riverside_kayla_raw-audio_kayla_cataldi's stu_0004

The speaker, Kayla, discusses the effects of life satisfaction and happiness based on materialism and experiential versus material purchases. She shares her personal experience of her parents giving her experiences instead of physical gifts, and how it made her feel awe. She interviews her mom, Janine, who explains why she started giving experiences and not physical things. They discuss the importance of social connections, shared experiences, and the lasting memories that come from experiences. They emphasize that experiences are more valuable in the long run than physical material things. The podcast ends with a message about the importance of spending time with loved ones and feeling connected to something bigger than oneself. Hi, everyone. My name is Kayla Cataldi, and today we are going to be talking about the effects of life satisfaction and happiness based on materialism and experiential versus material purchases. I am here with my mom, Janine. Say hi. Hello. She is going to be talking with me. I felt she was a really good person to add to this because basically the whole reason I did the topic was to – was because my parents stopped buying me gifts and physical things, and they started giving me experiences. That was something that really stuck with me. So basically I started doing all of this when we were writing a paper in English class, and we had to write it on a story of a time that we felt awe, which is something that is bigger than you – the feeling of something bigger than yourself, something that transcends this normal realm that we are in. And basically I've had a couple of different times like that courtesy of my family and my parents because they brought us on all these trips and different like experiences that we've had. So the one that stuck out to me was when my mom, my brother, and myself went to Europe over spring break, and I was walking around Sweden at like 7 o'clock at night, and it was sunset, and I was just there, and there was no stress, no worry, no feeling like I was in a panic. It was very much so something that I felt like I had no – it was just me there. And I feel like that was something that sticks with me. I mention it to people all the time when they ask me about it, and I think I went home to the hotel that night and was like, oh my gosh, guys, like you'll never guess what happened. But that was something that like really stuck with me, and that's why I wrote this paper and why I'm doing this podcast. So I just wanted to bring my mom on here today to kind of ask her some questions about why she started giving us experiences and not physical things. So first thing I wanted to ask was like what made you switch from giving us stuffed animals and snow globes and things like that to saying hey, we're going to go to a concert or hey, we're going to go to Europe or a cruise. Like what switched in you to make you want to start doing that? So what made me switch was really giving you all those stuffed animals as a kid. As you got older and you started kind of moving away from that, all of a sudden I have totes full of stuffed animals. What do you do with them? Where do you put them? You know, they're temporary. Experiences like concerts and things like that, I get to spend time with you. It's time that we can bond, things that we can share, and I think the experiences, it's a memory that lasts for a long time. How many times do you and I go back and forth about different things that we've done, different concerts? Remember when we were here? Remember when we were there? Remember when we saw this person? Trips we've taken. You know, I think it adds a bond that you don't get when you give somebody a physical gift that potentially can just be put on a shelf, put in a closet. It's very temporary, very short-lived. Yeah, and that's what I've read in my research and what I've found is that people want to feel the connection to other people, and when they have experiences that they can share with someone, it broadens that social connection so much, and that really is what people are looking for. They're not looking for someone to say, oh, I have this, and oh, I have the same thing. You're not going to find the material connection over that. You're going to find it like, I went and saw this person in concert, no wait, so did I. And that's how you're going to get that big, that well, and then you also, when you have this broad social connection or you have the experiences, the memories, the whatever, it improves your life satisfaction, which overall improves your physical, spiritual, emotional well-being, and that's kind of the goal of everything is to make yourself feel like you aren't in this little bubble. You just kind of have this wonderful array of things where you're like, oh my gosh, I just did this and I went here, and that was stuff that I was finding in my research is that people want to feel like they're in a place that's bigger than themselves. They don't want like, and when people are asked, like, oh, what is something that brought you awe? What is something that made you feel happy? They're like, oh, I did this, and I did this, and I did this. It's never like, I have a new phone, or I bought a car. So things like that. Think about a time. Do you have any experiences like that where you just felt like you were in a place that was, like you were very small, or you just felt like there was something bigger than yourself, or you were, do you have any experiences like that? So I think for me, some of my biggest experiences, I would say, are either concerts or sporting events, particularly baseball games. I can remember one time we were at a Phillies game, and the pitcher threw a no-hitter. They're very rare, but when you're in a stadium full of fans watching an event like that, you're part of something that's bigger than you, and it's shared with everybody that's there. So yeah, and the same thing with concerts. When you're there, you're just one of thousands, you know, and you're just taking it all in with everybody else. It's like a collective experience. So yeah. Collective effervescence, as so Dr. Keltner called it. There you go. Anyway. Yeah, so those are times I think that you just, when you're a part of something that's bigger like that, it makes you feel good. Yeah, no, it's definitely like, and everyone always says like, oh, like, you feel like, the argument that everyone's trying to make is the whole money aspect of it. And like, yeah, you have to have money that goes into it, but it's not the actual money itself. It's the thing that you get from the money. And I think that that's the bigger picture of it all, is instead of spending money on something, you spend it on something. It's a lot bigger, a lot more. The experience is priceless. Exactly. I feel like that's a really good line. Yeah, no, but I think like the experience, the memories, the things that you get, like, that's definitely, yeah, that's the best part of it all. And then can I throw one more thing in? Absolutely, go right ahead. So I think too, part of it with stuff, as I'm getting older, and you and your brother are moving on and starting to kind of separate from the house, it's really, I'm finding that there's a lot of things that I now have no idea what to do with them, where the experiences are always there, and you don't have to get rid of them. Right. I feel like we definitely have like our times where like, we go through like pictures and we're like, oh my gosh, we did this or we did that. Like when we go through our picture bins, like I feel like those are things that like, or I look through and I'm like, oh my god, this was a year ago. Do you remember when we did this? It's those memories that sit there and then you're like, oh my gosh, wait, this is so fun to like, bond over the fact that this is what we did. Whereas like, yeah, in the moment, that stuffed animal or that globe or that whatever, that was wonderful. And that was amazing in the time that I had it. But there right now I look at it and there's just no real, there's no connection, there's no feeling with it. There's no feeling with it. And I feel like that's something that like, I'm trying to like bring up to everyone is like to think about it. Think about things that you bought in the years that you've been like, what do you do with them now? They're just there. They're just sitting there. So thank you, Iris, for having your input. I appreciate you. My dog decided to bring her input in. But yeah, no, so I feel like that's just definitely a big thing. And I feel like, you know, driving home the point that the experience is much, the journey, as they say, it's about the journey. So the journey, the experience is much more valuable in the long run than having an actual physical material thing. So thank you. This experience will live with us for a while also. This podcast experience is something else to add to our experience. Oh my gosh, I'm just gonna play it at every family function from now on. Well, thank you so much for listening to my podcast. And thank you, Janine, my beautiful mom for being in it with me. And I hope I was able to convince you a little bit more that it is not solely about things in life. It is more about the time we spend and the things that we do with people that we care about, or on our own that just make us feel like we are part of something that's more than just us. Thank you. And have a wonderful rest of your day. Hi, Christine, you rock.