I have to admit, I’ve never 100% understood what “consumerism” is, or what it’s supposed to be. I have the general sense of what people are gesturing at, but it feels like a fake term to me. We’ve always been consumers, every living organism is a consumer. Humans, just like all animals, have always been consumers. It’s just that, the way it used to be, we didn’t consume very much. Now we’re more productive, we produce more, we consume more, we’re just doing the same thing, only more and better….
The term consumerism gets used as if consumption is something bad. I can understand that, people can get too caught up in things in consumption that doesn’t really matter. But I feel like that’s such a tiny portion. If you want to tell the story of the last 100, 200 years, people getting wrapped up in consumption that doesn’t really matter is such a tiny fraction of the story…. Compared to all of the consumption that really does matter and made people’s lives so much better. I’m hesitant to even acknowledge or use the term. I’m a little skeptical of any use of the concept of consumerism….
Any consumption that actually buys us something that we care about, even convenience, or saving small amounts of time, is not a waste. It’s used to generate value that is not wasted. It is spent on making our lives better. Are some of those things frivolous? Certainly, but what’s the matter with frivolous uses? Tiny conveniences add up. They accumulate over time to be something that is actually really substantial. When you accumulate little 1% and 0.5% improvements and time savings, before you know it you’ve you’ve saved half of your time. You’ve doubled the amount of resources that you now have as an individual to go for the things that you really want and care about.
Here’s what I’ll say, your definition of consumerism is good, that’s why you don’t see the value in what’s being said. So much of the conversation around consumerism has been to demonise it while failing to acknowledge that for some centuries now man have been able to experience consumerism in ways that have been had their good and their bad. but if you come at the term from a largely bad context, then it makes sense that you will struggle to learn from the post. The idea of the post is challenge people to see things outside of common talking pints and group think, which is what the conversation around consumerism is. Much of it is group think.
I say this to the point that people are t tacking into account that much consumerism isn’t happening in large scale that people make it out to be. Most consumers spend their money on bills or basic needs, enforce actually buying anything from a context of material happiness, yet, some who people have developed an idea that the average person is just spending just to be spending. Yes, there are drawbacks to consumerism, but there as many good things about it. For example, it helps with communal connect, benefits the economy, which is a common argument, it’s good for self-expression, and also valuable for creating happiness when done right. I don’t support the notion that people should buy based on what’s needed, since it’s in human nature to want to buy according to what will allow people to have fun or connect to others. Now, are there times when this can get out of control in people, yes, but I don’t agree with generalising this as if our overall expert is crippled by it. We just need to encourage people to be self-aware regarding their spending. Make sure people are knowledgeable about what they are buying, as to minimise bad habits. Other than that, consumerism isn't generally a bad thing, but I would say the narrow scope of the conversation regarding consumerism unfortunately is a problem. It’s not challenging people to take accountability as much as I would think it would.
“Consumerism” came up in my recent interview with Elle Griffin of The Post. Here’s what I had to say (off the cuff):
Can you steelman “consumerism” for me?