“They paved paradise and put up a parking lot” are the first words of Joni Mitchell’s famous hit ‘Big Yellow Taxi’. If you haven’t listened to the song before, it’s a folk rock ballad released in 1972 that channeled a deep concern for the world’s consumer dominated environment. Little did Joni know, that things were really just getting started when the hippie travelled to Hawaii and realized the grave consequences mankind has placed upon nature and the world we live in.

Joni Mitchell wrote this song on a trip to Hawaii in the 1970s. Buying a plane ticket, booking a hotel room, managing a ride to the airport, and landing in one’s required destination wasn’t a very complex process then. You’re probably thinking, we go through the exact same process today, right? Wrong. Here’s why.

If Joni were to travel to the same destination in 2016, she would have surely gone through a different experience (and I’m not just talking about zero personal space at security check). In our increasingly interconnected, information-driven world, where so many signals are competing for our attention, making a decision to travel to an exotic destination can be overwhelming.

Let’s break things down.

Step one; being the adult that you are, you take the rational decision to travel somewhere, anywhere. You’ve saved up enough and decided you would like to spend your money on an exotic trip somewhere in the world. You sit behind your 9 to 5 work desk and look up “top 10 exotic places to travel”. Simple. That procedure in itself is probably the most daunting experience you will ever face in your entire life. The minute you open a webpage like Trip Advisor, Hotel Guru or any site that gives you all the information you need to travel you will find yourself on the verge of buying a house in Monte Negro, with a dog, three kids, a Maserati and are in a fantasy relationship with Leonardo DiCaprio and or Beyoncé.

We are being flooded by marketing schemes that have us hooked on an illusion. An illusion that leaves us with an agitating feeling to consume everything around us with zero regard to the true need, durability or environmental consequences of the product. Lucy Hughes, businesswoman and co-creator of ‘The Nag Factor’, states that businesses manipulate consumers into wanting and buying their products. Corporations thrive on the vulnerability of the purchaser.

Feeling miserable? Lonely? Worthless? Has plain old boring tap water got you down?

Great. Have SmartWater where you’ll feel smarter drinking water. Our culture is one of unnecessary spending in which the chronic consumption of goods and services defines our self image and social standing. Businesses are incentivized not just to offer infinite consumption options but to also ‘help’ consumers to assess those options and find ‘the perfect fit’.Win-win.

In that sense, consumerism replaces the commonsensical desire for an adequate and stable lifestyle with an artificial, never-ending hungry quest for material things. We buy stuff to feel better, to keep up with the Kardashians, to showcase our status to the world with very little regard to the true utility of what is bought. This psychological market-controlled habit of casual or non-essential spending has placed us in a constant battle between what we want versus what we truly need.

Once you are able to realize the fine line between these two contrasting demands, you are no longer held captive to a carefully calculated corporate formula. You will gradually be able to filter out selfie-sticks, snowball makers, noodle fans and portable chin rests out of your life… or at least try.

WRITTEN BY: ELENA HINNAWI