Consumerism as a Social-Psychological Phenomenon - Case Study Example

The Role of Limitation in American Consumption CONSUMERISM AS A SOCIAL PHENOMENON Consumerism in todays information society is a mass phenomenon, which covered all the continents. Due to the rapid development of information technology, economic and cultural globalization the objects of acquisition do not principally meet the true needs of people and things are proprietary rights of a particular social group. In recent years, researchers are increasingly paying attention to the problems of the consumer society. Critics of the ideology of consumerism indicate that in a consumer society large sums of money are spent on the purchase of goods, and it does not lead to long-term satisfaction or happiness, and manufacturers spend huge sums of money to develop new products. From an economic point of view, the process of purchasing goods and services can be analyzed using the law of diminishing marginal utility, according to which each subsequent thing brings the owner less usefulness. This means that the permanent purchase of many things does not bring the utility to a person and that is why such a behavior of an economic subject is inappropriate and unsustainable. Both neglect the more important social priorities: health, security, justice, equality, and others. Thus, consumerism is based on unreasonable priorities. In order to determine the essence of consumerism as a social phenomenon we should consider the history of origin of this ideology. Consumerism as a social-psychological phenomenon has developed in the United States. It was influenced by economic processes, in which there were large corporations that had squeezed the small enterprises out of the market. Consequently, the number of people who worked for large companies and moved to permanent residence in the big city increased. As a result, people were losing their own identity and felt as particles of the large systems. Cult of things became a mean for a discharge from the crowd, gaining advantage over others. The idea of the possibility to achieve social superiority through consumption generates in the minds of buyers belief that the act of purchase is able to deliver more satisfying than the actual product that is purchased. Human happiness is made dependent on the level of consumption, and it becomes the purpose and meaning of life. Things say more than about wealth, at the same time they mark the taste, mentality, social class and other qualities of the individuals. Consumer society provides people with an alarm system and practices that serves as the need for rapprochement and distancing. Moreover, the effectiveness of this signaling system depends on the speed, the complexity and completeness of the mutual "transmission". This in turn affects the quality of the environment in which people are living, the quality of communications and ultimately the quality of life. ISSUES OF CULTURAL CONSUMPTION In general, consumerism as a social phenomenon positively impact on society, it serves as a stimulus for the development of their skills; it raises the level of education, which is aimed to get a higher income. In addition, manufacturers in a highly competitive fight for markets are interested in improving product quality, upgrading production processes. It can be argued that the culture of consumption reduces cultural and religious conflicts, because the desire to achieve wealth is the same for different cultural and religious groups. The consequence of consumerism is also the loss of human intelligent and human sense of life. This is clearly described in the works of Chuck Palahniuk, who wrote: “the people are only working on the hated work to buy what they do not really need” in chapter 9, page 71(Palahniuk, 2005). In a world of great opportunities it is difficult for a person to navigate, which desires are the true desires of him/her and what desires are planted by the culture of mass consumption. It is also important to pay attention to the impact of consumption theory on a quality of life. Buying a lot of things and services improves the quality of people’s life, but it does not always affect the life satisfaction. For example, the study of life satisfaction index, which is calculated for different nations, showed that the people of the United States in terms of happiness are in 23rd (Satisfaction Life Index, 2006). Thus the inhabitants of less developed and rich countries, such as Bhutan, Brunei, Costa Rica, Malaysia are in front of the USA. It indicates that the high purchasing power and accessibility of quality goods do not correlate with the level of satisfaction and happiness of the people. THE PURSUIT OF A BETTER LIFE A person in the pursuit of material things and things that will ensure his/her membership in a particular social group becomes not a unique personality. The purpose of life most people was and is achieving wealth. We can not disagree with Shame the ‘more’ factor has always encouraged people to improve their own prosperity (Shame, 2011). But today, this improvement does not lead to changes in society on a global scale. The high abundance of life, which is a global tendency, in most cases is used for the betterment of society. If we compare the social relations that existed 100 years ago, and those that exist now, it could be argued that the restrictions to improve their own prosperity have disappeared. To achieve wealth a person does not need to be born in a developed country, to have a noble origin, or to inherit property. The development of information technology, technology of education, the availability of information made it possible that anyone can become educated and successful. Thanks to many examples of ordinary people who succeed the number of growing ambitions of people has grown up, and as a result, the competition is constantly increasing the new limits to entry to the class of successful people. LIMITS OF CONSUMPTION CULTURE Consumerism as a social phenomenon knows no limits, because it does not deal with things as such, but with the cultural signs that are exchanged continuously and indefinitely. Needs, feelings, culture – all the human forces are integrated into the structure of production of goods. It is materialized as the productive forces, and all desires, plans, ideas, passion and all human relations are materialized in signs and things to make it the subject of purchase and consumption. Constant striving to achieve a new level of consumption, which will help to carry themselves in a particular social group, allows a person to avoid the feeling of uncertainty. If in the twentieth century, everyone knew his/her place in society, which was defined by the descent or the place of birth. Today this place is determined by the consumption limits. Achieving a new career, education level is provided through overcoming these limits. At the same time after the overcoming them, a new limit appears. One of the psychological traits of the American people is a constant desire to improve their lives, so-called ‘more’ factor (Shame, 2011). For example, advertising can cause envy and the as a result the consumer races for status-goods. American Society offers a huge number of such goods, with the rate of its change is high enough. This leads to the fact that the modern consumer is forced to consume more status goods. To provide the necessary resources for this consumption, the person begins to work harder and spend more money on cosponding goods and services. But the technologies of sales promotion, which are now widely used by the producers cause the emergence of the untrue needs of individuals. In other words, when consumers purchase goods or services it is not a realization of their own desires, but it is a manifestation of implanted advertising desires. For example, D. Heath cites studies showing the occurrence of the buyers at the entrance to the supermarket “state of altered consciousness”, which can be called “hypnotic trance” (Heath, 2001). Arguably, the constant desire to reach new limits was spread from the USA to other countries. In the twentieth century the huge available raw and territorial resources created the illusion of endless prosperity. Today, everyone understands that all our planets resources are limited and many of these resources are exhausted and can not stand the constant increase in production under the influence of rising consumption. However, the feature of the XXI century’s society is the transition from an industrial to post-industrial era. Today the material resources do not play such an important role as intangible. The company can be successful and do not engage in the production of material goods. Services sector gained significant development. However, this fact does not change the general trend of consumerism as a social phenomenon. Instead of material things the cult of intangible services grows. The desire to achieve such services is also accompanied by overcoming limitations. Thus, the transition to postindustrial society has pushed the boundaries to achieve new consumer purposes, but it did not slow the pursuit for them. And it has become a global trend due to globalization. And one day, says one of the Palahniuk characters “In the world there will be no one who wants to work and then all goods would be shared honestly for the true merits!” in chapter 19 page 72(Palahniuk, 2005). THE NEED FOR A NEW IDEOLOGY The desire of people to a better life, which is triggered by consumerism, does not solve the global problems. In the socio-economic aspect the rift between rich and poor is becoming more prominent. The ideology of consumerism generates a number of paradoxes. For example, the rapid spread of English language helps foreigners to achieve new career goals. At the same time, some languages are in danger of disappearing from the world. The traditions of certain ethnic groups can disappear as a result of migration, which is also triggered by the culture of consumption (Cleveland, 2012). The modern production technology does not improve the environmental situation. Each year, the US emits more than five billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and hundreds of millions of tons of sulfur dioxide, resulting in acid rain (Vladivia, 2009). The forests of the Amazon, Southeast Asia, and north-western America are under the threat of pollution and the gradual destruction. The consumer behavior based on an eternal desire to buy new things which do not satisfy the essential needs of people, and the existence of new limits to achieve tangible goals should be changed. It is necessary to take into account the need to preserve the cultural diversity of the worlds population and limited resources of our planet. These restrictions should put a basis for the formation of a new social consciousness in which human status will be determined by its contribution to the process of preserving life on the planet. People should realize that unlimited satisfaction of all desires is not conducive to prosperity. It may not be the way to happiness, or even getting maximum pleasure. As the result of consumerism the purpose of every human life begins to be understood not as the pursuit for happiness, love, inner harmony of the soul. The meaning of human existence is understood not as a social and spiritual progress. People forget about the main thing: that life is not a collection of things around, it is not their reckless assignment, and the eternal pursuit of beauty and truth. The ideology of consumerism is starting to crash either economically or from a humanistic point of view. It only corrupts people creating the illusion of needs and the same symbolic satisfy them. People are increasingly ceasing to obey the eternal consumer laws. Many social movements appeal to draw attention to the peculiarity and originality of each person, to abandon the consumption of goods of mass production, suggests that you need to stop wasting money on empty, acquiring excessive. Such movements have become one of the most important cultural forces the beginning of the third millennium in the life of North America and it covers all its social classes and age groups (Heath, 2001). One of the leaders of the movement K. Lasn to compares it to the struggle for civil rights in the 60s, to the feminism of 70s and the environmental movement 80-ies of the last century (Heath, 2001). The members of the movement openly declare that producers should not rely on the convenience, ease and simplicity of production of consumer goods on the first place, but the production process must followed by the needs of the people. Although, the most of modern humanity seems to like to live in an unreal, fictional, virtual world, we are convinced that in the future such movements will help to change the consumption ideology. Works cited Cleveland Mark, Laroche Michael, Pons Frank, Kastoun Rony (2012) Acculturation and Consumption: Textures of Cultural Adaptation International Journal of Intercultural Relations, Vol.3, pp. 196-212. Retrieved from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ article/pii/S0147176709000029 Heath J. The structure of hip consumerism // Philosophy & Social Criticism. 2001. Vol. 27. Issue 6. P. 1–17. Palahniuk Chuck (2005) Fight Club: Novel WW Norton.\ Satisfaction Life Index (2006)/ Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisfaction_with_Life_Index Shames Laurence (November 21, 2011) The More Factor published in Maasik Sonya, Solomon Jack Signs of Life in the U.S.A. Bedford/St. Martins; 7th edition Valdivia A. N. (2009) The Culture of Consumption Journalism and Mass Communication, 2009 Vol.1. Retrieved from: http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~rfrey/PDF/220/Culture Consumption220.pdf Read More