Jan. 11th, 2021
When was the last time you did a double take at that item in the vitrine? When was the last time you paused yourself at a crossroad? When was the last time you actually considered your options? When was the last time your choices, were indeed choices?
Choosing is meant to be somewhat a hard thing to do. That is why there are even choices in the first place: they are considered to have a roughly equal effect or be methods to accomplish a similar goal. They are alternatives to each other with slight differences to be sorted and evaluated at closer thought with respect to personal preference.
But nowadays, two main problems arise for a common person to just give a little thought to what to do: the vast and increasing number of options available, and the polarization of validity of these choices. Head to the supermarket to get some yogurt? Back then you had perhaps four options at most: original, strawberry, vanilla, and low-fat. Nowadays they have a whole fridge section just for yogurt. Original, original “lite” that tastes more bland but costs twenty more dollars, strawberry, strawberry cranberry, cranberry strawberry (yes), salt and vinegar, slippery potassium, and limited edition tabasco for Día de los Muertos. With that many options to consider, simply choosing a yogurt flavor had evolved from an easy task to more complicated than a multiple-choice problem on a microeconomics test. That basically made choosing into a tiring thing to do, sometimes severe enough up to the point where people developed a habit of assuming the same option as last time and neglecting the possible new options out there.
In that sense, is your “typical” option still a choice? Or is it a product of refusal to pick from too many choices?
Having too many choices to choose from is already hard enough, but that’s even worse when your choices aren’t even, well, choices. We’ve all had that experience where one choice is so apparently more feasible that the other doesn’t even seem so much a choice; where the impossible choice was given almost solely as a way to depict the illusion that there is a choice to be made, that you have free will. Why do insurance agents give you a two-year plan when people mostly aim for longer durations? Well, fine, there are cancer patients, but that option was there almost to instigate you to pick a more expensive plan. Similarly, Apple sells its accessories separately so you have a choice to not buy them.
Well, most people just end up choosing to buy them anyway. In a time like this, it is essential for us, as decision makers and shapers of our own life, to remember that it is us that make choices, not choices that make us. In a time where choices are diverse and assorted, one must truly consider and weigh the options before deciding upon a final choice. It would require more effort, yes, but it is also the only way to keep us from being numb from the overwhelming sea of changing conditions. Next time, think about whether you have control over available options and think it through. We’re the ones walking our paths, the ones that can ponder the possibilities, the ones with the opportunity to choose. And that opportunity is one worthy of seizing by anyone wise enough to think big and take control. After all, the choice is yours.