How did we come up with Cyber-Monday? Why does every web page that I visit have a red countdown clock urging me to buy their stuff? Why do I receive three emails per day the whole weekend from the same website about their Black Friday offers? Do people really think that this stuff still works? How come some people think that the first thing I’m going to do when I accidentally land on their website through a Google search is to enter my email to their newsletter subscription box in their pop-up and hit enter? Seriously?

I buy from the people that I already have bought from, because they provide solid value. There are two or three websites that I have been buying from regularly for years, Amazon being the main one. I could appreciate a single email from them and that could encourage me to change my purchase schedule to buy earlier. But that’s it. I’m not going to buy more or anything else than what I regularly buy just because it is Black Friday.

Time’s have changed. People aren’t interested in more stuff anymore. Because we all have access to as much stuff as possible. They are not an object of desire anymore. On the contrary, we realized that more stuff is more pain in the ass. Buying that bigger and better car is a pain in the ass, because now you have to look for a bigger, safer parking spot wherever you go, let alone the administration the purchase of a new car requires. Buying the latest smartphone is a pain in the ass, because you have to import all of your data to the new one and the new one has more or less the same user experience unless your old one is about to crash.

What we are looking for in the 21st Century is not newer, more stuff. Who needs that? What we are looking for is more, better human connections and relationships, because that isn’t available in the marketplace for a Black Friday discount. What we need is meaning, service, and producing value. Those are the challenges of the 21st Century, not some crappy new gadget. Everybody has access to that anyway.

Burak Bilgin
Software developer with a Ph.D. and 15 years of experience. I write daily on personal development and life lessons. Sign up to my email newsletter to receive a weekly overview of my latest content on personal development and life lessons.