So, I caught wind of the interesting article Activity is the goods for true satisfaction from Rob, who cited our buddy Neema as the person bringing this article into our collective mental space.

It's basically about reasearch conducted by psychologists (and the article opens with a great dig on economists) that shows that people actually garner more satisfaction from buying services than material artifacts. Experiences make us happier than stuff.

It's interesting on a number of levels. Personally, I would tend to agree, yet I still seem to be accumulating crap--but I tend to purge every time I move, which isn't the best way to handle things but that's my reality for now. Plus I don't have time to consume services while I'm still in grad school, but that's another story.

I'm particularaly interested in this as it relates to my thesis essay. I'm looking on to people who engage with products and make changes to them that were not intended or expected by the original designers, specifically these activities that happen on a larger scale so as to cause people to gather in groups to support the activity. This article makes is sound like perhaps what I'm talking about in my thesis is people creating an experience around a product. Perhpas this research will support my argument... or contradict it. I guess I have some reading to do.

Oh, one other thing, this is the first time I've pinged someone else with their trackback URL. Congratulations, Rob, you've taken my trackback virginity... but will you call in the morning?