Consumerism

The topic I was given today is about conumerism and in my presentation I’l
focus on 3 major issues connected with it.

There can be no shadow of a doubt that consumerism has taken oven the
developed and developing world at a remarkable pace in the last century.

First and foremost, I cannot consider myself exempt of this consumerist

frenezy that has infiltrated our society. Seldom do I buy things on whem unless
the danger is under 20 euros. At the moment I’m a bit of Ali-express junky and
have purchased a couple of items form them that I have gone to regret
somewhat. I have, since then, however, nipped that shopping in the bud, so I’m
no longer a so called “shopaholic”. Shopping is an addiction like any other and
it’s a habit that as a society we need to try an wean ourselves off of gradually
rather than going cold turkey over night.

This leads me to my next point.

Consumerism is intrensically intertwined with the economy which in turn

provides us with jobs and livelihoods. It is a double edged sword which presents
us with hurdles at the same time as it provides us with solutions. It is clear that
we live in a world of opulence, decadence and excess where the differences
between the haves and have nots are immense. Nonetheless, it is also true that
we have somewhat hit the brakes on our spending habits since the credit
crunch of 2008. It seems like we go through economic cycles of shrewdness
and then shopping till we drop when the economy is booming. At the moment it
seems that consumers are making the transition from physical shopping to
online shopping in droves, hence the global success of websites like Amazon
and Ali-express to name but a few. Consumers want their dollars, pounds and
euros to work harder for them as our shopping sprees now occur more at a click
of a button rather than with a swipe of our debit or credit card. Never before
have we had such a consumerist society. It would seem that the future is bright
for consumerism. Moreover, the advent of internt shopping is a win-win for
consumers and retailers alike. But there’s a darker side to all of this
consumption. Automation, along with online shopping is doing away with
millions of jobs. Workers are replaced by robots in factories, machines are
eliminating staff at airports, supermarkets chec outs and banks to name but a
few.

Moving on, we’re a throwaway society. Not to mention the negative impact all
of this is having on the environment. We’re literally surrounded by plastic, wood,
metals and chemicals. Everything in our supermarket and department stores is
eventually going to end up in landfill. Were everyone to recycle more, we might
need fewer lanfill sites. Humanity is going to have to take a drastic u-turn at
some point if we are to survive. Sooner than we think, we’ll have to curb the
way we shop and our mentality towards consumerism. Unless we react now,
the issue will never be resolved. Surprising though it may seem, more people
are recycling and this trend is reducing pollution. What we need to do is to raise
awarness about the effects of consumerism on our planet, educating everyone.

Now, much as I am a huge proponent of equality between women and men, it

cannot be denied that women when it comes to shopping, in some respect, men
and women are completely different. Men would rather marvell at tools and
gadgets. Nevertheless, many women are, dare I say less enthusiastic about
tools and technology and more excited about fashion and make up, but there
are, of course, numerous exceptions to every rule.

I used to follow all the fashion hype when I was in my 20s, but I am more
responsible with my clothes purchasing decisions.

In a nutshell, what consumerist knock on effects this may have can only be left
to speculation though. However, the fact that our oceans are already swimming
in plastic, should be a stark warning sign of the dangers of excessive production
and consumerism.