The problem with spending to impress is that these people are only impressed once. Show your expensive car and they are shocked. The next day they are used to it and don’t raise an eyebrow. The novelty is worn off just like that!
Then they ask to borrow the car and you say no. They are not impressed at all. Yet the monthly repayments with added interest continue. Even you too are not impressed anymore.
There used to be a time when the only guy who owned a bicycle was the village celebrity. As he cruised down the path the children sang songs to his honour while he waved at them like royalty. Technology has gone and spoilt it for everybody now. Those in the deepest jungle now go online and see all the expensive cars. Although they might not touch or physically see these cars till death does them part from their endemic poverty, they have had a raising of the bar in their minds. They know what the millionaires of the world are driving and they are not impressed with you.
Images are wrecking it for everyone. In the old days, people only heard about palaces by word of mouth. Those were the days that a cleaner could come home and have the whole street spell-bound by the opulence he saw while doing his duties. The stories told were always rich with sweet lies as the audience had no way of checking out if the stories were true or not.
Those were the golden days of ignorance when explorers from Europe went to West Africa for ‘hustling’ and returned to tell fee-paying packed houses in London how the River Niger flowed from East to West. These merchants of ‘fake geography’ made their money because Google Earth had not been invented. The misinformed audiences went home satisfied with the thriller by the liars.
It is not a good thing when no one can be impressed any more. Start telling the story about something exceptional that happened to you that culminated in you getting £200 cash and the kill joys will tell you about a man they read about on the internet who in similar circumstances ended up with £2 Million cash. Everyone has now heard about ‘a man’ who did one thing or the other. No wonder people do not enjoy quiet conversation anymore. What do you want to tell them that they haven’t heard before? Every joke is old, every funny video has been sent a hundred times, all movies have been seen and all dance moves are known. Wedding dances are viral before the couple get to the hotel from the wedding reception, etc.
The over flooding of the brain with information makes every new stimulus appear to have a Déjà vu stamp on it. It would not surprise me to learn that some reading this article will wonder, “Where have I heard this before?”
The sense of wonder that the children have keeps them happy. The same funny face will keep a child entertained all day. Adults need to rediscover their inner child in today’s world.
Celebrate with those who celebrate. Do not visit a guy showing off his new house and tell him “this is a smaller version of what I saw on MTV Cribs the other day”. Don’t look around at the corners of the rooms and comment on the ‘poor finishing’ of the builders. Remember that he invited you as a friend not as a valuer or quantity surveyor. Say congratulations and share in his joy.
When we know too much we might start to feel that only the really big things are impressive. I have heard people complain at the magnitude of celebrations someone had organised for their child’s graduation “when it was not Harvard”.
The celebration in front of us is what matters not the potential celebration miles away by people who we feel are worthy of our congratulations.
This matter has made its way into the bedroom. Some are not impressed with the tools their partners have to work with because in a film they watched…
Two go out on a date in a restaurant and no one is impressed with the small talk of the other. The two engage in long exchanges with distant people on social media while waiting for their food. The guys on WhatsApp all seem to be wittier than the actual date that made the time to be present.
It then looks foolish to set out to impress people. Loans for fancy weddings that trend on social media might seem nice in the short term but the bank repayments are a pain especially if the guests eat up all the food, took all the guest gifts and did not dish out wedding gifts as expected. There is only so much a young couple can do with two hundred well wrapped drinking glasses.
If you build a big house there is always someone building bigger. If you have a nice holiday picture, no one is impressed. Some impolite folk will even have the effrontery to ask if it is Photoshop and add lol to soften the insult.
It is better to live a simple life and not set out to be impressive. The punters are just not there anymore.
There are people who do plastic surgery and pout till the cows come home and all they get is 120 likes on Instagram while Charlie bites his brother’s finger and gets eight hundred and forty seven million hits on YouTube. No one can orchestrate such things. The best chance most people have of going viral nowadays is catching chicken pox and even your immune system might be against you.
Stop trying and be yourself. What will be will be!
