The Idea Of Progress : The Consumer Society

The idea of progress : the consumer society

The idea of progress is essential to explain the great changes undergone by society in many different sectors such as medicine, transport but also in our consumer society. Indeed nobody can deny that modes of consumption have envolved a lot over the past few years, because today in addition to hypermarkets and huge malls, the development of the internet has opened up new prospects with online shopping. Therefore it has engendered new ways of consumption but also and unfortunately a lot of excesses and consequently counter-movements criticizing materialism and this addictive consumer society have also appeared and we may wonder how people can change their consumption habits.

At first we are going to study impact of shopping habits, then alternative buying.

First, let's speak of " shopping wild ", we studied in class a document made of a text and a picture. A picture showing a famous American supermarket called Walmart. In front of the ooutside wall of this supermarket we can see an American flag made of blooming flowers that may symbolize consumption which is really flourishing in the USA. The text is extracted from " The American cult of Consumerism " this title means that Americans shop as if it were a religion, overconsumption has become one. The text tells us about an incident that happened on a Black Friday, this famous day shoppers crushed an employee to death and hurt four other people including a pregnant woman. Among the different reasons given to account for such an incredible and unacceptable incident, there is the economic crisis that induces stress and sometimes turn people into " mindless", " fanatical" shoppers who have an " uncontrollable, irrational desire" that nothing can stop. This fanatical crowd behaviour can't but remind us of deadly tragedies that took place during popular sport events or concerts. Consumption is also often triggered by advertising campaigns, media hype, famous spokespersons, movies and tv shows. Indeed, famous people like Mickael Jackson and Britney Spears influence customers'shoppings desires and turn them into uncontrollable people who look at consumption as a kind of religion.

Therefore, recent alternatives appear such as " collaborative consumption" and Freeganism. " collaborative consumption" consists in sharing what you have with others. It's an economic model based on sharing, swapping or bartering. " Bartering" means exchanging goods and items without asking for money. For example we studied in class a photo who showed a man carrying vegetables, ready to offer them for free or to exchange them for other goods or services. The advantages of bartering is that it's a new way of consuming that involves a lot of socialising : people " chat" , meet like minded people and share more.

However, Bartering often develops when money is scarce, for example during the Great Depression in the US. Indeed during recession periods, goods and services can replace money but economists don't encourage bartering because it doesn't reflect a healthy economy.

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