me......... i am exhibit A of consumerism. but before we get into that, what is consumerism exactly?
consumerism is the idea that excessive consumption of goods and services is the ideal goal. consumerism can also be shortened as "the culture of consumption"
as we all know, consumers' spending is the key driver of the economy. consumers benefit from the usage of the goods they purchase which is great! but with great benefits come with cons. from there, overconsumption, materialism, and wastefulness happen. one of the examples would be the fast fashion industry (e.g. H&M and Zara).
consumerism basically just creates a habit where you purchase a hyped-up product and it creates temporary happiness until the next hyped-up product comes around and then it becomes an endless cycle. perfect example that we all would understand is the Apple brand. yep I am exhibit A, in fact, many of us are. we always anticipate the next product Apple will launch and no matter what it is, people would be ready with their money lining up outside the Apple store for hours just to get it. the idea of just being able to own hyped-up products kind of becomes a thing. lots of people value their identity with the things they own, it's materialism. it's not a healthy thing to do but it sure is common in our society today.
we were told to read up an article called "What Does Consumerism Mean?" and i think that actually helped me get an insight of what consumerism is before listening to my classmates' presentation.
here's what i had to say about the article( it's similar to what i mentioned in the paragraph above) :
we also did a group presentation on consumerism back then & consumerism now. my group did consumerism back then. we decided to pick a product brand and base our presentation on that. we chose Lucky Strike, a top-selling cigarette brand in US during the 1930s. we talked about how consumerism was in the 1920s and how Lucky Strike used different marketing strategies to attract customers.
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