[Consumption Trend] From ‘cost of anger’ to ‘cost of loneliness’, how to reduce emotional consumption
‘The cost of anger’
This means spending money on emotions such as anger or resentment that one feels in daily life, which is money that would not have been spent if one had not been stressed.
Dissipation originally meant using up a large fortune, but
'Tangjin Jam'
means the fun of wasting small things. Resistant shopping in the era of long-term recession is a waste of money.
*Source_Hankook Ilbo illustration reporter Park Gu-won
Korea Consumer Agency's Consumer Era introduced information that can help even smart consumers become smarter, such as consumption problem solvers, consumption issue fact checks, small tips, product tests, and inspiration talk consumption trends.
*Source_Korea Consumer Agency Consumer Age (https://www.kca.go.kr/webzine/)
#Inspiration Talk Consumption Diary January 2022
Major book ‘I worked so hard to earn money so I could use it well, Emotional Diary Book’
Home page <https://stresscompany.net/>
“How can I be less stressed?”, “Why do I spend money when I’m stressed?” It's probably a problem we've all had at least once. We met with Lee Nam-hee, CEO of ‘Stress Company’, which has been exploring and sharing ways to relieve stress since 2013, to hear his story.
- Q
There are many people who spend out of anger to relieve stress, to the extent that a new term, ‘fate cost’, was coined. Why do we spend money when we're stressed?
- A
I think it might be a species' compensation mentality. We need to relieve our stress somehow, and I think one way to do that is to choose the easiest way to consume.
- Q
In the case of ‘frustration cost’ consumption, can it be considered worth it if it relieves stress?
- A
If my stress can be relieved by eating spicy tteokbokki today, I think it is right to relieve it by eating it. However, there are not many cases where stress disappears all at once. If you are constantly experiencing stress in your daily life or relationships, there will come a moment when eating tteokbokki once will no longer solve it. Then you can either keep eating until you feel relieved, or you can search for something stronger.
- Q
It is said that in addition to the ‘anger cost’, there is also the ‘loneliness cost’ that is used to soothe loneliness. Is there a way to reduce this emotional consumption?
- A
I think it's most important to find the cause of stress. Stress often occurs when something important is frustrated. If it's not something I consider important, I won't mind if it doesn't happen. But the fact that I was stressed about it means that it was important to me. In that case, a more fundamental solution would be to think about why it is important to me and how I can become comfortable, rather than just eating spicy food and trying to forget the bad feeling. So if you want to break the cycle of anger costs, you have to keep asking yourself questions. Ask yourself, “Why am I angry?”, “What is the real reason that made me angry?”, “How can I become comfortable?” Only you know this answer. You may not know at the time your emotions explode, but once your emotions subside, you need to ask yourself again and again to find the cause of your emotions. The same goes for wasteful expenses. When I buy something to relieve my loneliness, I may feel happy at the time, but the joy I gain quickly disappears. Then, you have to keep buying new things to keep that feeling going, but looking at your empty bank account balance can make you feel even more lonely. In other words, emotions cannot be resolved by blindly suppressing or exploding them, or by consuming them. Only by recognizing the true desire hidden beneath that emotion and satisfying that desire can the emotion be resolved and ultimately reduce emotional consumption.
- Q
What kind of consumption do you feel like ‘it’s not a waste to spend money on this’?
- A
In the past, I bought a lot of books. I couldn't be more proud because I thought that if I bought a book I wanted to read and put it on the bookshelf, I would read it someday. However, when I was reorganizing my bookshelf when I moved last year, I found that there were quite a few books that I bought as a college student that were still sitting there unread. I knew it then. The fact is that if you don't read it once, you might not read it even after 20 years. So I threw away quite a few books at the time, but despite this, I still buy books often these days. I still believe I will read it someday.
- Q
Do you have your own standards before purchasing a product or service? I am curious about what efforts or processes you went through to come up with your own standards.
- A
I was a person who wasn't good at making choices. When I go to a coffee shop, I'm the type of person who thinks for a long time about what kind of coffee to drink. So, I often envied people who had strong tastes and said, “I only drink iced Americano.” When I quietly thought to myself, ‘Why is it so difficult for me to make a choice?’ I realized that I didn’t want to drink the same thing all the time, but I also didn’t want to drink something strange and regret it, so I couldn’t make a decision easily. So from then on, I decided to just drink them one by one. If you like the coffee, it's good because you discovered a new taste. If you don't like it, you think, 'This isn't my taste,' and drink a different coffee next time. If I repeat that, I come to know what I like and what I dislike. There are many people who don't know why I'm angry, but there are also many people who don't know what I like. But that's not something anyone can tell you, and just because others like it doesn't mean it's good for me. In the end, I think it helps me understand myself as a person through countless choices and failures, and helps me develop my own standards.
- Q
Lastly, as we welcome the new year, is there anything you would like to say to those who want to manage their money well this year without being swayed by emotions?
- A
My emotions are definitely mine, but they are not easy to control. So, if you don't want to be swayed by your emotions, the first thing to do is to acknowledge them as they are. If I'm angry, I pat myself on the back and say, "Oh, I'm angry now." For example, if you felt angry because your boss said something rude to you, you could say, “The anger that comes from the thought of being ignored by the boss and the desire for recognition that I want to be recognized by the boss have come up as feelings of anger.” Please acknowledge that feeling. If you blame yourself, saying, “Why didn’t I say anything and just endured it at that time?” or ignore your feelings, saying, “Why can’t you hold back even this much and get angry?”, those feelings get stuck somewhere in your heart, hidden away, and turn into nothing. They might pop up at work and embarrass me. Emotions never just go away. CEO, don’t you feel stressed sometimes anymore? I often get asked this question. I'm still stressed. However, if in the past I regretted taking out that stress on my near and dear ones or spending money, now I try to find the cause of that feeling and change it little by little. I think the best thing would be to acknowledge the person I am now and work hard to become a better version of myself.
*Source_Yonhap News
*Source_Trend Monitor’s magazine
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