You Can’t Shop Away Your Existential Dread (But You Can Try)
Once upon a time I used to leave my home, like, every day. I live in New York City, and have thus always thought of my apartment as one room of a sprawling house, the rest of the city comprising where I eat, where my children play, where I work, yes, but also where I exercise and see friends and live life. Then the pandemic compressed life into that small apartment, and like so many others, I compensated by feathering said nest with the best and strangest things one can buy online.
But can these silly purchases really dull the pain of life in 2020? Maya Kosoff wrote about her online purchases over the past eight months or so, and rated how effective each purchase was at combatting her existential dread. For example, new pillows were rated “5/10. My head rests on a pillowy cloud every night while I toss and turn.”
Of course, this kind of retail therapy is undoubtedly a privilege. As Kosoff notes:
It’s true that money can solve many of your problems, and being truly financially stable for the first time in my adult life has been…
