Recently, there is an argument that people have prioritized creating an estate rather than expanding their circle of friends. From my personal perspective, it is true that a majority of society is following a materialistic lifestyle, however there are still some who appreciate the value of family bonds.
First and foremost, the reason why the tendency of valuing material possessions seems to dominate the general citizen’s lifestyle is that online users are exposed to the contents on the internet that flatter the benefits of being rich and have a status symbol. To clarify, social media is a powerful tool to manipulate the public’s opinion and trend, and recently the contents that emphasize the importance of being successful, in terms of economics, appear more frequently on many platforms. And this may cause people being bombarded with messages that equate happiness with owning luxury items without really following what they consider as success. For instance, social media influencers, who contract with promoting brands, show their possession of those stuff provided by the sponsor and call it “success”. This could affect people’s cognition and lead to the ignorance of other aspects of life.
Despite this superficial trend, relationships still remain as the fundamental to human well-being and fulfillment. It is because people still need emotional support from others to benefit their mental health and, most important thing is to live and get through the harsh situation. That is when the genuine connection cannot be replaced by social status or money. Take Covid 19 pandemic as an example, when every place in the world was locked down, people realised the importance of family and possessions when striving to survive through that intensive period. The other example for this is in Asia, there are a lot of festivals and traditions held to evoke family gathering and bonding.
In conclusion, although nowadays people’s primary choice of purpose is to be as rich as possible, the relationship is still given precedence to and yet, it still be the basic demands in humans’ life.