The Pleasure of Novelty and its Diminishing Satisfaction

Novelty can generally be regarded as that most fleeting perception and fascination of something that is  made exciting and thrilling simply because of its attractive newness.  To be sure, encountering any new and pleasurable thing is almost always delivered with some sense of novelty, but as time passes novelty naturally fades and the true pleasure of a thing can be faithfully seen and asserted.  Novelty, then, is not, in actuality, a quality that one thing possesses inherently but stems from the ideas of Fashionability and Trend.

The excitement afforded by novelty is one not of pleasure, in pleasure's true sense, but of temporality in the emotional sense.  This is to say that novelty is an emotional reaction to the reception of a new and fashionable thing, be it material or relational.  In the end, because novelty is not inherent to the thing itself but is a response of feeling and taste, novelty has cannot be satisfying in itself but is a non-lasting impression of something pleasurable.

However, because novelty is received with a thrill, novelty can be confused with pleasure as misconstrued as the pleasure itself.  As a result of this misconception, that which is truly pleasurable is substituted for that which is merely novel and new.  The net effects of this lopsided illusion is that pleasure will no longer be cherished and pleasurable as it is, but will be replaced with the counterfeit gratifications of novelty.  Essentially, novelty will become that which is considered satisfying while that which is truly satisfying, that which is godly and good, is neglected in favor for what is new, fashionable, trendy, and easily accesible.

But because novelty is by nature fleeting, the law of diminishing returns will be even more in play than usual.  The response, on the part of the individual given over to this sort of confusion, is that novelty will be continually sought out and lusted after.  In a real sense, the person will never be content and will lack any true satisfaction because they will never linger long enough before passing on to the next new, novel thing.  This is like licking the steak without chewing it before quickly moving to lick the bread too.  No satisfaction, just a wanting desire for the novelty of something else, something new.

In order to overcome this illusion, the person must first reckon with the discrepancy, the flaw in their reasoning comes not from their want of joy and pleasure but in where he or she has sourced it, namely, in novelty.  Secondly, the person must be made aware of the vanity and perishing nature of fashionability and trendiness, here today to be swept away by the tide of tomorrow's new wave.  Lastly, the person must remember that, above all else, the source for all satisfaction and pleasure is found in thankfulness in giving glory to God.  Any attempt to replace this is but a shadowy imitation.