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Jose Zabala
Professor Ferrara
Eng 101
December 15, 2021
Multimodal Essay

Shopping has always been part of our everyday life. Why do we shop you may ask and

simple really, we shop needs and necessities as well as for pleasure. As everyday consumers life

requires you to have to shop for your servable needs. Whether is shopping for groceries to

buying brand new pair of designer jeans, shopping is our normal. With the evolution of the

internet in the last 10 years, has made the way we shop even more effective and easier giving

you the choice of getting what you need with just a few clicks. Being the highest consuming

country in the world some suggest we have overly consumption habits and we been abusing

shopping which is being linked to mental health. Seeing the growing cases of shopping

addictions many people seem to be concerned with the situation. This has caused a blur in how

the world views shopping and how it affects our mental health. Contrary to popular belief

shopping I feel shopping has a great affect on your mental health and wellbeing. Shopping helps

establish a sense of control in your life, shopping also is a great way to better your mood, and it

can also be a great way to network for personal as well as professional level. All these things are

contributing factors on why shopping is great for your mental health.

Mental health refers to a persons emotional, social, and psychological wellbeing. It

affects how we feel think and act. Navigating through life will always be different for everybody

depending on your financial status and background. Logically people’s wellbeing and happiness

are all measured different by everyone. To some certain things wont affect them as it would

others bad or good because of their situations. Being able “ to digest or metabolize experiences is
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to take whatever is given in any moment- any thought, feelings, sensation, any cruel word, kind

act, or humiliating fall-and-transform it- by chewing, mashing, churning, breaking it down-into a

sweet stream of energy and capable nourishing our on going bodily becoming” like Dr. Kimerer

L Lamothe said on the article What is mental health? Establishing a sense of control to your life,

and conditioning self-control affects your mental health positively. Shopping gives you that

sense of control in your life by allowing you to make your own choices, also try to create balance

between your wants and needs. For example, when you’re sad you believe that your life isn’t in

your control, instead your mind gives you the impression that things occurring in your life are

controlling you. Making choices while shopping in what your buying gives you that sense of

control because you are buying a particular thing because you want too. Self-control also plays a

factor in maintaining a good state of mental health. By holding yourself accountable to make

smart decisions while shopping instead of making compulsive ones. This allows you to keep

future goals you may have set for yourself to reward yourself when you as the individual feels he

or she deserves it. Keeping your mental health in good standing.

As you think about all the things that happen throughout an ordinary day, have you asked

yourself how you feel after a stressful day? Does your mood change? Do you avoid public

settings because of it? What do you do about it? Go to the gym, or do you go for a drive around

your neighborhood to release the stress brought to you by the day.in a lot of cases this may be a

great way to go about having a bad day. Channeling the bad energy and finding a good way to

cope allows you to make better decisions without letting sadness or stress to control you. Having

a bad day doesn’t mean the world will come to and end you will be consumed by all your

problems. This why I believe in the affect of shopping therapy has on helping to better your

mood. If you think every stressful situation will be the end of you and you decide to try to chase
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happiness by just making impulsive buys, to try to make yourself feel good for the moment.

While this true, even if you go on a website or a store to browse around without buying anything

at all has been proven to release dopamine to your brain. Dopamine as described by Camille

Acker as getting released before we experience the pleasure of buying the shirt we wanted.

Reading her article makes even more clear to me that using shopping to bust your mood is as

affective any other way people cope with there problems. By tricking yourself and mind to even

window shop, makes you feel good because even if you don’t buy the things you want at that

very moment knowing that they are in your online cart and available to you at whatever time is

satisfaction enough to most. If that’s not enough for you take into consideration everything I

have said thus far, put your self in the shoes of a person having a horrible day. As you sit on the

coach watching tv thinking about the 15-minute walk you had to take at work because there

wasn’t any parking which caused you to be late for work and mad your boss talk to you about

your tardiness, he also throws a pile of work your way that must be done in 2 days but its more

like a weeks’ worth of work. You’re stressing on how you are going to get all this work done.

All sudden you hear a knock on your door is the ups guy delivering the shoes you had order last

week. Caught up in your problems it had slipped your mind that they would be arriving today.

As you grab the package from the ups man your mood starts shifting, the joy start taking over

your face and thought. Everyone that knows about shopping is when you get things you ordered

online to your house is the best feeling in the world. After a long stressful day that right there is

enough to turn your mood in a positive way.

Retail therapy has been connected with social media platforms. With social platforms having the

most control on our everyday lives and how we function. These platforms have become places

where it is easy to indulge in shopping. By making it super accessible to the masses with its
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marketing team working heavily to make sure we see their products in all our feeds across all

platforms. Not only that but since social media helps you keep in touch with your friends and

loved ones but gives you the opportunity to meet new people. Whether is through shared

experiences or for having the same kind of dressing style. Social media like shopping brings

people together based on things they may like of have or planning on buying. Companies have

seen the affects social media has on us and have used people of high popularity in our ecosystem

of the internet to sell and market their products. Giving does people endorsement deals to wear

and market their products across all their social platforms. You say how does this tie with mental

health and shopping well taking peoples shopping experience and turning it into a more of a

virtual fashion or showcase depending on what they are buying at the moment. This new age of

online shopping supported by people personal social media platforms allows shoppers to interact

with people on the internet based on things they see modeled on the persons socials like a QA

blog with visual. This same theory can be applied to somebody that gives reviews on household

items so that potential shoppers can compare potential purchases before making them. Say you

go to the mall to find a camera you want to buy, to record videos as well as take pictures. As you

look around at different cameras you decide to ask one of the people that work at the store you’re

in for help. They would probably be able to help because they know details about the product

you’re seeking to buy. Same thing is done online as well in large masses with multiple people

answering questions based on them either owning the product and knowing all the pros and cons

of it. Same person that posted the camera you’re looking for has also posted a bunch of videos

and pictures taken by the camera. This gives you and open forum to meet different people that

may enjoy the work he has posted as well as the camera. Through sharing comments on the

work, shopping can bring people to network even if its just to make a great shopping purchase,
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which overall promotes good mental health. And not falling into just buying things just because

you can.

Of course, if retail therapy is abused and your way of being able to digest and interpret is

compromised, then you my fall into making compulsive buys which can lead to having shopping

addiction. Addiction can be just as bad as having problems with drugs which can all be birth

from bad mental health. Shopping surrounds several areas of personal wellbeing, health, and

security as well as contributing to the community your area a part of and the economy. Building

and keeping shopping habits as part to maintain good mental health and wellbeing. Shopping

gives you the ability to network, it provides you with a way to better your mood, and help you

establish control as well as maintaining self-control. All this led to good mental health.