...With modern consumerism on the rise, it is negatively affecting our children and their future. The negative effects of modern consumerism on children must be addressed before the damage is a permanent affliction of the American society. I. The effects of consumerism are beginning to mold our children and the American future society in negative ways. A. Sub point 1: In the current consumer society, "I am what I possess" is the average American’s outlook on their lives. 1. In today's society consumerism is viewed to be a negative portion of society and social behaviors. 2. Families have begun to stray from the meaningful and necessary time spent teaching and shaping their children to become productive adults. B. Sub point 2: Modern families need to focus on rearing their children to be a positive influence in society. 1. When a child is raised primarily by electronics they lose sight of their actual surroundings. 2. Common interaction with peers becomes limited. Parents need to focus the attention away from the television and put the efforts into their family values rather than the family car. II. Consumerism can actually have some positive effects on the American society. A. Sub point: The economy depends on society purchasing items. 1. Without the everlasting effects of supply and demand the employment status would decrease. 2. The increase in demand for consumer items also entices investors to provide money into an increased production therefore, consumption...
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...Description of the Essay Process I chose to respond to Peter Singer’s arguments from Examined Life: Excursions with Contemporary Thinkers (Taylor, (ed.) 2009), regarding ethics and consumerism. I found his argument to be thought-provoking and relevant in America’s generally consumeristic standard of living. I can relate to his idea that a certain degree of our morality is tied to our choices in spending, and how if we are conscious of others who need aid, we should use the means we have available to help them. Doing so would offer us purpose and fulfillment in ways that frivolous spending does not. I would need to reflect on my personal beliefs, knowledge, and experiences with this subject as well, to identify my biases, and see if I have any credibility on the subject to offer to the discussion....
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...Modern Times and Marxist Criticism Marxist Criticism revolves around the theories and ideologies of Karl Marx. While his work is still commonly studied and referenced, I have found some of his principles to be outdated. Marx lived from 1818 until 1883, so, his principles are based on what was going on during his lifetime. In nearly two hundred years, some ideologies of Marxist Criticism don’t fit the social norm as well as they did in his time. Ideologies such as religion, consumerism, and rugged individualism have grown with society and don’t have the same effect as they once did. In Marxist Criticism you will find one of Marx’s ideologies to be religion. Religion is an ideology that helps to keep the poor satisfied with their lot in life, or at least tolerant of it, as a tranquilizer might do. (Tyson, 59) With religion being a major part of many people’s life in the 1800’s his view on its role in society as the “opiate of the masses” is different now that it is the twenty-first century than it was during the nineteenth century. In centuries prior religion would include the conviction that the poor, if they remain nonviolent, will find their reward in heaven. (Tyson, 59) While that ideology was extremely relevant in Marx’s time, religion today isn’t a requirement, it isn’t expected thus making it outdated. While religion is still widespread, it has become common to not be religious at all. A growing number of people are identifying as Atheist or Agnostic, choosing not...
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...GERMAN UNIVERSITY IN CAIRO - MARKETING DEPARTMENT Antecedents To Consumerism The Role Of Marketing By Nabila Youssri El-Assar 22-3384 To Dr. Noha El-Bassiouny On 10/12/2012 1 Literature Review Outline 1. Introduction 2. Consumerism in perspective 2.1. Definitions 2.1.1. First stream of thought: Benign Definitions 2.1.1.1. 2.1.1.2. 2.1.1.3. First definition: Manipulative Techniques Second definition: Customer is King Third definition: Globalization 2.1.2. Second stream of thought: Destructive Definition 2.1.2.1. Evolution Of The Consumer Culture 2.2. Implications Of The Benign Consumerism Definitions On Marketing Strategy 3. The Consumer Culture And The Consumption Society 3.1. Distinguishing Definition 3.2. Conditions For A Consumption Society 3.3. Unhealthy Pillars/Consequences Of The Consumption Society 3.3.1. Materialism 3.3.2. Compensatory consumption: The "Shopaholic" Phenomenon 3.3.3. I Shop Therefore I Am 3.3.4. Living Beyond Your Means 4. Antecedents To The Unhealthy Consumption Pillars 4.1. Intrinsic/Personal Influences 4.1.1. Personality Characteristics: 4.1.1.1. 4.1.1.2. 4.1.1.3. Self-Monitoring Personality Trait Innovativeness, Fashion Orientation And Opinion Leadership Ethical orientation 4.1.2. Psychological characteristics 4.1.2.1. 4.1.2.2. 4.1.2.3. 4.1.2.4. Co-morbidity and the Joint cycle of compulsive consumption Obsessive thoughts and Risk Taking Propensity Low self esteem Dealing with Negative Emotions and life challenges 4.2. Societal...
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...Creating Innovators: The underlying need of American Education System The First Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard, Tony Wagner states that “The culture of schooling as we all know it is radically at odds with the culture of learning that produces innovators.” Concepts are a general notion or an idea of something formed by mentally combining all its characteristics or particulars. There are numerous perspectives on any given concept and a certain interpretation of a concept can be profoundly influential in shaping one’s thinking and even in determining one’s future. The concept of education is the achievement of skills, knowledge and understanding where such achievement is not confined to one sphere of life and is not inert in life. A good education system is fundamental to a nation that wants to be economically and otherwise independent. Career based education indeed seems to be mandatory in present scenario. The first thing we all have on mind while selecting a specific course of education is thinking what is the ‘ employ ability’ aspect of it. In simpler words, we care to spend time on learning something that gives us back lucrative returns on the investment we made. As Pepellashi mentions “The design and structure of elementary, secondary, higher education revolve primarily around building skill sets related to work/career.” It is only very natural to think...
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...Fight Club "There is enough on earth for everybody's need, but not for everyone's greed.” Mahatma Gandhi This quote fits perfectly on me. Even though I have enough clothes to last an entire lifetime, yet I keep finding myself at the mall, buying things I simple do not need at all. And I am not the only one, millions of people is doing the same thing. It is because we need certain things: we desire different certain things. Now what is that problem called? Consumerism. Modern society is based on different things. But one of those things, consumerism, has been growing majorly over the past couple of decades, mainly in America. Americans consume exponentially more than any other country in the world and are the leaders in waste production and It’s not only depression - that is harming the over consumers, it’s also creates lifestyles disease. In many people lives it’s controlling their lives. For a lot of people their main concern is how other people seen. “The things you, end up owning you” – that is a quote from fight club. Fight club is a book/film who shows consumerism at its worst form. The main character is first in the film, completely controlled of consumerism, which is described later in the essay. The book Fight Club is written by Chuck Palahniuk, it was later turned into a film. The Film/book is about a nameless narrator who works for a major car manufacture how can’t sleep. He has insomnia. He stumbles across different types of support groups. They make the...
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...Consumerism: Its Huge Role in the Environment America is one of the most affluent nations in the world. Many Americans are able to live a life with such disposable luxury that they are often unaware of the impact of their choices. There is a constant bombardment of media images in daily life that manipulate people into believing that their desire for things is an actual need to have them thus creating a constant consumer. Consumerism is at an all time high and the rate at which such affluent nations consume is causing a dramatic change in the environment. After reading Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce it has become increasingly evident that as a nation there needs to be more awareness of how consumerism is rapidly changing how life is lived. In order to fully understand how consumerism impacts the environment there needs to be a careful understanding of what makes humans consume at such high rates, what role businesses play in catering to the wants and needs of consumers, and most importantly how the environment responds to all of these new demands. It is important to understand what consumerism is and how it affects life. The Oxford English Dictionary defines consumerism as, “the preoccupation of society with the acquisition of consumer goods”. In his book The Ecology of Commerce, Hawken states, ”every American consumes about 36 pounds of resources a week, while 2,000 pounds of waste are discarded to support that consumption”(45). It is highly unlikely that people are...
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...Review of Chapters 5 & 6 in An All-Consuming and Readings for Weeks 7 & 8 Gerry Cross in chapters 5 & 6 in “An All-Consuming Century” spoke about the1960s and 1770s as decades of turbulence that challenged the apparent consensus of the 1950s on many fronts. He argued that consumerism was also challenged and transformed. In reaction to manipulative advertising, wasteful consumption, and the conformist spending, the cultural constraint saw a rebirth and new creativity. The environmental movement challenged Americans to balance the obvious joys of cars, expensive suburban lawns, and ever-changing products and their costs in pollution, scarred landscapes, and lost resources. Despite lasting successes, by the end of the 1970s, these movements had...
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...Consumerism in America Our economy is based off of consumerism and therefore we have been persuaded by our culture to believe purchasing entities will make us happy. We are trapped in the idea that the more we consume the happier we will become. Many Americans are waking up from this disillusionment through their realization that happiness is not derived from stuff but from a positive perspective on the coexistence of people and experiences. Material possessions on their own do not make people happy. Alex Honnold, a free soloist who lives a simple life devoted only to climbing, insists that what makes people happy is their concentration on community, family and their own tight nit little web. Family and friend groups are ultimately where people find the most satisfaction because there they feel they belong and are accepted. Yet simple experiences such as eating at a dinner table with family are becoming more and more rare. Instead, family members are often focused on their iPhones, laptops or eat completely removed from the table in front of a television. These material objects that are believed to make a person happy instead inhibit the simplest of enjoyable experiences like a family dinner. Outside the family, young people are not experiencing the happiness that is the present moment and the people in front of them. They are constantly connected with everyone they know through services like facebook and texting which offer quick jolts of shallow happiness but remove people...
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...Black Friday Madness In the essay “Black Friday: Consumerism Minus Civilization,” the author, Andrew Leonard, makes the argument that, “The out-of-control marketing and consumer insanity” (135) has taken over Thanksgiving and the days following it. Sadly, as consumers, we have forgotten what Thanksgiving is really all about. Marketing businesses have gone overboard brainwashing consumers with advertisements pumping them up to shop on Black Friday and the days that follow. Moreover, marketing businesses have caused the actions we see and hear about on Black Friday such as people being trampled, as consumers rush into stores to shop the sales, and are proof of this insanity. I strongly agree with Leonard’s arguments from “Black Friday: Consumerism Minus Civilization,” that it is time to take back Thanksgiving and end the craziness. First of all, Leonard points out that marketing and consumers have become out of control with all of the Black Friday sales. He gives examples of advertisements that are out of control. For example, “after the perky Stepford-wife shopper sings joyfully about how she’s ‘been in line since yesterday’ and how everybody’s going to Kohl’s at ‘midnight, midnight’ the ad ends with her observing, with a mild air of perturbance, that she ‘can’t get this darn song out of my head.’ Ladies and gentlemen, there’s your winner of the 2011 award for honesty in advertising” (135). This commercial is an attempt to brainwash consumers. He talks about “grown men screaming...
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......Now I know that cultural assumptions, even well-established ones, can be overturned, which is why I am excited about State of the World 2010. It calls for one of the greatest cultural shifts imaginable: from cultures of consumerism to cultures of sustainability. The book goes well beyond standard prescriptions for clean technologies and enlightened policies. It advocates rethinking the foundations of modern consumerism—the practices and values regarded as “natural,” which paradoxically undermine nature and jeopardize human prosperity. Worldwatch has taken on an ambitious agenda in this volume. No generation in history has achieved a cultural transformation as sweeping as the one called for here. The book’s many articles demonstrate that such a shift is possible by reexamining core assumptions of modern life, from how businesses are run and what is taught in classrooms to how weddings are celebrated and the way cities are organized. Readers may not agree with every idea presented here. But it is hard not to be impressed with the book’s boldness: its initial assumption is that wholesale cultural transformation is possible. I believe this is possible after having lived through the cultural transformation of women in Bangladesh. Culture, after all, is for making it easy for people to unleash their potential, not for standing there as a wall to stop them from moving forward. Culture that does not let people grow is a dead culture. Dead culture should be in the museum, not in human...
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...XW4 April 19, 2014 Professor Lee Exploring the Consumer Society: The Urge to Splurge I grew up in a middle-class neighborhood in McKinney, Tx. The high school I went to, McKinney High School, had students in attendance whose parents were on government assistance, students whose parents were in the top 10% of the top 1% financially and everywhere in between. Consider this, if you took a group of randomly selected students from my high school and your goal was to estimate their household income based upon the value of their possessions (phone, clothes, jewelry, shoes, etc...) you'd most likely get it all wrong. This is because it doesn't matter where you come from, how much money you have, or what you look like; you're a customer, you're a consumer. We live in a society today and I went to a high school where people are judged based upon their possessions and what they can acquire. It doesn't matter how you acquired it, as long as you've got it. I think that judging people based off of what they own is a huge mistake. I think it's unfortunate we are constantly purchasing things because of a brand or a logo, but at the same time I don't practice what I'm preaching. It's interesting to me that as I begin to think about it, I don't think any of the nice things I own are bringing me happiness right now, they have only provided some form of instant gratification. If someone asked me what I have to be happy about, I'd provide the cliché answer along the lines of “a loving family...
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...Art has played a major role in contemporary and modern thought, the last 30 years is pivotal in how we perceive art and its development through time. The modern day artists have manipulated the history of Art and transformed the skill into a way of getting through social and global problems by inheriting subtle context, emotional imagery and assertions which generally gives the piece of work a form of beauty. The techniques commonly used are widely conducted through the use of Sculpting, Graffiti, Trademark Slogans, Lyrics, distinctive styles of text etc… The two Artists I have chosen that conduct the use of text and emotional imagery in their work are “Jean Basquiat” and “Barbara Kruger”. Basquiat was an American artist, musician and producer in which his Art focus was to produce socially attractive work which included wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation, and inner versus outer experience so his art work always adopted a type of competition between two players that where in no way similar Basquiat main movement was Non-expressionism he quoted “Fire will attract more attention than any other cry for help.” Meaning now he has the peoples attention he will use it to socially better the rights for the people around....
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...only possessing them for safety purpose. The following paper gun control and gun rights in the United States of America; I want to talk about the economy, necessity, and legitimate use. Due to unfortunate and very violent gun crimes involving deadly shootings, recent action by the Federal Government has acted to begin serious debate and possible reform in support of major gun control laws. Several enactments such as a ban on assault rifles, and a ban on regular and extended magazine clips have been a huge topic of debate. Such reform can have a huge affect on businesses and the United States economy. Recently there has been a great surge in sales and revenue for gun manufacturers and firearm store-fronts and businesses as spooked consumers fear stiff gun control laws are soon to come. However, if a firearm ban is to be the final result of government gun reform, these same manufacturers and store-fronts will most likely close their doors for good. According to the National Sports Shooting Foundation, the firearm industry is responsible for a growing 210,000 plus jobs, and 9,000,000 paid in earned wages each year in America. These job holders and families are tax paying citizens that contribute to American consumerism and economic stimulation. With the dozens of shootings that have happened recently in the United States, many Americans have turned to the idea of gun laws as the solution to this regretful...
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...language. He takes readers into the dense, danger-filled jungles of Venezuela and Indonesia to the dry lands of Algeria. John recounts tales of less-than-perfect living situations, stomaching native foods, facing giant pythons and grizzly bears, and even hunting for hidden treasure; American supermarket foods. The readers are provided with a brief history of every region that John has traveled to in order to provide a bit of background for readers. He also shares updates on the changing politics of the regions and about the projects he was working on, whether they went on to completion or fell through due to money, environment or other reasons....
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