Consumerism

Consumerism

Introduction

I’m going to speak about consumerism in the idea of progress. The idea of progress can be defined as a improvement, a development or a change which contributes in making the world a better place. Consumerism is when we buy more than what we need, when we buy for pleasure and not by need.

These last decades, the progress have accelerated but in spite of it, many problems have emerged especially overconsumption.

Thereful, we may wonder whether we are born to shop or not.

First, I’m going to speak about the industrialization and its consequences. As we can see in Into the Wild with Chris’s parents, in today’s society people are part and parcel of a materialistic way of life. Indeed, they think they are judged on the amount of money they earn, on status symbols which only consist in showing off.

From now on, these people have needs and they just can’t settle for the bare necessities.

The photomontage of Barbra Kruger shows us that our identity is defined by what we buy throught shopping and not by what we think. The artist aims at denouncing the excesses of our consumption habits.

Moreover, we have been conditionned to shop by our parents even before we were able to do it, that’s why from our earliest days we are trapped in a viscious circle where we can’t resist buying.

Furthermore, specials events have been created to consume more and more. For example, Black Friday which is a special day of sales in the USA after Thanksgiving (and during the Christmas shopping season) during while bargains hunter yield to temptation. It has become a social phenomenon when costumers are uncontrolable, they become crazy and preposterous (absurd/ridiculous/unrealistic) and they are determined to shop no matter what can happened.

Due to these excesses, people turn to resistance and alternatives buying which try to change our consumption habits.

So, we can evoke an other special event, Buy Nothing Day which is an international day of protest against consumerism where people make a commitment to consume less by keeping their credit card in their wallet.

There are also different solution/alternative like Freeganism which is a very simple concept. Indeed, the freegans eat food that has been discarted and they want to reduce their spending and their waste by buying as little as possible in order to protect the environment. In fact, they decided to change their lifestyle and live more simply in main purpose to fight against overconsumption and make progress.

Conclusion (To conclude)

As far as i’m concerned, I do not think that we are born to shop. Indeed, I think it’s just the capitalist society and the industrialized country we live in who requieres us, with advertising, to consume.

The excesses of our consumption habits leads to many environmental problems. That’s why we have to make progress for the generation to come.

...