Have we forgotten the simple pleasures in life?

I am sitting in the lounge at London Heathrow right now, enjoying a leisurely dinner which will allow me to board and spend all the time on the flight sleeping. But that is not the focus of this post.

There is a group of people sitting behind me, an older generation. About an hour back, they were chatting about the highlights of their Christmas holidays. One of the older gentlemen said that the highlight for him was getting a subscription for his Kindle allowing him to borrow electronic books for a small fee every month. That’s it. It wasn’t about the latest, super complicated smart phone. It wasn’t about jewellery bought as a gift. He didn’t talk about an extravagant holiday. All he was happy about was getting some books & magazines to read.
Hearing him made me wonder – have we forgotten about the simpler pleasures in life? I remember being thrilled when the latest issue of Chandamama was delivered or waiting for the next episode of Fireball XL-5. But today, we seem to be more hung up about how much we can spend and show off rather than how much enjoyment we derive.
Maybe I am wrong but then that’s my perspective.