Consumer Society
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We quite often hear that today we live in a consumer society, but maybe not all of us understand what is meant by it, what are the driving forces. This will be the topic of my presentation. I’m going to define the word consumerism, point out its main features and finally give my opinion on the topic.
My first point is what consumerism is. The dictionary gives the definition “is the protection of the rights and interests of consumers”. It sounds laconic, but I think too abstract and not very clear. Thus, I suggest our using another one: Consumerism is the belief that it is good to buy and use a lot of goods.
This leads me to my next point. How can we persuade other people to buy lots of goods? There are several means, and one of the most effective is advertisements. There are used such techniques slogan, for example, which implies using a short phrase as some kind of a motto, or a testimonial, which means that celebrities are invited to advertise the product. Besides, it can be shot with the help of two different approaches: factual, i.e. based on facts, and emotional, which makes the product more likeable. Tus, we are really made to buy more and more.
This brings us to the next feature of consumerism. Shopping becomes easier, as now we can use credit cards. Nowadays we are free as never before to spend our way around the globe. We can buy everything we want, if we have money for it. If we don’t, than we can always arrange a credit in a bank.
To sell more, people should make more. Therefore nowadays we come across mass production of goods. But quantity does not always coincide with quality. These products get out of order easy, which means that we should spend money again to buy new ones. And this becomes a never-ending circle.
To sum it up, I’d like to say that these were not all the features of consumerism, but these were the factors which sounded interesting to me. Still they have great influence on the population.