Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Society's new addition?

I was taking a shower (Yeah I do that sometimes) and I realized that money was a new addiction.
I realized that while I was counting the amount of Dollares in my bank account to this day.

Money is something on my mind at all times, because it is all around us. It something we will call an invisible addiction, because it is accepted in society.

When a woman cannot stop thinking about her body image, we call her anorexic or bulimic.
When a man cannot stop smoking, we call them a heavy smoker.
When a person cannot stop working, they are a workaholic.

But what about a person who cannot stop worrying about money?
Well, that's called normal. In the society I live in, money is everything. The reason for living is money in some people's lives. How many times do I hear people saying that they cannot die, because it would mean leaving a family without an income.

I know lately I have been worried about my own bank account, and I was thinking in what way can I bring more money in my little virtual piggy bank. It is that worry that feeds our addiction with money.
I pick up jobs that I hate in order to make some extra cash. I am stuck at a job that I do not enjoy so I can pay for rent and food bills. Before I swip my bank card, I calculate how much I have left in my account, and what it means for the week.

I wonder, if I was in someone's hand at the market, how often they think of money. It is an obsession that has been accept through society, because society is based on the dollar bill. Yet, it worries people just as much as their body weight, or word count.
That is why, I am going to try to limit my time spend thinking about my finances. Limit my time online looking at my bank account, and planning and replanning how much I can spend a week. I am well aware that I have enough for my trip to China, and that I have parents who will help me if I am in a financial hole.

So why worry so much?
Why would society pollute my mind with something like that?

Because society tells me that grown-ups worry about money. And I am a grown-up now, so I must worry.
Screw that. Society, I am a rebel. You ain't getting me.

1 comment:

  1. I never thought about it that way. I guess you can call it a "socially acceptable pathology" of sorts.
    :)

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