The Paradox of Choice
In only the last century, choice was severely restricted compared to now. You had one choice for many things: telephone, internet, TV, school, career, and countless others. People typically didn’t leave the place in which they grew up unless there was a very serious reason to do so. In a lot of ways, life was simpler. Few people were paralyzed by the overabundance of choice. The path for many people’s lives was relatively clear, as their options were limited.
Now, we live in a world that is rife with choice. With each passing day, an uncountable multitude of choices are added to everything you can think of: new products are released, new stocks are introduced, new retirement plans are made available, new technologies emerge, new people are made, and with all of what the age of information brings, the overall chaos of the world increases.
There are certainly measurable benefits to this. With the constant competition of technology and medicine, we are seeing a marked increase of the quality and availability of products, some of which save lives. We now have more options from which to choose how to live our lives. In many ways, this is a fantastic boon to optimizing our individuality. Nowadays, you are rarely forced into a choice. Instead, you have several options and you are free to choose which path to follow.
By the same token, the consequences of your choices now burden you far heavier as they rest on your shoulders. Because the choice is no longer being made for you, you decide the choice and accept its subsequent consequences. For a lot of people, if or when a choice is finally made, the decision is regretted. After all, one of the other countless options would no doubt be superior. Forty years ago, we may not have had the choice and thus the consequences of our choices were perceived as a part of life with few or no alternatives. Now, however, we make our choices and we alone are responsible for the outcomes.
The Paradox of Choice Read Post »
Blog
