Monday 30 November 2009

Drink Coaster Psychology

By Jim Slate

David Artstone - What kind of a person uses a drink coaster? It's a simple question at first, and yet it speaks to the deep seated psychology of a person. It explores ideas of possession, investment, care, and detail, which can reveal some of the inner workings of the mind of the individual.

For starters, let's examine the care aspect of the drink coaster. A coaster is a preventative tool. Its presence requires a certain amount of forethought. It also shows strategic thinking, the owner of the piece identified a potential problem, such as damage to their expensive table, and they countered this by purchasing defensive pieces.

Another aspect of drink coasters is that they show their owners care and respect for their possessions. Some people don't care about the appearance of their homes. They buy chipped tables, scratched furnishings, and cheap inexpensive items that they then litter their homes with.

The person who buys and uses a drink coaster however, is protecting their possessions. They are treating the items in their home like an investment that they have to carefully manage and protect so that the beauty of the piece is preserved for years to come.

Finally, drink coasters speak to the detail oriented nature of the mind that employs them. Someone who uses coasters cares about the little things. They notice the small descriptive points in time and space that make up the uneven surface of reality. They notice things, little things, things that other people never bother to see.

Not only do they notice these things, they also act on them. They seek out the tiny details, and then they do something to control them. They act, by purchasing coasters, and then making them available, and even offering them to guests, when a potential disaster arises.

The next time you see a set of coasters, think about the mind of the person that purchased them. What does their presence say about who they are, and how they view the world? This of course goes way beyond the coaster, and is a way of looking at the entire world, through the objects, and the clues they leave behind.

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