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Endless Choice, Endless Discontent
- 03/04/09
- 34
A couple of summers ago we were a day away from leaving for vacation when my cell phone went missing. For a few days we looked for it passively, keeping half an eye out for it as we went about our business in the house. We tried calling it to see if we could hear the ring; I guess the battery was flat. The phone didn't show up. So for one morning we tore the house apart, looking high and low. We couldn't find it anywhere. All we knew was that it was last seen in the hands of Michaela, who was just a year old at the time. Finally, with our vacation looming (and a vacation that would involve 2000 miles of driving) we decided we had better give it up for lost and buy a new one.
When I was in the store and looking for a phone, I was amazed at the variety available to me. There were flip phones and sliders, MP3 phones and Blackberries. There were phones with cameras and phones with video, phones with all kinds of absurd features and the low-end phones with only the bare-bones capabilities (which, these days, still seems to include a camera and a variety of ridiculous games). I eventually decided on one of the cheaper models (though it still does all kinds of things I'll never need it to do). And then I had to choose a phone plan. There were hundreds of plans available to me--out-of-the-box plans or, of course, plans customized just to fit my needs. Far too many, really. Each looked pretty good until I looked to the small print. One plan gave all kinds of free minutes, but only to other callers using the same network. Another provided lots of airtime but charged ugly fees for call display and call answer. And on and on. After a good hour of work I finally left the store with my new phone. I was far from certain that I had chosen the best one or the right one, but after a while I just had to choose and get out of there.
We live in a world of almost infinite choice. It wasn't always this way, of course. Even just a few generations ago people made do with far less to choose from. But today we demand and expect that we will be able to choose from among hundreds of options. A short time ago someone sent me a short outtake from the movie Borat. I haven't seen the movie, don't recommend the movie and hear that it is, from all accounts, not the kind of thing Christians should see. But this clip was harmless and pointed to our ridiculous demand for choice (and Sasha Cohen's ability to draw out a joke). Standing in a supermarket with a manager, he walks slowly alongside a refrigerator, pausing at each package of cheese and asking, "What is this?" "Cheese," says the manager. Borat moves to the next one. "And this is...?" "Cheese." "And this?" "Cheese." It goes on and on and on. And then, like a typewriter hitting the end of a row, he zips back to the place he started and begins in on the next row of cheese. And the whole thing starts over.
I guess the thing is that by now society has given us just about all we need to live comfortable lives. But companies have found that they can increase profit margins by leveraging us into buying things based on marginal options. These options are not necessary or even that important. Instead, they are the optional features that few of us will ever use but all of us think we might, just perhaps, need. So we buy the camera with the extra megapixels (in case we ever want to make a print the size of a house) or the extra address book storage capacity (in case we ever have that many friends to keep track of). John Naish writes "The market for most practical products is saturated. Manufacturers used to respond to this problem by competing primarily on price, but beyond a certain point that gets too painful. So they began instead to offer more options--creating whole new wants and then supplying things to meet them." They give us more to choose from, which gives us all the rationale we need to spend more money.
A little while ago an article in the Times discussed this very thing. Though our consumeristic mindset may beg to differ, choice, is not the key to happiness.
Everywhere you turn there is a mind-boggling parade of clothes, gadgets, financial products, holidays and entertainment. Tantalised by all these buying options, we stockpile our shopping baskets, homes and lives with ever more consumer goods that we probably don't need or even appreciate. And this isn't good for our happiness."The huge number of choices that assault us every day makes many of us feel inadequate and in some cases even clinically depressed," says Professor Barry Schwartz, a psychologist from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and the author of The Paradox of Choice. "There is vastly too much choice in the modern world and we are paying an enormous price for it. It makes us feel helpless, mentally paralysed and profoundly dissatisfied."
And who can claim that they haven't felt dissatisfied after choosing from among so many options? Some time ago, with our dryer threatening to burn the house down and our washing machine refusing to spin, Aileen and I headed to the big box stores to shop for a new set. There were so many choices we didn't know where to begin. We looked to Consumer Reports but were befuddled by the 500+ reviews of machines they list. Is the Maytag THG438447 the same as the THG438448? Is it true that 4 of the 6 brands sold at Best Buy are simply re-branded models of GE appliances? And do we really need sixteen wash settings and 247 dry settings? What's the difference between a front-loader and a top-loader. Is there any benefit to having a glass door or does the solid door work just as well? "Professor Schwartz believes that the dogma of all Western societies - that maximising freedom and choice increases welfare-is deeply flawed. 'It wouldn't surprise me if eventually you'll be able to buy a mobile phone with integral nasal-hair trimmer and creme brulee torch,' he speculates sardonically."
I could really use a new torch, and all the better if it integrated with my phone, my nail clippers and my iPod.
"So much choice makes decision-making increasingly complex," says David Shanks, a psychology professor and the co-author of Straight Choices, a new book that examines how to make the best decisions when faced with a perplexing array of options. We feel bad that every time we do make a choice, it seems we are missing out on other opportunities. This makes us feel inadequate and dissatisfied with what we have chosen. Often, we feel bamboozled and just shove a familiar or prominently displayed brand into our basket. Then we feel useless because we can't cook gourmet dinners like Jamie Oliver and don't know what to do with any of these exotic new ingredients. So we end up buying and eating the same meals time and again.This excess also numbs us to the heady pleasure felt by previous generations when they bought something new in an era when budgets were leaner and consumer goods in shorter supply. All we can think about now is what we still want to buy, rather than appreciating what we have.
Or perhaps instead we're thinking about what we could have had. This new iMac I have is excellent. But maybe I should have bought the next one up--the one with the extra RAM and bigger hard drive. Or maybe I should have saved a few bucks by buying the one that is one-step down. Or...it never ends. The evidence suggests, says Professor Leppe, that we thrive when we have less choice. "Excess choice is paralysis rather than liberation." "'It challenges a lot of our beliefs, but it could just be that choice within constraints will make us feel a lot better,' says Professor Schwartz. 'We need to live in the moment, appreciate what we have and not think about all the other things that we could choose instead.'"
Even better, we need to live with an eye to the future. We can pile up all the stuff we want here on earth, but we can't take it with us. But we could still live our lives miserable, always wondering what could have been. The endless choice we face may be the mark of our culture's prosperity but the evidence is proving that it just makes us miserable. It seems to me that endless choice makes for endless discontent.
Stay tuned. I will continue this article on Friday (after a brief pause on Thursday to begin reading our next classic of the faith together).
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I write books and blogs for fun while doing web design and consulting for a living. I worship and serve at 
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Comments (34)
Great piece, and of course, there are now many choices of books to tell us what we should think about all these choices.
Very good stuff. I was made aware of a story from a friend - when some people from Ghana came to visit America and were in the mall, they were shocked by the fact that there was a separate store just for soaps.
Sometimes I shake my head and say, 'Only in America. Only in America.'
Unfortunately capitalism and consumerism has invaded the church of Christ (or church of America), and it is leaving us skin and bones in regards to spiritual health while having larger bodies and possessing many things.
I'm not necessarily against 'things'. They can be used for God's glory and enjoyed for God's glory (1 Tim 6:17). But we must have a mindset change within the church - that we be guided by Him and not consumerism/capitalism (or Americanism).
Thanks Tim.
Be content with such things as you have. (Heb. 13:5)Thou shall not covet. (Ex. 20:17)
This is much harder to do in our society, but like holding your tongue, or turning the other cheek, resisting discontentment must also be done in the power of the Holy Spirit.
ScottL: Your comments resonate with me. Poverty and plenty are strictly matters of perspective. A friend once told me that there is no such thing as "poor", but only "need." On a trip to Honduras I became aware that the rich in things (us) were spiritually poor and the poor in things (them) were spiritually rich. James 1:9-11 writ large. But the wonder of it was that our mutual need and plenty was the foundation of our mutual love. This is God's economy at work.
This remind me of another post you wrote in the last two or so years, and it resonates with me just as the earlier one did. I often feel so overwhelmed by my number of choices that I make no choice at all or I drag the decision-making process out for days and then second guess myself after I finally choose.
Then throw in shopping for health insurance, where the provider deliberately attempts to confuse you with legal and medical jargon, and I feel like there's no good choice despite there being 1000s. I keep trying to simplify my life, but American culture makes it really difficult. Sometimes--when I'm feeling bombarded by mail (do you want this addendum/rider for your car insurance policy; which stocks do you want in your IRA, and so forth) and choices I think I'd be better off in another country for this reason alone. On the flip side, I know these choices--by their very nature--are such luxuries and that I'm blessed in so many ways. And now I'm rambling :)
Generally when I must choose a new technology to purchase I start looking at the lowest model then work up until I find what I require included as far as options and ability.
Curious.......Did you ever find your lost phone? If so, where?
An thus many of the reasons that I don't have a cell phone.Or TV cable.
Oh puh-lease! Surely Milton Friedman is spinning in his grave and carving Laffer curves on the coffin lid at the same time.
Tim, I sure of where your heart is, but I'm suspicious of indy filmmakers and liberal papers. There’s something a little sinister underlying this.
Maybe we should just all act like adults and make contented, rational choices...and then forget about it.
So true! I sometimes wonder if discontentment is not the sin of our age. Not only do we go into ungoldly debt to obtain what we do not have, we are so childlike in our daily fall into boredom - another sign of our discontent.This is something God brought to my attention, personally, many years ago. He has graciously continued to challenge me to address this issue honestly in subsequent years. Thank you for the reminder - I look forward to reading your application / insight.
As someone who makes their living in an industry based largely on convincing the consumer that, yes, you do need 47 types of spaghetti sauce because 45 is simply not enough, this post rang very true.
Though I share your frustration here on a personal level, and in fact find it all rather ridiculous, it does make sense for the businesses and I figured I’d give a couple reasons why.
First, population growth. Yep that’s right. In the States we have a low but stable population growth, and people can only eat so much, so conceivably the industry should cap its growth rate somewhere along the lines of population growth. Most corporations want more than 3 or 4% growth though, and variety provides a way to sell more things that you are told you need to people who have a finite ability to consume.
Also competition is a major factor. Take cereal for example. There is an isle of cereal at my local super-mart longer than a typical house, and it’s primarily controlled by a select half dozen or less corporations. So if you want to break into this potentially profitable market you have to make your product stand out. If you make another crispy rice cereal or some sort of O, you’re going to declare chapter 11 pretty quick. In light of this you make a cereal that’s organic to capture that niche market, or that has no high-fructose corn syrup, or that features marshmallows in the shape of the Jonas brothers etc, whatever it takes to get you to notice that box among the hundreds of others. So in that sense it is something of a self reinforcing cycle.
Finally some of the variety shows the remains of lines that are offered up in the never ending quest to be the ‘it’ product in their category. Be it low-carb, high protein, established favorites like Heinz ketchup or Kleenex, or just brand buzz like Kashi or Newman’s which not only fill you up but make you feel good about it for reasons you can’t quite pin down. If you can get people to go to a category looking for your specific brand among all the others half the battle is already won in the corporate world.
Hope that makes it a little more clear why there is so much choice, though whether that’s a good thing or not... well I like being able to pay my bills so I’ll say yes.
Makes me think of the full closet of clothes and how often I feel like I have "nothing to wear" or the full refrigerator that I look in and see "nothing to eat." We have plenty, but lack contentment.
As soon as I was about halfway through your post, I thought of an incident years ago when my closest friend returned home for a year after serving for years as a missionary doctor in Nigeria. I took her shopping for the "necessities" and we hit the first aisle of toothpaste. She stood there bewildered, asking over and over if there were really this many choices when she left.
She eventually just told me to pick something. And it happened over and over throughout the store. Toward the end she commented that it was no wonder we spend more per person than anywhere else...the vast array of items make us feel the pressure of what we're saying no to. What if? What if the other is actually better? What if we're not getting the best there is? What if? I better buy another and see.
But what if companies actually exist to maximize profits for stockholders and not to better my world like I was taught 20 years ago in my college business classes? What if the impression that it's to make my life happier is just them being clever in selling what they have in a way that gets what they want?
Maybe then the question isn't whether or not they should offer 47 different kinds of spaghetti sauce. Maybe the question is how to make Christ matter more when I buy it so that I am not in need of affirmation and self-improvement as I purchase it. It would probably be a good work in me if spaghetti sauce was just what it said it is on the ingredient list and not a reflection of where I stand as a person...which would be a good work of Christ in me no matter what I'm doing...eating or drinking...whatever I'm doing by word or deed...it would be good not to feed off the world and instead go to feed it.
Robert W.: Friendly rebuttal, if you please...Christian ethics demands that we maintain a separateness from the world in order to be properly discerning. All cultural outworking has unintended consequences and residual effects that ensnare, divide and marginalize people. Nothing new. Maintaining a good perspective helps me see and answer need and subsequently to enjoy the things I have all the more.
I bet you and I actually share this view.
Tim, Very thought provoking and expressed well.
I agree with Mr. Sturch. It is not the many choices that are a source of sin. It is our covetousness, our longing for worldly things that gives sin its hold upon us. I don't think that a Christian needs to worry about the confusion or angst of too many choices. But if the desire for worldly things displaces or diminishes our yearning for the Lord, we would then have much to worry about and even more to lose. These scripture passages come to mind:
1 John 2:15 15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
1 Timothy 6:6 6But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
If we don't abuse our vast plethora of choices by coveting, where is the sin in having all of these choices? For example, if we were able to somehow limit the number of toothpaste brands offered on the grocery store shelf (and who gets to decide?) how would this limitation help a third world country? There are great blessings in the plenty we have as Americans and Canadians. The many choices we have on our shelves employs many of us and there is a quasi-natural system of supply and demand to cull and limit the offerings. The overflow of our blessings are exported (many times without cost to the recipient) to many countries in the form of food and technology.
How does the fact that someone, (who is not used to any choices), being inundated by the choices our blessings afford us, make us gluttonous or sinful? The U.S. and Canada are the most generous of nations and could not be so generous were it not for our plenty.
I offer this opinion with a Christ-like kindness and respect...
Dan...
Oh, that totally reminded me of the years when I worked in a store. We had literally 300 different types of cheese. And each one was someone's absolute favorite. So heaven forbid we ever discontinue one single variety of cheese. No, no, what would they eat, if we didn't provide that exact cheese?
'It wouldn't surprise me if eventually you'll be able to buy a mobile phone with integral nasal-hair trimmer and creme brulee torch,'
Here's hoping you don't get those two features mixed up!
Derek said..."‘It wouldn’t surprise me if eventually you’ll be able to buy a mobile phone with integral nasal-hair trimmer and creme brulee torch,’
Here’s hoping you don’t get those two features mixed up!"
LOL!!
Hi,
You are so right. I find it so refreshing to just rid myself of unnecessary things-particularly technology-and focus on our Lord.Time with Him is far better spent and a thousand times more fulfilling. May even get answered prayer if my heart is right. Looking forward to the rest.
Thanks
While endless choices in material possessions are the topic of today's post, I was reminded of how Os Guinness discusses the 'idol of choice' as it relates to our sense of calling. In his book, "The Call" (chapter 20, "A Focused Life"), he states: "Modern choice and change, reinforced by the pace and pressure of modern life, constantly threaten to diffuse our concentration and dissipate our energy...Modern life assaults us with an infinite range of things we could do, we would love to do, or some people tell us we should do. But we are not God and we are neither infinite nor eternal. We are quite simply finite. We have only so many years, so much energy, so many gray cells, and so many bank notes in our wallets. 'Life is too short to...' eventually shortens to 'life is too short.'"
Just thought you (Tim) and others might like to consider how choice impacts your sense of calling. And, by the way Tim, I still thing you 'should' write that followup book! :)
Mr. Sturch: You're right, we agree. And I'm not sure I see your comment as a rebuttal (albeit a friendly one). My comment was decrying the knee-jerk reaction against having a lot of choices. In some ways, an obsession with disparaging the number of choices is worldly itself. I am confident of the worldview of the average Challies reader, but I fear some are unduly influenced by liberal ideas on market economics. It's simple: be a Biblical steward, make a reasonable effort to take a thoughtful decision, and then get on with it already.
When my parents were beginning their life together in the late 40s, guarding against worldliness was every bit as difficult, even though there were only 3 or 4 kinds of cheese. (And they couldn't afford any of them!)
My husband and I made a conscious choice to remain behind the technology curve. I may at times come across as a bit ignorant but I do not feel the need to have the latest and greatest. We are amused by friends and relatives who talk of their latest purchase.
"A Bluetooth? Isn't that what you get from eating blueberries...umm...or was that Blackberries? I can't keep up with it all."
This most affects me when I go to a restaraunt. I prefer to go to a restaraunt that offers a few nice choices of different kinds of food. When I go for Indian or Chinese and I see that menu of 400 different kinds of rice and chicken combinations, I usually just pick one at random and never really feel like I get what I want. I know businesses want to give me what I want, but when I eat out I usually want to rely on a cook or a chef who understands food better than me and will serve me what they think I will like. I rarely disagree.
That said, i have to add, this is not exclusively "American". Go to any major city in the world and you will see the impact of choice. It is human to want to control our choices and feel we can get exactly what we want. When we struggle to accept too many choices available to us, we neglect to be content with whatever we wind up choosing.
Two things this reminds me of:
1) A book I read recently (title forgotten), which proposed that the future of American marketing lies not in developing new products, but in creatively packaging existing products in ways that pull the buyer's eyes/desires in their direction.
2) A quote from "Recapture the Wonder," by Ravi Zacharias (p. 41): "Watch a child with one toy and see the protracted enjoyment it brings. Watch a child with a dozen packages around and see the crestfallen look after minutes of opening them all. Is there not a lesson here?"
My life verse is Romans 12:2. The secular form of that verse is "Success is not logical." It's logical to offer consumers a wide variety of choices. But lots of choices does not lead to success. I calculated last year that it would take Ford Motor Company 4.3 million years to make one of every combination of model, color and options. There is a huge cost consequence of that "logical" strategy. Following Jesus' example of simplicity is not logical but it leads to eternal success.
Hey Tim,Its very interesting to think that at some point too much choice becomes harmful to us. With everything becoming more personalized and customized people are spending alot of time wrestling with questions like, "Which cellphone is best for me" or "what Starbucks drink order defines me as an individual". Its no wonder to me that people are becoming more and more selfish when everything is being customized to fit your every need or desire.I thought you'd be interested to know that my wife, a teacher at a Christian high school, is using this post as part of her class devotions today. They have been discussing the book wordliness, and this week in particular "God, my heart and stuff". I'm sure this article will get them thinking about their stuff from a different perspective.
If I may quote Robert W. and comment:
RW: "My comment was decrying the knee-jerk reaction against having a lot of choices."
Amen... I have some beloved liberal friends who seem to actually feel guilty that we are a land of plenty! We must always remember from whom our "plenty" comes, and try hard to share our blessings with those who don't have enough. While we could always do better in this regard, we could certainly do a lot worse...
RW: "In some ways, an obsession with disparaging the number of choices is worldly itself. "
Absolutely. Scripture tells us to do work with our hands...
1 Thessalonians 4:11 NIV 11Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you,
... so that we may have something to share with those in need:
Ephesians 4:28 NIV 28He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.
RW: "I am confident of the worldview of the average Challies reader, but I fear some are unduly influenced by liberal ideas on market economics. It’s simple: be a Biblical steward, make a reasonable effort to make a thoughtful decision, and then get on with it already."
Very well said brother Robert. I too share your confidence in those who visit here...
Dan...
I remember only recently thinking to myself how tired I was of having a different provider for my telephone, my email and my broadband and oh wouldn't life be more pleasant and simpler if I could just have one provider! Some weeks later I did because I have now changed to one provider and do you know it feels a lot better. I agree there is just too much choice and mostly just to get you to consume more and more and take your focus off of any type of reality and certainly spiritual realities.
I also decided sometime ago to buy a small car and one that just about met our needs and I have enjoyed that, too. Just generally making things that much less important is so refreshing to the soul, confirming the Scriptures that you cannot love God and mammon! In this current economic climate if anything it might remind us to hold things lightly and not forget that we always have the promises of God and that promise in Psalm 23 that we "shall not want".
A very good article and so true. Thanks.
Nicodemus
Living overseas with the military, we had one grocery store on base and one department type store for all our other needs. Although an ocean away from the nearest Target, we were completely content with our limited selection.
Great article, the more we deconstruct consumerism the more we'll see it for the spiritually dangerous thing it is. Good job.
Meant to add, this link from a post I wrote on a similar themehttp://thesimplepastor.blogspot.com/2009/01/we-are-consumers.html
I meant to add this post http://thesimplepastor.blogspot.com/2009/01/we-are-consumers.html
Face it, we are all spoiled rotten. I sorta miss the days when the only phone was the one in the house attached to the wall by a cord.
Since being a missionary in Western Europe for the past few years, I find that I don't miss what I thought I "had" to have back in the States, especially regarding food. And what I can't get here wasn't that good for me anyway, so I've ended up replacing such foods with things that are better for me. Choice in all arenas are limited here, yet we still get what we need and don't feel bereft of the ability to function.
Pity is, this seems to be what scares most people away from long-term missions.