What is Consumerism?
Consumerism is the idea that increasing the consumption of goods and services purchased in the market is always a desirable goal, and that a person’s happiness depends fundamentally on obtaining consumer goods and material possessions.
In other words, it is an ideology that places value on the excessive consumption of materialistic things.
The definition of consumerism in a general sense is the obsession of the public with goods and services, especially with goods or items that they cannot afford.
What is Conscious Consumerism?
Conscious Consumerism is the practice of mindfully and intentionally buying and using products as a statement of values.
The opposite of conscious consumption is mindless consumption.
It’s about being clear about what you do and don’t need to buy or use.
How Does Consumerism Work?
Consumerism works by creating an economic system that encourages consumers to buy more through social pressure, advertising, manipulation, and the belief that you’ll be happier if you own a particular item.
Why do we consumers buy more things?
We are being constantly notified and bombarded with new trends and if we don’t buy, then we look like we are outdated and in order to look that we are on the same page as others we buy things even if it is not necessary.
Whenever we buy a new thing, we feel dopamine spike.
We buy things which we think we will use for a particular occasion or specific day and after that we never going to use or wear it.
And it goes back to our closet or storage unit which will never be used again and we don’t even remember that it exists until we clean our closet or storage.
What happens when we consume more than we need?
Buying more things can give you happiness for short time, but the things get accumulated more and more and eventually it looks like a big mess.
The product which you bought thinking that it looks cool and trendy doesn’t look the same the next week.
And surprisingly the trend which you thought of last week don’t exist this week.
That’s how fast trends going to change.
Is it necessary to buy/consume more?
Buying what we need is important than buying stuff which we think we want.
And its not necessary to buy things which we want whenever we see a new product which looks attractive or which we think we needed.
Consuming more than what you need is going to be a problem to the earth and your wallet.
What are the impacts of consuming more things?
Consumerism takes a huge toll on our planet.
Products are made quicker, cheaper and in mass.
Consumers buy more stuff and it reciprocates the demand for more and more products to be produced in order to produce we use more resources from the nature as if we have infinite number of resources but we only have finite resources.
Not only these effects the climate but also the people who are working in this would get impacted.
As the wages given to the people who make our clothes is very less and if you can understand the true cost of our clothing item which we think is very less priced is actually getting paid by the people who make our clothes.
“Buying things and acquiring things never fulfill you. You can never be happy.”
– Jim Carrey’s
How can we be conscious while consuming?
Below are few conscious consuming habits that we can follow which helps you save your bank balance and our planets too.
Slow down/buying ethically –
Whenever we go to shop, we generally tend to buy more things than what we need.
And in order to avoid that we need to list the items we need. Instead of buying cheaply made clothes like clothes which are made of synthetic fibers.
Buying clothes which are natural, and ethically made will be good for our body and to the planet as well.
Think Before you buy –
When we buy a product, we need to think whether we need this product or we want it.
We might have the urge to buy things that may look like we need them.
But before buying we need to question ourselves if we actually want that thing or not.
Repair/Mend –
We might be having a shirt which need a little repair so that it can be used for few more wears but we tend to not repair those clothes and we prefer to buy new thing and buying a new clothing item is much more affordable now a days.
So, we don’t put efforts to repair. But repairing and re-wearing the clothes can save lot of money and resources.
Upcycle –
Upcycling is a process where a by-product is made out of the existing product.
If you have a piece of clothing item that you cannot wear and is worn out, you can upcycle them into usable product and give a second life to it instead of throwing away which ends up in a landfill.
For example, repurposing the old torn clothes into kitchen rags is not a bad idea if we think of it.
But we think we need fancy tissue paper rolls to keep kitchen clean.
If you have pet then you can make toys with the old clothes instead of buying from the store.
And there are many more things we can do and you can easily find videos on upcycling things and try out yourself.
Shop Second Hand –
If you wanted to purchase new things or clothing items then instead of buying new, you can buy them in thrift stores and Shop second hand.
There are thrift stores available where we can find pre-loved things/clothes which we get in affordable prices.
And you can even sell your clothes to the thrift stores if you no longer need them and are in good conditions.
Rent –
We all wanted to look good for special occasions and events.
But instead of buying we can take the clothes or products for rent which saves lot of money and if you have clothes which you can rent then you can make money by renting your clothes to others as well.
Borrow –
Buying clothes can bring you happiness until you wore them for once or twice after that we won’t be wearing those and if you think of it, you put your hard-earned money into the products which you don’t even use properly.
So instead of purchasing you can borrow from your friends and family.
Clothes Swap –
Clothes swapping is an exciting activity as we swap clothes with our friends and loved ones.
If you are bored of your wardrobe and wanted to try different styles then you can talk to your friends about clothes swapping activity if they are interested then you can plan to swap clothes among yourselves than buying new ones.
2 Comments
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