Personal Problems Consumerism Bring
Feeling pleasure over material things is not a bad thing and in fact natural, however if your personal happiness depends a lot on the acquisition and use of material things then you belong to the ever growing number of victims of consumerism.
According to National Geographic consumerism has been existent and is pretty pervasive among Americans and Western Europeans for decades now and sadly they do not have a monopoly on it since developing countries are rapidly catching up with the “trend”. The problem with this is that it has a lot of far reaching negative effects ranging widely from the personal lives of the consumer trickling down to the environment. Just to illustrate the impact that consumerism brings let me list down a few of the personal problems it contributes to.
1. Overspending - Specially a big problem for shopaholics. Note though that thanks to the advent of credit cards even the average person (non-shopaholics) makes purchases that are not in their budget and that they have to scramble to pay for.
2. Debt - Obviously a result of overspending.
3. Self-esteem issues - More and more people are falling prey to having their self-esteem tied to brand names and other expensive status symbols.
4. False perception - Number three is actually linked to this false perception problem because people’s self-esteems are affected since they tend to believe that the more expensive the better something is. Just recently the Tyra Banks Show did a segment on “Label Mania” which showed how “label-obsessed” people felt better about themselves wearing ordinary off-the-rack clothes simply because they thought they were wearing an expensive designer label clothing.
As you can see overcoming the pull of consumerism is important because not only will it help your self perception but also because it will help save your wallets!
On my next posts I will list some of the environmental impacts of consumerism and also give some tips on how to beat it but still ensure that you live a fulfilling life surrounded by beautiful things you love - both material and not.
Do you like this article? Submit it to Blogosphere News!
