Are You Branded?

By

Sporting KC forward Dom Dwyer sprints down the field. As he gets closer to the goal, he cranks his leg back, and shoots. Goal! I’m ready to celebrate with the thousands of other fans, but as I turn around to high-five all the people in my section all I see is a bunch of so-called “fans” who should be celebrating the goal, but instead consumed in their phones.

That’s the problem with today’s generation. No one seems to be paying attention to their surroundings. It seems we have lost touch with the truly important things in life, like sitting down and eating dinner with family. We no longer have time to sit down and call our grandparents on the phone to check in on them. We are so busy paying attention to texting and refreshing our Instagram feed that there never seems to be a time to that book you started four months ago.

Phones aren’t the only issue with what people tend to value by today’s standards.

We, as high school students, think that people form opinions based on what we wear and how much stuff we have, but is that really the case?

I walk down the hall and spot the Diamond Jacquard Space Dye Black Slate Lululemon leggings that I have been begging my mom to buy. The only issue is that they are $98. I stand back and think to myself, “are leggings that are $98 really worth it?”

No one should care about the brand of leggings they wear. The only thing that changes the price of leggings is the logo on the back of the waistband. The brand of leggings or having the latest iPhone isn’t what matters in life. What matters is being happy and valuing the person. We are too caught up in materialistic items to realize that.

According to Ed Diener, a University of Illinois psychology professor and happiness expert, on www.pursuitofhappiness.org , “those who value material success more than they value happiness are likely to experience almost as many negative moods as positive moods, whereas those who value happiness over material success are likely to experience considerably more pleasant moods and emotions than unpleasant moods and emotions,”

People spend their effort pursuing brand name items, thinking that will bring them happiness, but that will never be the case. What they don’t realize is if they put away their phones and don’t pay attention to social media, they will be much happier. We should be talking to each other face-to-face, not through a screen. People have started to lose the real effective ways to achieve happiness.

In this day in age, it’s hard not to be invested in your phone. That’s how most information is spread. If we take a step back and realize how much life passes by when we are on our phones, our perspectives could change.

It seems that people today are focused on all the wrong things. Not only are people spending too much time on their phones, but they are too concerned with materialistic items like the brand on their shirt. People need to realize it doesn’t make you more of a person to have a certain logo on the clothing you wear.

You can’t wear happiness nor can you text it your friend, so take a minute, set your phone down and pay attention to the world around you.
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