Consumer Society - Buy, Buy Holidays

Résumé du document

History and the upheavals it has brought have definitely shaped the ways of life and the cultures over the centuries. The notion of trade has existed for hundreds of years and saw its dawn in the early stages of human civilisations. The modern capitalist societies developed a particular shopping culture over the years, especially after the big events of the 20th century such as the World Wars, the Great Depression and others. The need to boost again the economy was at the heart of political preoccupations. Ever since, western societies have encouraged people to spend more and more. Capitalist societies have indeed dictated people's ways of life, shopping and programmed them to shop.

Extraits

[...] This has now become accepted by consumers who fell for this selling technique. This truly creates the impulse and need of buying or as the article points out an ‘imperative to spend'. Yet, the durability of our way of shopping is limited. It has now been clear for years that the planet is suffering from climate change, partially caused by modern ways of consuming. Moreover, as the article points it out, buying excessively, especially during the holidays has become something almost mandatory and has entered the buying habits. [...]

[...] As innovations were thriving, modern ways of life were revolutionised. The key of advertising is to create a new need for consumers. These needs were created only to incite people to buy certain products. The ads were directly targeted to certain types of populations (housewives, men, children This process of manipulation of the masses leads to alienation; people are now ‘programmed to shop'. Moreover, advertising is omnipresent in most societies. By seeing them constantly, they subconsciously influence people's buying habits and choices of products. [...]

[...] Consumer Society - Buy, Buy Holidays History and the upheavals it has brought have definitely shaped the ways of life and the cultures over the centuries. The notion of trade has existed for hundreds of years and saw its dawn in the early stages of human civilisations. The modern capitalist societies developed a particular shopping culture over the years, especially after the big events of the 20th century such as the World Wars, the Great Depression and others. The need to boost again the economy was at the heart of political preoccupations. [...]

[...] This is one of the main symptoms of the consumer society; a society where people buy too much making them drown in debts. II. This shopping culture led to mass consumption In fact, this shopping culture led to mass consumption. Consumers are heavily encouraged to buy more and more all the time which creates an increase in the demand and so an increase in the production, making the economic function. This consumer society is typical of the 20th century western societies and is now globalized. [...]

[...] Modern societies, have developed new types of consuming habits and has introduced shopping into the customs, as something normal and mandatory. People are programmed to shop in the sense that wherever people go, they are heavily fostered to shop, mainly because of advertising that is omnipresent. Advertising worked so well because it created new needs for populations in order to make them buy new products that are not vital to them. This has led into mass consumption as it is known today. This consumer society requires a great force in production that also implies disastrous environmental impacts. [...]