Feeling bored? Quite like a Bored Panda (excuse the pun)? I’ve got something for you that will get you all the more excited! Are you ready? Let’s go… shopping! But not just any kind of shopping—online shopping! The world is at your fingertips and with one press of a button and the numbers of a credit card, everything you desire can be yours!
If you’re struggling to come up with things that you don’t have or can actually buy (your crush’s love isn’t one of them, sorry), then don’t worry, as Odditymall has us all covered! Started in April 2013, the Facebook page has been featuring unique and unusual gadgets, gizmos, tech, gift ideas, crafts, design, architecture, DIY projects, and much more. Their 3M followers seem to very much enjoy them all!
Ryan, the page's founder, told Bored Panda that the idea for Odditymall came from "seeing the popularity of a few other similar sites and we thought we could make it better!" Hundreds of videos went viral, garnering over 1B views on Facebook in 2016, and the rest is history.
Ryan believes that a lot of our interest for these silly-looking gadgets stems from the fact that we've seen all that normality has to offer. "Everyone has seen the normal and boring gift ideas that everyone seems to get (candles, plants, whatever else...) and none of that is very eye-catching," he said.
"We would often come across some of these very unique and interesting products online that no one has really heard about or seen and thought we could not only bring them to people's attention so they could buy them as a gift, but also make it a form of entertainment browsing through these odd products and gadgets through our website."
The meme “shut up and take my money!” fits incredibly well with each and every one of their weird, yet oddly charming, finds. But that begs the question: why do we buy so much seemingly useless, random, or absolutely weird stuff? Why do we buy so much in general? Do we need 5 more books when the bookshelf is full of unread ones? Yes, we do, George.
Retail therapy isn’t only a fancy lyric in an Ariana Grande song, it’s a real phenomenon. It’s shopping with the primary purpose of improving the buyer's mood with so-called “comfort buys.” According to Abraham Maslow and his hierarchy of needs, human beings need far more than just the bare necessities to help them feel safe, loved, and capable of reaching their full potential.
Clinical psychologist Scott Bea explains that there’s a lot of psychological and therapeutic value in shopping, when done in moderation. “Whether you’re adding items to your shopping cart online or visiting your favorite boutique for a few hours, you do get a psychological and emotional boost,” he says. “Shopping and its sensory stimulation gets us to visualize positive outcomes [that] can create positive anticipation and can reduce anxiety.”
A 2014 study from the Journal of Consumer Psychology found that retail therapy not only makes people happier immediately, but it can also fight lingering sadness. Another 2014 study by the University of Michigan showed that purchasing things you personally enjoy can be up to 40 times more effective at giving you a sense of control than not shopping.
Although the act of purchasing things is a pleasant one, the journey to the store, the search, the walking around countless people that just can’t get out of the way, and the random music blaring way too loud can get anyone in the mood for red rum. “I don’t like to shop, but I do like to buy,” Frances Taylor wrote in The Atlantic in 1931 and I can’t help but agree.
Stores and manufacturers have come up with very clever means of getting us to forfeit our hard-earned cash for their goods: using a cognitive bias called “anchoring” and overpricing their products to later mark them down to make it seem like a great deal, lowering the temperature, painting the walls blue, and playing pop music, all to make you more inclined to buy without too much thought.
Thankfully, we now have online shopping under our fingers, so that we can lay in bed, have a coffee and buy that wonderful black dress or real-scale pterodactyl model, or both, without all that hypnotic environmental pressure to influence us. However, the easier shopping gets, the more mindless buying becomes; it’s so dangerously easy!
According to Financial Holdings, online shopping is one of the highest global growth sectors, anticipated to grow further in the coming years, and it’s not difficult to see why! With online shopping, every item is available at all times, it's a quick and painless procedure that’s over in a few clicks, and it’s also more anonymous and discreet. Also, no crowds.
However, one should always keep one thing in mind. Although behaviors that create excitement can bring us happiness, moderation is the difference between happiness and compulsiveness. Yes, you may want 5000 rubber duckies with custom tattoos, but do you really need them, considering you bought the same amount three weeks ago?
Shopping shifts from being therapeutic to a problematic compulsive behavior when it becomes a go-to way of dealing with anxiety, stress or loss and when it’s hard to control, Dr. Bea says. There is also a similarity between compulsive shopping urges and the high that’s sought after in drug or alcohol addiction.
“If you’re concerned about developing a compulsive shopping behavior, try to convert your goal of control to the excitement of a new, positive behavior — like working out or eating healthy,” Dr. Bea suggests. “You’ll be surprised at how happy you can feel working towards those positive results, too.”
When we asked Ryan, the founder of Odditymall, what he thinks the future of design has to offer, he reassured us that the crazu gadget market is not going anywhere. "I'm not much of a designer myself so I can't speak to what we may see in the future of that industry, but I can only assume people will always continue to be in need of new unique and funny gifts ideas to give their friends and family for Christmas, birthdays, and everything else."
Big thanks to Ryan for answering our questions! Make sure you follow Odditymall on Facebook, Instagram, as well as checking out their website. You're not likely to regret it.
As you continue to scroll through this wonderful list, upvoting your favorites, maybe double check to make sure your shopping basket is full of things you actually want and will cherish rather than buying for buying’s sake. I wish you all the best and a wonderful New Year!
