One of the ways people deal with feelings of loneliness and lack of belonging is through consumption. Consumer experiences include many products that help us feel connected, such as products like social media, nostalgic items, and things we once owned.

However, according to the results of scientific studies, consumption can inadvertently increase feelings of loneliness and make it difficult to connect with others.

No friends, no romance

Many people suffer from loneliness, which includes those who want more friends, but fail to make friends, due to low confidence or lack of time and fear of rejection.

It also includes those who prefer to be in a romantic relationship but due to various factors such as introversion or shyness, find themselves involuntarily single.

The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has also caused loneliness and associated mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.

According to a recent study by Fumagali et al. to be published in August 2022, people deal with loneliness at times, through consumption and the purchase of nostalgic products.

Loneliness refers to the subjective experience of shortcomings in an individual's social relationships, meaning that these relationships are lacking in quality or unsatisfactory in important respects.

Research shows that feeling lonely is linked to a variety of unhealthy behaviors, including maladaptive emotion regulation strategies or difficulty exercising self-control, and is a strong predictor of many negative outcomes such as increased anxiety and depression, and increased pain.

Some overcome loneliness through consumption and purchase of nostalgic products (Getty Images)

What is compensating depreciation?

According to Hope trust India, you may be dealing with feelings of loneliness and lack of belonging through consumption.

Psychologists call this "compensatory consumption," and it refers to the activities or products you might indulge in to satisfy your psychological need to belong.

For example, a person who fears rejection may be more willing to buy a product they hate just because their partner wants it, as a way of indicating their shared preferences.

Compensatory consumption experiences can be neutral or even positive, such as donating to charity.

However, it can also be harmful especially when one is willing to engage in excessive alcohol or drug abuse in order to fit in and fulfill a need to belong.

Some products also provide indirect or symbolic contact with others.

For example, buying used items or buying nostalgic products.

Other products also directly reduce loneliness, such as developing lonely people;

Strong associations with brands or anthropomorphization of products, i.e. the projection of human characteristics to them.

Research has shown that excluded or lonely individuals show a greater preference for anthropomorphic products such as Mr. Clean and M&M characters.

Using social media to deal with loneliness

Some other products such as social media are specifically designed for social purposes.

One might imagine that it is especially useful for lonely people, allowing them to reconnect with friends or connect with individuals who share their interests.

Oddly enough, however, electronic communication fails to reduce loneliness, as social media use has been associated with increased loneliness.

Perhaps because social interactions on social media are less good when compared to in-person interactions.

A 2019 research of the social lives of more than 8 million young Americans found increases in loneliness over time, and negative changes in a variety of personal social activities, changes that coincided with increased use of digital media.

Nearly half of the decline in in-person social interactions occurred between 2010 and 2017.

Despite the revolution caused by social media platforms;

It increased the loneliness of young people (pixels)

Dangers of using products to reduce loneliness

According to Psychology Today, one of the dangers is that the replacement of products with human contact always takes place gradually, and the desire to accumulate possessions develops and the person becomes more materialistic.

Research shows that materialism has a negative impact on happiness and well-being.

In fact, becoming materialistic in order to reduce loneliness can lead to increased loneliness, due to possessions that replace social interactions. This results in more loneliness and the person becomes trapped in a vicious cycle that is developed over time.