12 and 1:00 Mentor Session Responses:
The fact of the matter is, we are all consumers
whether we like it or not. If someone
were to tell me that they are not a consumer and do not create any waste, I would find their lifestyle
almost impossible. With that in mind,
there are some things we can live without. Although we are a consumerist and
capitalistic society, we have the ability to limit ourselves in consumption as
well as the use of plastics. As one of
the readings stated, “Of all the “–isms” of the twentieth century none has been
more misunderstood, more criticized, and more important than materialism”
(Twitchell 1). That is an important
point to bring up because I think people wrongly associate the idea of consumerism
with materialism, and vice-versa; that is where the misinterpretation exists. We need to consume the essentials to stay
alive, but we do not need a new iPhone every single year. That, to me, is one of the many differences
between consumerism and materialism.
But, that materialism is fed by our capitalistic society and giving more
people the ability to obtain. Take this
for example: AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint – the top wireless
telecommunication entities – have introduced programs such as “Jump”
(T-Mobile), “Next” (AT&T), and “Edge” (Verizon) which allow users to
upgrade their phone more often, with the ability to pay monthly and have no
down-payments. This, coupled with the
traditional 1-2 year contract systems for those carriers, makes users want to
upgrade their devices each time it is available to them. This is unnecessary, wastes precious metals
and plastics, and ultimately adds to our landfills and recycling plants as
e-waste. It’s not just the
telecommunication world that does this, it is the brands such as Apple,
Samsung, Sony, really any electronics brand you can think of, that release new
products each year making the “old technology” look inferior and obsolete. People fall into the trap of that advertising
scheme as well as the social constructs that have formed around our ability to
obtain. “You’re still rockin’ the iPhone
3Gs? Dude, its 2015, get with it. The 6 is where it’s at.” The normality of this is all too often. From the production companies (Apple), to the
network providers (AT&T), there needs to be some changes in how their
devices are marketed, all the way to the processes of recycling their products;
we can only hope that will be the norm for all
companies in our lifetime.
It isn’t just the big tech companies that add
to the issue of overconsumption, materialism, and the use of plastics. Companies that provide products at
consistently low prices, H&M for example, make you think you are getting a
great deal on a $5 T-shirt, but don’t realize that shirt will probably not last
as long as a shirt from Ralph Lauren or IZOD.
We all take part in this idea, so to speak; I mean Macklemore even said
in his hit song, “Thrift Shop”, “Ay, yo, that’s $50 for a T-shirt”. We’re going to go for the thing that is the
better deal more often than not because we live on the instant gratification of
a good deal and new products. The problem
boils down to this: “We are the main cause of the problem (materialism,
overconsumption), but also the key to the solution” (Wallace 7).
Questions:
1) Is there anything positive to the idea of overconsumption, or the
word consumption as a whole? What is the
stigma that comes with it?
2) Could a change in the technology advancements of consumer products
ever happen at this point? Might iPhones
ever be released every two years, or have we become too focused on the cycle of
technology?
3) What is the limit to the “reduce, reuse, recycle” slogan?
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