Life in a Crazy Consumer World

New products are developed daily to lure unsuspecting shoppers to buy the latest merchandise. Commercials and the media are main factors, which help create the sense that individuals are not good enough and are not valued with the things they already own. They must purchase new goods to fit in with the rest of society. I have played the part as a raging shop-a-holic in our consumer crazy culture. However, a person reminded me: “what is the point in buying items that are not necessities in life”. Looking at the clothes in my closet, I already have what I truly need: a few pairs of jeans, sweaters, t-shirts, scarves, hats and other material things. To buy an item just because it is “popular” is a risk, because spending hundreds of dollars on something that may be put in the storage room, after the trend has faded, is a waste. I am still apart of this culture but how much I influence it, depends on the items. My mother has always bought brand name foods, for one reason: we have tried unknown brands and most of the time they cannot compare to the taste of a well known name. Technology wise, I have had the same, slow, low-memory computer for the past 6 years. Spending time and money to pick out a new computer that will be considered “old” in a year seems like a bad decision to make. When it comes down to fashion, I have the essentials mixed in with high-priced purchases. However, lately I have been trying to ask myself the question if I really need the item that I am buying in a store. Most of the time I get the same answer: no I do not. With this thought in mind I am slowly shrinking the part that I play in this crazy consumer world.

Furthermore, a person can never truly give up their identity but they can change their image and the way others perceive them. No one can totally transform himself or herself to be something that they are not. Currently, based on what is in the news, economic issues have been implanted into my mind. Besides that, school assignments, celebrity news, and thinking about the latest fashion have been in my mental environment. Nevertheless, thinking about the way companies secretly prey on teenagers and decide the way they should look and dress in a certain way is disgusting. Corporations are beginning to take over the position of parents by nurturing these adolescences and forcing them to obey the standards they establish. Teens follow the path they set forth because they are all so used to being told what to do and being dependent on others. Adults on the other hand have walked that same path before and have turned back and started making decisions on their own. Teens cannot become fully independent in the world until they move out of their childhood homes and start making their own choices. Until then they cannot be forced to think for themselves. This is a problem as well as the fact that new products are being designed to become useless as quickly as possible as well as convincing to the buyers whom want to update the items that they already own. Individuals in society do not have to own the most expensive items just to fit in. Just like the famous quote states: “it is what is on the inside that counts”. Becoming an independent fashion leader is better than becoming a follower with the same sense of style as the next girl. Assembling an outfit with pieces from different stores, with price tags that do not make your jaw drop, is more reasonable and can make a person more noticeable in a crowd. I am happy with what I own and I do not need all the material items my friends may have just to feel like I have value. Most advertisements on the T.V. are of electronics and personally I am an anti-technology kind of gal. This crazy consumer culture has developed over the past three decades and if these corporations continue on their journey, the balances in our bank accounts will drop down into the negatives.