Final Thoughts

When I was a kid I never thought twice about having so many toys and dolls. I knew all the brands of the toys I had and even judged them differently - think Crayola vs Rose Art. I was immersed so young and I like many others didn't even realize how the consumer culture we have lived in for so long is the really the only true american culture that's developed after more then 200 years. Like most I went so long not even putting a real thought to what that meant to how I lived my life and to how that affects not just our actions as a society but how it affects the world in many different ways.

I am, sadly at heart a consumer. It's a lot harder to break cultural ties when it's all you've known your entire life. Prior to this class I had some understanding of what this consumer culture was and some ways in which it was more pervasive then I was raised to believe. But I still indulged in frivolous shopping and even loved certain commercials more then I would like to admit.  Now however it's amazing to know so much more about consumerism and advertising and their effects. However I am left in a very perplexed state after all this.

On the one hand seeing kids today be even more immersed into this culture then I was is disheartening. I feel as if most people don't even know about the downsides of consumerism and simply accept this culture as the only way we can live in today's society. Often times I question this myself as it's hard to see the light when you start to realize exactly how much we consume and then throw away. But even more then that it's hard to see a possible change from this temporary lifestyle when it's seeped into our belief systems at a certain level.

However while I am overall not happy with this consumeristic society we live in I think it's still worth a shot a trying to change it. They say the most dangerous phrase is "We've always done things this way" and I believe that, but that doesn't mean we can't change. It just means we have to work harder at it. I think that one day materialistic items won't be valued as much but rather people themselves and what they think not what they wear. I think that by even trying to change my consuming habits, as hard as it may be, is important. Eventually if I stop buying things that I won't use in a few years, or if I start spending my money on experiences rather then things it's make a difference. Even if that difference is small it could start another down the same path if I talk about it and spread the idea that consuming is not the end all be all.

So even though I am often discouraged by how our consumer culture leaves world in a less then harmonious state I think there is hope. There is always some action to be taken. So thank you for giving me this hope at least, and thank you for an amazing class.

Final blog post

            As I grow up, I gradually realize my interest in practical issues. I have a habit of applying everything I learn, hear, read or see in reality. Therefore, I find it hard to deal with abstract problems. When I was choosing writing courses for this semester, only “Consumer Culture” attracted me. As I am not a big fan of writing, if I have to write something, I would rather my paper be logical than emotional (or too much emotion-related). In the end, it turned out that I was much satisfied with my decision than I thought. The topic really captured me. It made me unconsciously think about it and be aware of my surroundings every day.

            From the name of the course, people may jump to a conclusion that this course would support Economics courses. Yes, it adds depth but does not go along with Economics courses. Taking both Consumer Culture and Macroeconomics sometimes drives me crazy as they drag me to two totally different directions. While Macroeconomics guides me through many policies and benefits in increasing production and consumption, Consumer Culture points out how advertising manipulates us to blindly consume more and more stuffs. Of course, since no one wants to be manipulated, especially in a way degrading oneself, I despise advertising! Yet, at the same time, from the viewpoint of Economics students, advertisers are doing a favor to develop the growth of the economy (by encouraging consumption to increase GDP).

            However, the more I think about this relationship, the more clearly I can see the whole economy picture. Economics claims that producers produce with regard to consumers’ needs. They don’t say anything about intervene in these needs. It’s advertisers who use economic development as an excuse to seduce consumers. Seduction is only one of the effects advertising has on consumers. Their messages to raise consumption can negatively affect people’s perception like the case of gender or race inequality. I cannot be happy when advertisers only care about short-term results instead of long-term consequences. Now, I find myself successfully escape from the chaos advertisers create to confuse me. I do not completely deny this consumption culture as we cannot refrain ourselves from making deals/ purchasing. It is an indispensable daily life activity to live. Yet, it is better to not rash your decision. You should stop and think why you need to buy the stuffs and whether you really need them. Usually I will overcome my first impression desire after a day or two reasoning to myself. I feel good about it as I become more controlled.

Final Post

At the beginning of this class I really didn't know what to expect. I knew what consumerism is and that I was an active consumer, but I really didn't think much about the advertisements that were swaying me into being such an active consumer. This class has really helped me to be aware of all the commercials and advertising images that are released, and more importantly how ridiculous most of them are. 

The essay I enjoyed writing the most was the very first one where I got to explain a bit of the history surrounding the iPhone and use the paper to reflect my thought process behind my decision to actually purchase an iPhone and follow into its popularity. Through writing this essay I realized that I am often aware of all the exaggerated selling features that appear in commercials and ads surrounding products, but I don't care how dramatically different the experience I get from buying the item is from what is being sold in its commercials. 

I believe that advertisements are so enticing on their own and so when they are fueled by popularity for the item being sold and when it's so easy to share the ad with friends, consumerism becomes almost inescapable. The truth is that I don't believe consumerism should be something we should try and combat. I like knowing about all the latest and greatest things available on the market and buying those items, even when I know I don't need them, makes me happy. Sure that happiness is generally ony brief, lasting about a day, but nevertheless it makes me happy to know that I am capable of buying things and that I'm following trends. 

This class has made me notice the different flaws in ads and how many commercials aren't actually advertising their product in them, but rather selling an image. This happiness I get from buying items is in large part because I generally get a confidence boost when I buy new clothes or that cool new phone because of the image they bring me. If there was one thing I'd change about consumerism and advertising it would be to have strict guidelines set up for advertising companies to follow so they aren't selling women's bodies, or subliminally including racism in their ads, etc. Even with guidelines set up, though, I know there would be ways around them. 

Then and Now

          I can still remember the reason why I initially registered for this course, Consumer Culture. Thinking that it would somehow relate to my major of Economics, I decided to take the course. As I finished an entire semester of learning about the topic, I feel as if I was completely wrong. It was not anywhere close to what I had been expecting, but a clear reflection of how I interacted with the marketing and consumerism.

          In the beginning of the course, I was confident that I was not influenced by any advertisements and marketing techniques carried out by various companies and brands. I felt as if I was buying what I actually needed as I looked at myself bringing only the necessary stuff from back home. However, as I was taking the course, I felt that I was wrong. I was influenced by the various advertising techniques and I had fallen into their trap without myself knowing. Although I did not want to admit it, I was one of the audience that the markets were trying to attract by using their techniques.
         
          Throughout the course, I did various assignments of analyzing a specific product, examining magazines, doing research on a specific topic, and analyzing an actual advertisement or commercial. All of those assignments have helped me to learn more deeply about consumer culture. Although I was not used to reading magazines or watching advertisements on television, I was able to become more familiar with the common techniques used by the editors and advertisers.

          After the course ended, I feel that I have become stronger as a consumer being able to see what the advertisers are trying to do in order to attract the audience. I have improved in knowing what goods are necessary or wanted, leading on to how I can actually save money when encountering consumerism.

         
           

Final Post

In my opinion, the consumer culture in the United States is unbelievably out of control. Many people in this country have a bad habit of over-consuming when it comes to anything and everything.  Don’t get me wrong—many people do have control over their spending and maintain very reasonable consumer habits, but the majority of the population does not.

The marketing industry has only worsened this issue by encouraging people to spend more and more on products that not only are unnecessary, but also unhealthy. The beauty industry convinces girls they need to spend hundreds of dollars on “beautifying” products in order to feel adequate—to feel beautiful. Not only do they manipulate the women they are targeting, but they also exploit women in order to sell their products. Usually, women are presented as scandalous beings—anorexic skinny, unrealistically looking beings, that is—thanks to technology. Photoshop is used on models to manipulate girls and even women into believing they are not beautiful in their natural states, compelling insecurities to rise even though no one actually resembles the individuals shown in all of these unavoidable advertisements.

Food marketers encourage people to buy, eat, buy, eat, buy, and eat some more. They utilize sales tactics that almost force people into buying food they do not need. Eight packs of Coke for the price of four. Of course people are going to buy eight packs of Coke now instead of just one. The really messed up part is that advertisers are marketing Coke, which is already unhealthy as it is, but now the average consumer will be buying eight times the amount they were going to originally purchase. The point of describing these two marketing industries is to demonstrate how manipulative they are. No wonder people these days have low self-esteem and obesity issues.

Personally, I can say that marketing has affected me in the most regrettable way possible. I definitely considered myself an over-consumer, but as I grew older, I started realizing that owning tons and tons of unnecessary things is invaluable. I have learned that things do not make life better—experiences do. In recent times, I found myself becoming more conscious of my spending habits. When I am in a store, I ask myself if I really need the thing I am considering for purchase. In most cases—actually, almost all—I don’t need whatever it is. When I was younger, advertisements definitely impacted my desire to consume. For example, if I was exposed to an advertisement in which the model had beautiful long eye lashes, I would want that new mascara because I wanted my eye lashes to look that pretty and long, too. Now, I realize the woman in the advertisements are not only wearing false eyelashes, but have been photoshopped by professionals. And I realized that my eyelashes are wonderful the way they are. Not only that, but I realized my eyelashes are probably longer and fuller than the model’s. As I grow older, and especially after having taken this class, I find myself analyzing commercials and advertisements, finding all of the tricks employed to sell the products.

Overall, I feel that the most significant element of this class was learning about how advertisers are aiming at us—society. I believe this was the most important aspect of the class because when one realizes how he or she is being aimed at, they can learn defense mechanisms for protection. I now know all of the tricks, and I know how to defend myself, too.

I see consumerism

I have to be honest with you. Before I took this class I never really thoroughly thought about the effects marketing and advertisement have on me, or the global community. Of course we talked about this once or twice in school, but who cares about what the teacher says as a 14 year old who is madly in love with that boy two rows in front of her? It´s probably safe to say that I fell for all the tricks the marketers played on me. I was the perfect target for commercials. Isn´t that sad?

This class definitely changed my naive faithful following of the shiny advertisement promising the best once-in-a-lifetime-deal, to questioning all what might be influencing in one or another way. I see advertisement hidden or evident everywhere and I immediately think of our class and what we as a critical community would say about that commercial. Would we tear it apart for being not diverse enough or because it is showing a sexist view of a woman, or would we approve of it? And then I figure out where I am standing  with this specific advertisement and react in an appropriate way. (Most of the times that means not buying whatever the best deal ever is).

I guess that´s a healthy reaction to the consumerism culture. Consumerism is something, which needs to be questioned to be fought. If everyone would start asking questions and start working around those advertisements, maybe the world would change back to a world with healthy and good values. Maybe then a child could grow up doing what it wants to do not buying what it sees all over the possible advertisement sights. Maybe instead of implanting advertisements in school they should start teaching mandatory classes like this one. Maybe this could be our détournement of the whole consumerism culture.

In the end I am still trying to get stronger and more resistent to commercials, but I am sure that I will be better in the future. I guess as soon as you start noticing and mocking product placing in every movie you see, you are ready to confront those consumer enticements. I see consumerism and I will fight it.

Final Post

I still remember in the first response assignment about my own experience of stuff and consumerism, I said confidently that I was not obsessed with stuff and I only brought a little stuff that I really needed to college. When I went shopping, I was not at all the shopaholic appeared in the movies; rather, I was a rational and practical person who only bought necessary and valuable goods. So basically, I acted as a headstrong consumer who firmly believed marketing and consumerism had nothing to do with me.

Yet, after this whole course period of analyzing ads, articles, magazines and discussing about consumer culture and consumerism, I have to admit that in fact, I have already been in this marketing trap for a long time. This materialistic culture started in America but I can tell it has spread to the globe, at least to my city. Even though I never madly crave for the latest technology device or high-fashion clothes, that doesn’t mean consumerism is not rooted in my mind. I am somehow often made to believe I need some items, which is totally not the case. For example, I thought I needed to buy a pair of new boots because they were waterproof and they could keep me warmer than my older pair in the winter. But you probably already know that their quality is the same.

I feel sad to find that customers, who are supposed to consume with a great range of choices to fulfill their needs, have gradually lost autonomy and are suppressed by marketers. To clarify, by saying consume with a great number of choices, I am not favoring consumerism. What we have to do is to balance between consumption and over consumption. The world has changed a lot and we have greater productivity and creativity than ever. People have more money and they live in a more developed world. By consuming a suitable amount of newly produced goods, we consumers can make our lives easier and thus gain more happiness. And in reverse, it can also drive up the economy, add educational funds or other welfare, and help develop our country. However, these marketers and sellers have done too much. They promote materialism and create fancy atmosphere in the ads to suggest people that if you buy our goods, you will acquire a lifestyle like this and that lifestyle is exactly what can gain you respect in this current consumer culture. In the fashion industry, marketers over emphasize on branding and use over-sexualized ads to promote their sales. Even in restaurant retail industry, the marketers try to get into your subconscious to induce you to order more.  If a prevailing culture is taking away how we value stuff as before, how we define happiness and more importantly, taking away our identities and the lifestyle we have really enjoyed, we really need to stop it as soon as possible.

I do realize it’s hard to control the extent of consumption and completely change a culture that is greatly perceived by the majority. Yet it’s our obligation to stop marketers compelling us like this; it’s also our responsibility to alter our consumption habits.