Consumerism

Consumerism is really the study of how, why and where we spend our money (or indeed credit!) however, it goes a bit deeper than this as, in western cultures at least, we tend to equate spending power with happiness. A lot of studies have looked in the psychology of consumerism and why we have these beliefs.

Consumerism is often linked with brand names and luxury good and has its fair share of critics. These critics argue that indulging in consumerist behaviour has a negative impact on society and that we seek to possess goods which make us feel good about ourselves as we are lacking these types of relationships with fellow human beings. They argue that the consumerism also has negative impacts upon the environment by increasingly climate change and pollution for instance.

Further to this critics of consumerism believe that the trend is fueled by extensive media and advertising pressure on the individual rather than a natural desire to acquire goods. In the UK we tend to use the phase 'keeping up with the Jones's' to describe a competitive need to acquire good in order to impress our neighbours and peers and not to be seen as 'culturally inferior'.

This type of buying and culture is wide spread all over the world including Europe, America and parts of Asia such as Japan. There are ways in which we can do our bit for the environment and make sure that our consumerist lifestyles leave minimum impact on the world we live in. These include things like buying locally sourced and organic food products, leaving the car at home when possible or using public transport and buying goods that are a little more environmentally friendly when this is at all possible. There are now even 'greener' organic clothing brand names that are becoming popular in fashion.