The holidays are among us, and all I can think about is shopping. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, right? I mean capitalism makes our bubble of America what it is. Consumerism is just a part of that, and it’s taking over more than ever this season. I’m trying to study for finals and do work right now, but what’s distracting me? The (literally) hundreds of emails in my inbox promoting holiday deals, steals and whatever else can catch the consumer’s eye.
I usually ignore these emails with ease. Something caught my attention today, though. I realized that not only were the typical clothing retailers sending shopping promotions, but even random coffee houses, gyms, musicians, essentially anyone that can sell anything. The thing is, it was totally working on me. Yes, I love to shop, so naturally I saw this as a chance to ignore studying and buy anything, really…even merch from a coffee shop back home. The thing is, this is completely normal, and that is what has changed within the last one hundred years, even the last decade for that matter.
My grandparents have always been frugal with their money, not frivolously spending on whatever the latest trends are. Being a millennial, I usually hate the stereotypes associated with my generation. On this topic, the stereotypes attributed to us are mostly true, though. With the access that technology has given us to virtually anything we want whenever we want it, it’s no surprise that companies are taking an initiative to throw products at us like never before.
This consumeristic view on life cannot be attributed to just capitalist countries anymore. Adweek did a comparison between the U.S. and China on consumer spending and the two countries both had a high agreement that a “healthy economy requires a high level of consumer spending” (U.S.: 61.4 percent; China 70.1 percent). The reason that this study was done in the first place is the problem of using too many resources too quickly. With the growth of technology and accessibility comes the need for sustainability. In this sense, China and the U.S. seemed to agree that “overconsumption is putting our society and planet at risk.”
Now I’m not one to preach about global warming or any of that, but we need to take a step back, not only as America, but as the world, and try to find alternatives to some of this spending. This doesn’t have to completely be looked at from a political perspective, it’s scientific at this point. Over 70 percent of Republicans think that humans are playing a crucial and destructive part in global warming (West for Mother Jones). This is not a political issue, or an American one anymore, but a worldwide phenomenon caused by anyone with a phone, laptop, credit card, etc. The blame cannot be put on one specific thing; we’re all responsible.
The question posed is: how do we change this? How do we make an effort to stop to climate change while living our daily lives without disruption? Obviously this is a massive topic and there is not a specific answer to it, but this holiday season, try to buy from more local producers. Instead of going to the mall, get your friends and family gifts from smaller shops near home. They're more unique anyways. This is an easy effort, but it could be the start to a bigger change.
Numbers and research taken from:
