A few days ago, my mom, dad and I had a solid chat regarding how wasteful our society is. Hence the emphasis placed on consumerism; without it, we wouldn’t be nearly as wasteful as we are, in my opinion.
Consider cell phones, as a prime example. Depending which company you’re with in terms of a cellular plan, most companies offer users a phone upgrade very two years. The majority of us will seize the opportunity to upgrade our phones as soon as we are able to, regardless if the phone we are currently using works or not. We struggle to see the purpose an item serves when a newer version of the same product becomes available, which is why we continue to buy and discard, buy and discard.
I’m not exactly certain what the driving force behind our consumeristic tendencies are, but I don’t think things like the internet, social media, and advanced technological developments are helping the issue. Considering every new model of a phone that comes out is better, faster and smarter than the former, it makes sense why we are so quick to pitch a phone we have that is working absolutely fine in order to be able to own the heightened version of it. And where do we see advertisements for this better, faster and smarter phone model? The web and social media.
I’m not going to pretend I’m not both wasteful and consumeristic from time to time, because we all are to some extent. I will not, however, throw away something in fine working order simply to own a newer version of the exact same item, and I think it would benefit a lot of us to be able to acknowledge the worth of something, despite its age, and further recognize how materialistic and wasteful we have become in a general sense when we don’t strive to practice this conservative approach to buying shit.
ontheedgeofeverything 