Manolos, but still, you get the idea, it’s a very short term happiness.
Dr. Thomas Gilovich, a psychology professor at Cornell University who has been studying the question of money and happiness for over two decades confirms this theory “We buy things to make us happy, and we succeed. But only for a while. New things are exciting to us at first, but then we adapt to them.” But Dr. Gilovich took it further and started properly looking into the matter. He soon found out, after conducting with others a synthesis of psychological studies, that money buys happiness, but only up to a point and that it tends to diminish in time if we are talking about a physical object.
However, in the same study, we find out that it is now officially scientifically proven that travel is a good way to spend your money and that it brings us closer to that wanted happiness. “Our experiences are a bigger part of ourselves than our material goods,” says Gilovich. “You can really like your material stuff. You can even think that part of your identity is connected to those things, but nonetheless they remain separate from you. In contrast, your experiences really are part of you. We are the sum total of our experiences.”
Also it seems that the connections we tend to create while travelling also adds to our long term happiness. Which, objectively speaking, sounds very logical. As human beings we are social creatures that feel the need to share experiences and memories. As Dr Gilovich puts it: “We consume experiences directly with other people. And after they’re gone, they’re part of the stories that we tell to one another.”
Will this influence how much I travel? I try to do it as much as I can anyway, but I am happy that someone finally did a study which has a very pleasant result. And now I ask you, what else is now stopping you from travelling the world and experiencing its beauties?
