Man, as we all know, is a creature of instincts, desires, feelings, volitions and all that. These instincts, desires, feelings and volitions of man multiplied with an influx of digital revolution, technological advancement and an alluring digital marketing system. This digital marketing system attracts people because of its so-called easy going options, authentically fake durability, long lasting charm and ever increasing attraction. Modern man is an obsessive buyer of things. This buying obsession or Oniomaniahas thoroughly dominated the mind of modern man.
Technological revolution, as is evident, has amplified theabilities of us humans enormously. Due to the scientific advancement, modern man has become a kind of post-human. He accomplishes everything in a very easy way. Most of the works are done by him while sitting on a comfortable arm chair. This is because of technology. But this scientific advancement and technological novelty has some flipsides attached to it as well.
Alongside other facilities, modern man has also online buying options available to him. He buys things online from online shopping portals like Flipkat and Amazon etc.He orders anitem online and next day it reaches him in the wee hours of the morning. These online shopping portals are very alluring and enticing. No doubt they save our time, but due to this online shopping, modern man has degenerated into an Oniomania and shopaholic being.
Modern man spends much money on the shopping of unnecessary items. Oniomania is enormously rampant in Saudi people. Syed Zubair in his book ‘Zionist Conspiracies in the Citadel of Islam’ writes: Roaming around markets and shopping malls and buy some or the other thing here and there is the most popular hobby among Saudi girls and women. They want to shop whether any occasion or need requires or not. This tendency to buy more and more has found its space in us as well.
Oniomania and shopaholism are two newly discovered psychological obsessions of a modern man. Seeing an item online enchants and entices him. The brilliant color and gaudy style motivates him to buy things even at very dear rates online.
In simple terms, Oniomania is defined as the obsession of a person with very costly things. It is also called as CBD (Compulsive Buying Disorder). This term was coined by the French psychiatrist Valentin Magnan. The term gained currency when Max Nordau, the German physician, used it in his book Degeneration (1892). Nordau defines Oniomania as a “buying craze” a “stigma of degeneration”.
Thorstein Veblen (sociologist and economist) has used a different bionomial term for this buying craze or Oniomania. He calls it a conspicuous consumption and defines it as the spending of money on costly and luxury goods and services in order to make the display of one’s economic power and clout.
This Oniomania is a fact these days. Modern man has certainly become an oniomanic being. He goes for shopping frequently. Brands and tags have obsessed his mind. He runs after the brand names like Adidas, Nike, Levis and many others. Wearing these brands gives him psychological comfort and social identity.Local and unbranded items no longer attract him.
He thinks that unbranded and local items are bland and lack identity, social respect and elitist magnetism. This line of thinking has led to extravagance and desire for extravaganza. Extravagance and desire for extravaganza can surely impoverish us culturally, economically, morally and socially. It can have negative implications for us in every respect. We should use our senses and discretion while shopping. Discretion is the best part of the valor and wealth. We should not be driven by our elite instincts and romantic tendencies.
Prior to online shopping options, shopping was not so frequent and maniac. Shopping was done on yearly or half yearly basis. But these days, shopping has become an obsession. Modern man goes for shopping on daily basis. I do not try to discourage people from shopping; I only suggest that we should not be much obsessed with it. We should not consider costly goods and apparels as desiderata. We can survive without donning ultra-modern suits, saris and shoes.
We should avoid being lavish, spendthrift and profligate. We should follow frugality and thrifty life style. Lavish life style and extravagant attitude are the signs and symptoms of Oniomania and shopaholism. Both Oniomania and shopaholism can lead to psychological disorders and degeneration of everything in context. It can make us social misfits. We should try to be less lavish and more judicious. Thereby hangs a tale!
(The Author is a Lecturer of English. He has done Ph.D and Mphil in English Literature from AMU. Besides, he has qualified UGC-NET and JKSET for Assistant Professorship. Feedback: [email protected])
