#consumerism

#consumerism

When you reach a certain age, one of the things you notice at the turn of the year is the "stuff" you have accumulated. Old newspapers, documents and books jostle with the detritus of life, from pieces of dead coral from Barbados to an old label that never made it onto a bottle of Guinness. I have spent the last decade preaching to my adult children, telling them to stop buying things.

Covering the windows of public transit with advertisements turns a shared public resource into a mobile advertisement that is more concerned with achieving marketing and sales goals than it is with serving the local community effectively. Constant exposure to advertisements, which has become the norm for modern living, also encourages excessive consumption, which drives consumers to spend beyond their means, leading to growing consumer debt.

The worst offenders, though, are the goody bags. This year, my kids received them at Valentine's Day, Ramadan, Easter, Halloween, and many birthday parties. Every time they bring one home, they dump its contents on the living-room floor and pick through their treasures with glee. But soon enough, the tiny fire truck has lost its wheels and a fight has broken out over whose Care Bears keychain is cooler, though neither of my children has ever owned a key.

Christmas has been commercialized for over a century, and at this point, it's fair to say that social media influencer marketing has significantly worsened holiday overconsumption. Constant pressure to spend money can make excessive consumption nearly invisible to even savvy shoppers over time - but a recent post on Reddit's r/Anticonsumption deftly shattered the illusion that it was worth screenshotting as a reminder for next year.

You two agreed that consumerism is bad, but last year she somehow stumbled upon a nosehair trimmer without spending any money (Amazon shipped it by mistake and said not to worry about returning it, or she won it in a white elephant gift exchange, or her mom inexplicably gave it to her) and she thought, "Well, everyone has a nose. Let me give this to my boyfriend since [this is the key thing] neither of us really cares about gifts anyway."

My family members are incredible gift-givers. Every birthday and holiday, they manage to select exactly what the recipient wanted or didn't know they wanted. I didn't inherit this gene. Inevitably, I wait until the last minute, panic and buy something totally random. My parents' closets (and, I assume, trash cans) are full of my misguided offerings: a Lego orchid, hair masks, a woodworking kit.

Seneca, the ancient Stoic philosopher, wrote in Letters to Lucilius that it's not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor. The film "Fight Club" delivered the modern remix centuries later when Tyler Durden-played with feral brilliance by Brad Pitt-growled: The things you own end up owning you. One was writing in imperial Rome. The other was railing against the Ikea-ification of the modern soul. Yet both saw the same truth: Desire, when unquestioned, becomes bondage.

Not only did online shopping make it much easier to buy things for ourselves (whether we needed them or not), but also it was much easier to buy things for other people. And that influx of stuff has also helped illuminate the very short life cycle of "thing I covet" to "dust collector" to "trash." Why would I spend money on a gift that's just going to end up in a landfill?

This article was a wonderful reminder of how much we really do need and how having a lot more cargo and cash doesn't give our lives meaning. At this fraught time, this identity crisis our country is going through, I wish for us all to be grateful for what we have and find a way for everyone in our country to have enough to feel safe, sheltered, nourished and maybe even happy.

During the holiday season, it becomes all the more apparent that we are all awash in useless stuff. From the once-a-year seasonal outfit to ornaments without sentiment, trinkets we soon discard, and gag gifts that don't make it past opening day, the world pushes us to buy more of it all - stuff that we don't need and, frankly, don't really want. This puts us collectors in a troubling spot.

Edward Bernays unleashed a powerful force on the world when he unlocked the secrets of modern marketing. As far back as the 1920s, marketing professionals have been capitalizing on emotions, and these tactics have created a hustle-focused marketing culture capable of whipping the world into a frenzy. How? With more. Modern PR tactics are perpetually training people to want more, and marketers are trained to do more to satiate that rising demand.

A tattoo is an indelible mark, a permanent etching of a memory or a belief onto the body. We apply this concept to stuffed animals, which are often deeply intertwined with our personal histories. Through interviews with the owners, we uncover the unique stories and memories associated with each toy-where it came from, what it has witnessed. A tattoo artist then translates these narratives into a custom embroidery design.

Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

I have to start with Bill Belichick. I promise I won't linger on that washed-up piece of driftwood for very long, but he serves as a useful, if minor, example. Here is Bill Belichick's official website. It's a terrible website. The design is so old that I half expected a pop-up alert telling me that I needed to download Flash. And the copy is so weak (example: "In 2000, Belichick led the Patriots to 20 winning seasons") that Belichick's weird-ass girlfriend probably wrote it herself.

His background offers the biggest clue to how he created his kitschy universe of pastel pastries and gloopy cherry pies. He came to art via illustration and animation, becoming an apprentice at Walt Disney Studios before going on to work as a cartoonist and motion picture animator. When you paint for a huge, mainstream audience, you get a firm grasp on directness and legibility, on how to get your ideas across immediately, like a cream pie to the face.

Every August, the US Open rolls into Queens with its ever-expanding rituals of consumption. Fans don't just buy in, they perform it: the $23 Honey Deuce held aloft for Instagram, the $40 lobster roll posted before the first serve, the $100 caviar-topped chicken nuggets bought as much for the flex as the flavor. The tennis has never been the cheapest day out, but lately the sticker shock feel less like a barrier than the point.

I've been telling Mabel she'll be four soon for about a month. I bought her present similarly early, though I am unsure whether to wrap it. When the Amazon guy delivers a gift from my sister on the day, he wishes Mabel happy birthday through the gate. As I sing the opening bars, the build-up has clearly worked: she jumps up with excitement and licks my knees.

If you saw Martin Parr and didn't know who he was, you would barely notice him. He is Mr Invisible and Mr Normal rolled into one, in his sensible jumper probably from Marks & Spencer and sensible socks and sandals. He has a neat side parting and neatly cut hair. He has a mild and conventional manner and a mild and conventional appearance. There is something of the naff birdwatcher about him. But do not be fooled.

The artwork, painted on a train signalling box in Croydon in 2019, depicts a rat hanging onto the arm of a clock and is now displayed at the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden.

In the 1980s, the world's largest producer of shoes was the Communist Soviet Union, turning out 800 million pairs a year, yet queues formed for foreign shoes.

Vance Packard identified "planned obsolescence" as a sales tactic that encouraged consumers to buy more by making older products seem outdated or intentionally short-lived.

The Federal Reserve's reduction of 0.50% in interest rates this year will encourage borrowing, potentially boosting consumerism and affecting stock market dynamics.

This ongoing struggle is taking a toll. A 2023 study published by Frontiers in Psychology found that materialism is consistently associated with mental health problems like depression and anxiety.

In his new book 1999: The Year Low Culture Conquered America and Kickstarted Our Bizarre Times, Ross Benes explores one fateful year and its impact on everything from network television to consumerist mania.