Minimalism’s Tipping Point
In class we learned that a tipping point is an unstable equilibrium in which if a slightly more or less fraction of the population uses/buys a good then there will be upward or downward pressure to other equilibrium points. The concept of a tipping point can be applied generally to situations where humans are inclined to adopt the practices or other humans because there’s this point where enough of the population uses it that it just spreads. There are multiple articles talking about the tipping point and how it relates to the spread of certain practices. The medium article mentions a book in which Malcom Gladwell talks about 3 “Agents of Change”. The author says that a movement is created by smaller movements. That a movement should resonate with people so that it’s not easily forgotten, and that a movement’s success can be determined by the time and place in which the movement is beginning.
The second article talks about minimalism. Minimalism has recently started to gain attention with youtubers who vlog their minimalist lifestyles. There’s definitely a movement towards minimalism with goods and products being advertised as “minimalist.” For example, “minimalist” wallets or “minimalist” watches. The author Josh Becker even mentions, “Last month, over 1 million readers visited Becoming Minimalist and the Facebook group has grown to 300,000 people with a weekly reach over 2 million. Those are impressive numbers.” The second article aims to consider the idea of minimalism taking over. What would that tipping point be? The article states that there’s a claim that 6% of a population has to be using a product for the product to widely spread. That would make 6% the tipping point where if even slightly more than 6% use the product then there will be upward pressure. The numbers that the author mentions aren’t close to 6% of the population. Then what would it take? Referring back to the first article, it would mean spreading minimalism among closed circles and making a big movement out of smaller movements. That’s what Becker states. He encourages people to spread minimalism amongst the people around them to initiate this change.
Furthermore, relating back to the first article, I think that now is the perfect time to spread minimalism. There is obvious interest and there are a lot of movements for cutting waste and minimalism relates to that. I also think that minimalism can relate to people if marketed correctly. Therefore from the two arguments, there’s definitely a chance that minimalism can spread widely throughout the population.
Articles: https://www.becomingminimalist.com/tip/
https://medium.com/dconstrct/the-tipping-point-how-little-things-can-make-a-big-difference-384d616af640