We are all guilty of being consumed by something. Whether it is by a job or something as trivial as going to the mall. Whatever the case, the action to “consume” and the word consumption has two arguably definitive parts. Consumption is part of everyday life, in the literal sense we need to consume food. But when does one consume to the point where it’s because of a want or desire? Outside of economics I’ve rarely seen or heard this term used positively, neutral at most. Image searching the word consumption brings up a graph, reference to drugs, or a negative cartoon.
Take for example being “consumed” by work. Is this really a necessity or a desire? Taken from MSNBC, “less than 39 percent” of Americans are satisfied with their jobs. By today’s standards you basically NEED a source of income or else survival is out of the question. One of the ways New Keywords describes consume is “to exhaust”, which striving to make enough money, even just to make rent for some, will cause. The “happiest place on earth”, no not Disneyland, is the country of Denmark. Their standard of living isn’t as high compared to the US. Oppositely look at Los Angeles, there's such a high standard of living in certain areas but only because residents are consumed by materialistic desires. And there's a limited amount of happiness materialism will bring you.
Convenience, appeal, and trying to obtain a higher “social” status amongst peers are a few properties that describe desire. The bottled water brand war comes to mind as a desire. Are they all “pure” as opposed to just regular tap water? How do we know they are more filtered? Do they have anything special to offer but a fancy 3-dollar container? There’s always a little blurb on the labels of bottled water claiming it to come from the mountainous waterfalls of (insert exotic region here). This desire for something excessive has suckered people into buying something that is an essential element of life and comes almost free. And some are consumed by anything else that's really unnecessary but "better" than just your basic need.
3 comments:
Instead of using the word "society" maybe you could say "it's just a standard that had been placed in our daily lives". I really enjoyed your post because you used many examples to argue what you were trying to say. The sense of humor with Disneyland was a good one. In response to your question in the end, it is ironic how people feel the need to want something that's not essential. The materialistic things in life do influence people's wants and desires. In some sense, materialistic things can affect our lives negatively because we spend more money on something than we typically should like water. Why spend $3 on a bottle of water when you can buy a whole case for $5? Overall I think you did a great job expressing your thoughts and writing argumentatively.
Ashley's suggestion is right on: Try to describe what you mean by 'society' instead of using the word with a disclaimer! The more we describe what we mean by these words, the less they seem vaguely oppressive, and the more actively critical we can become in our writing.
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