Materialistic and Spiritual Gratitude - Research Paper Example

Gratitude

Abstract

There are many ways that a person can use to show their appreciation. Gratitude can be expressed through tangible and materialistic things, by words of appreciation or by actions. However, there is a significant concern, especially amongst the youths, on their take to gratitude. They mostly see virtue in terms of materialistic things and will only get gratification by being rewarded with something tangible. Due to the current rise in material possession, the youths are negatively affected by their social behaviors, which in turn affects their academic performances. The paper, therefore, focuses more on gratitude, the current trends in marketing promoting materialistic gratitude, the impacts of social media in fostering materialistic gratitude, and will cover the recommendations on behavior change as a solution to the mundane gratitude.

Introduction

Gratitude is the appreciation that an individual expresses when an individual does something helpful and kind for them. It is the thankful sense and joy a person receives in the response of receiving a gift, be it a tangible benefit from the other. It can also be defined as the approach of appreciating the excellent services or deeds to us by other people. It is the service given to us by other people. Youths and adolescents have been affected by the effects of materialism. This has been coupled with the continued rise in marketing and advertisements that targets the youth consumers in trying to associate with celebrities and have the urge to possess what the media perceive.

Literature reviews

Biblical Gratitude

The issue of materialism as a means of gratitude has risen since time immemorial. It is dominant among the millennial who believes that appreciation must be shown by offering materialistic things. The concept of gratitude did not start yesterday; it has been there since time immemorial. The religious idea of gratitude is demonstrated as a form of remembrance (Pearce, 114). Throughout the bible, the people did show gratitude by remembering. The two sons of Adam, Cain, and Abel, used to show gratitude to God by offering sacrifices.

The art of remembering has shown to encourage gratitude. The Eucharist through their ceremonies showed their remembrances through the Holy Communion and the daily prayers. Another instance among Christianity is when the children of Israel were delivered out Egypt due to the Passover plagues. They showed gratitude, and the Passover feast has been remembered amongst the Christians (Pearce, 115). During the Holy Communion sharing, the Christians are reminded of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Psychology and Gratitude

According to Froh et al.,( 2), a psychological perspective, gratitude will arise when a person receives a positive outcome from an external source. Recognition has demonstrated to extend beyond the prosocial behavior and has shown to demonstrate reciprocity directly. Gratitude will also help in building trust. In the recent research concerning gratitude among the school children, the male has shown to express their materialism in gratitude while the female has shown less materialism.

Gender difference in gratitude

Gratitude, which is an emotional thing makes most men not to associate with it due to the negative emotions and association notion of materialism. Most men will have hard feelings expressing gratitude, unlike the women who are likely to express and experience gratitude.

Gratitude attenuating adolescent materialism and enhancing generosity

Materialistic youths and adults were seen to display high insecurity degrees and tended to use possessions to gain security sense. Others use properties to boost self-esteem. The teenagers who rely on material things as a means of gratitude associated with several social consequences (Balconi, Michela, Giulia, and Vanutelli 1319). They were non-generous and seemed to be more aggressive than the less materialistic individuals. The research further associated the materialistic individuals with a low turnout on volunteerism and charitable giving.

Psychological studies have indicated that gift exchange as a way of gratitude has shown to develop and identified the factors regulating development and mutual relationship developments (Balconi et al., 1329). Gratitude that expresses positive emotions results due to material exchange

The effects of peer pressure and materialism

The youths and adolescents have shown to connect to materialistic things through peer pressure in several ways. Through interaction with friends, colleagues at schools, and other social setups, the adolescent does share information. They view themselves within certain sociological classes and will try to associate themselves with other people's lives.

Most times, the youth would be swayed away into having the lives they don’t have due to peer pressure and associations (Jiang et al. 1368). Seeing what their colleagues in the same class have or possess in their homes makes them want to have the same life as them hence increasing the materialism. The effects can be devastating when not monitored, and this may significantly affect their behavior, school performances, and attitudes towards gratitude and accepting what they do not have.

Materialism, psychological disorders, and general performances.

Materialism among the youths has been shown to alter emotions' overall functioning and increase the risks of psychological health issues. The vast marketing and advertisement strategies that target the young youth consumers create a materialistic generation that threatens healthy emotional well-being and development (Jiang et al. 1368). Materialism gets linked to depression and anxiety development, the use of addictive substances, and selfish behaviors and attitudes. Being materialistic and having depression has shown to affect adolescents' lives in terms of their interactions, activities, and even general performances.

According to Froh, Jeffrey et al. (311), youths with materialistic ideas tend to have poor work performance as they expect to earn or possess the worldly tangible things as a means of gratitude. In the event of not having what they wish for, their lives may be affected and hence change of behaviors.

The role of the media, the current trends in marketing promoting materialistic gratitude and impacts of media towards youth materialism

Most of the marketing strategies used by advertisements in social media and mass media had a positive relationship with youth materialistic behavior. The advertising personnel or marketers mostly use different appeals to gain support for charities through exemplify categorizations. They offer egoistically or altruistically to make the donors gain or for other people to learn. Most advertisements focused on people having to identify a positive change or doing something exemplary before being rewarded with a tangible gift. The ads promoted the exchange of worldly things instead of the adverts just having to put it simply, gratitude with words from the heart.

The concept of realism in media advertisements has resulted in the youths living in the artistic, emotional world even though the creations are unreal. The fantastic and dramatic creations are meant to promote the products and services advertised, but the youth's perception towards such advertisements gets perceived differently (Chaplin et al. 504). The photographic imagery used and the intense dramatization will promote the created picture of the director’s goal but not the real-world scenario life concept. The real-life idea is not even created out and thus makes advertisements to give the mundane impression among the youths.

Most media advertisements do form idealized versions of products and services. The highly desirable things which may get achieved by a small fraction of the societal members get idealized, and this makes most youths and teenagers, for that matter, to associate with that life. They may want to associate their lives to those media personalities or the advertisements as their own. The youths want to associate themselves and may go to extreme ends of having the idea of possessing things. In the form of what they do, they would most times want to impress just to acquire what they see on social media and mass media. The idealized social and mass media advertisements will influence the expectations of the youths, and this makes them have the idea of what ought to be in their lives (Chaplin et al. 506). Comparing themselves to such a group of people will make them have materialism. They will go the extra mile to do something good just to have the ideal life they want to associate with or identify.

The media, together with other socializing agents such as religion and parental caution, tend to create the unconscious youth expectations of what ought to be about one's life, possession assortments, and the living standards. The youths will associate themselves with other people of their same age, living standards, and religion and want to have a life they do not have as a result of the comparison. The information from the media and other people will be integrated, especially by the youths, to influence teenagers' expectations and what their lives ought to be. They will not have gratitude for what they have but will be having the urge to possess what they saw on the media.

Reducing materialism

The research done among the different youths showed that the teenagers who were having grateful disposition were less materialistic. There has been a great invention among the teenagers who keep gratitude journals indicated that they would reduce materialism and will be able to attenuate the adverse effects of materialism, turning them to donations. To find out how gratitude and contribution would link among the youths, the research further indicated that those who had gratitude journal donated more money than those who had no journal and hence made a linkage of having connected emotionally to have the behavioral measure.

Worldly people are more likely than others to compare themselves with other media personalities and the advertisements that we see on media. The idealized media images have influenced peoples living standards expectations to often unrealistic levels, not forgetting that the role of media advertisement is to create potency increase to raise consumer expectations of a product or service advertised.

There is a need for the parents and caregivers to foster children not to have the lofty mind of materialism. Parents who share their meals with their children as a family who would thank God, for instance, created a definite idea in their youths on the simple things that they would do to be grateful. Having a family time talk will also prove to help solve the concept of materialism among the youths (Froh et al. 311). Parents and caregivers are also advised to spend quality time with their teenagers. They have frequent talks instead of restricting media advertisements and marketing, which makes the materialism idea self-evidenced.