Materialism in Our Society

Money is very important to everyone. We can buy good clothes, cars, and houses with it. Caring about our own money and trying hard to earn more is not a problem. But don’t you think our society is too materialistic? Especially Korean culture is very materialistic in many ways.

           Today, Koreans say that money is very important to them. According to Pew Research Center’s data on what makes life meaningful, it shows that South Koreans chose material well-being as their first choice. People want more money to get good things such as a large house or an expensive car. Korean society also requires people to be materialistic. If you are poor, it would be hard to go to better colleges because you don’t have enough money to get higher education. And it would be hard to work in a good company. On the other hand, the rich can get better education, it would be easier to earn more money. The biggest problem is that the rich and poor don’t have the same starting line in Korea.

Materialism causes some serious negative effects, too. People cannot be satisfied with what they have. Everyone communicates with one another using SNS, and we can be more dissatisfied by comparing others to us. People care about what they have and how they look like. But we should not care too much about the outside. Instead, we should focus on the inside. Materialism can cause environmental pollution, too. People throw away things too easily and want more and better things. Sometimes, they want to buy things that are not useful but only because they are pretty and cute.

           To solve these problems, we need to change the Korean society that values money by reducing the gap between the rich and the poor. We can donate money to the poor and be more interested in the wealth gap. As another way, we can spend money on food, activities, and trips instead of possessing things. A journal from Big Think says that real happiness comes from our family, trips, and having happy experiences. What we have can bring happiness only for a short time, but playing with friends and having happy memories with family would bring us happiness that lasts for a long time.

Many Koreans think materialism is not a problem, but it can cause people’s dissatisfaction and even environmental pollution. But if we stay interested in the wealth gap, it can help solve this problem. I think the most important thing is to care about the inside and to pay attention to family and your health more than money.