Consumption, ¿control or addiction?
Nowadays we live into a society that cares a lot about the aesthetics and acceptance of people. These aesthetics and acceptance can only be acquired with material goods. This society is always in the pursuing of socioeconomic status that will give them the security to interact with the rest of the people around them.
The consumption has created a society called the consumption society; the main characteristics of these people are the need for buying things that they don’t need but they want, the need of getting the latest things in the market in order to feel good with other people and the need for being accepted. This is a dependent society because their only objective in life is to consume what will make them feel alive and accepted as members of the society. The activities of these people make them feel unsatisfied and also create a cycle that will rule their lives.
Something really attractive to become a part of the consumption society are the reference groups, these groups are like how consumption looks because they are icons that people want to be in. there are aesthetical requirements (clothing, jewelry, electronic devices, etc.) to be accepted as part of these groups. A person that gets inside of a reference group is forced to get also into the cycle of consumption which means to keep getting updated.
The industry plays a big roll in the consumption topic because is in charge of creating new desires for people by detecting the society’s weakness and transforming them into new products that people will want to get but that they don’t need. The consumption society will buy those products because of the hurry of buying the newest things in order to be updated and accepted in the society.
Paulo Ramos.
