I. Introduction
Ever since The Great Depression (1929- 1939) World War II, society has experienced an increase in available products. Having access to materials that provide comfort or make life easier have given us opportunities to enjoy many aspects of life by saving time or providing tools that make our lives easier that give us more leisure time. Some people believe that more possessions may lead to increased happiness. But acquiring possessions can have both positive and negative effects. Can striving for materialism go too far and actually interfere with our quality of life and our personal ethics or beliefs? When are people consumed by materialism?
In this thesis, I will explore the personality traits of people who have materialistic values and goals, and how it affects self esteem, mood and identity, values, ethics, and spirituality. I will also discuss how people manage money and accept financial responsibility is often based on media and advertising. Media and advertising also affects spending and priorities in children, adolescents, and adults.
Wanting to have material objects is not the problem. Materialism becomes a problem when it interferes with academics and learning, adults in the workplace, and includes social skills, social responsibility, social relatedness. The quality of life includes happiness, health, social skills, social responsibility, and social relatedness. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines consumerism as an inclination towards buying
Things we want versus things we need. People often forget what they really need in life like water, air, food, shelter, love and affection and most importantly a family. Most people think they need a nice car or they need a $600 phone or nice name brand clothes but really you don’t. They don’t need all the extra stuff all of those things are mainly what you want because that’s what you see everyone else with around school or work or just in general wearing. So it makes you want it because you see everyone else with it. You don’t need materialistic things to make you fill superior in society.
Materialism is Terrible Americans tend to be materialistic people. We tend to judge each other by how much money we make we also judge by what we wear and what kind of house we live in. The character in the novel Into the Wild Chris McCandless, did not care for money or a nice big house. These things did not interest him into his pursuit of happiness. Materialism isn’t necessary to make people happy; Chris gave away his belongings and rejected his graduation gift and he still led a good life.
In the world buying the things you want compared to buying the things you need is a consist problem for many people in America. Depending on a person’s financial situation, they might never be able to buy the things they want and just focus on the things they need. Most middle class Americans focus on paying for essential things such as: food, water, housing, and transport. My views towards consumerism is that people should focus on quality overbecause there are some moments in life that lower quality things will have negative effects.
When humans become more materialistic, they lose the ability to maintain normal human relationships emotions connected to human relationships such as love or friendship. In modern day 2017, everybody is becoming more materialistic, wanting the newest
It's a status move, status is a powerful driver of purchase behavior” (Source D). Consumers are purchasing more and more items as a way to fit in, have status, and belong. Many of these idolizations are fantasies, dreams of what they think they need to have. Equally, Martin Greenwood comments that in today's society that is not the case as the American Dream “is just a consumerist vision which is no longer reality.attitudes and greed have all led to increasing levels of inequality” (Source C). The shifted American dream that is now materialism is simply a facade, there is no reality in consumerism-derived happiness.
Consumerism appears to gain a larger role in our country every year. First off, the United States was never meant to be the land of the free and home of the brave. Actually, when Columbus saw this land mass back in 1492 all he thought about was money and the raw materials there. Well, Columbus was right, but raw materials and money have become the root of the problem within this country. National debt grows larger every day because of the need to buy goods from other countries because consumers in the U.S. require more than they actually need. The saying, “There are kids starving in Africa,” has become a common saying through this high need to consume and then wasting it, throughout this nation. Materialism in America is a whole other story.
Materialism is also an indication of this sickness we call "Affluenza". What brings about materialism and causes "Affluenza"? This simple answer is marketers by using a plenty of information that cannot be avoided they seduce consumers to buy trough various media [Blenkhorn and N. Wright].
" We are living in a material world." This famous line in one of Madonna's songs entitled "Material Girl" will never outgrow itself. Ever since the beginnings of monetary means, the main focus of living is getting more money and to be as successful as possible. This became a huge issue during the 1920's. In this era, people made money from the stock market, illegal bootlegging and so forth. With these people hitting the jackpot, this then created a new rank called `new money'. This rank, however, never overpowered `old money' the most wealthiest, well-known and respected class. The possession of material wealth however, can't bring true happiness. Love is an important factor in this equation; when you don't have love, it is hard to say
In a materialistic society, one measures the worthiness of its members according to their wealth. For many Americans across many generations, material possessions have determined social status and overall value to society. This rating system has been the subject of blistering critique from early on in human society when money was deemed “the root of all evil”, to the 1920’s when F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a criticism of materialism in his book The Great Gatsby. Americans today still try to acquire the lavish trappings of the wealthy. Although equating money to happiness is no longer socially acceptable by most people, the want for more materials and tendencies to depend on alcohol in times of trouble that Fitzgerald critiqued is still valid today.
This report is about how materialism has been around people since prehistoric. According to this article adapted from James B. In Twittchell’s book, it is stated that even though Materialism is a social illness, it may also serve more positive functions in the modern world (1). In this piece, the author tells us that materialism has been spread around the world. For example, nowadays people from many countries like to buy more and more stuffs. Now; for instance, we have a materialism culture, and commercialism helps to increase this kind of lifestyle. Moreover, there is a stereotype that portrays women as the most consumers; however, historians has contradicted this by saying that “in pre-industrial world men were the chief hunter-gatherers” (390). From my point of view and based on this article, I consider that materialism does not bring any kind of positive functions in our world; on the contrary, I think that nowadays materialism is
If a man were to wake up one morning and decide he wanted a new car it would not be unusual. However, if he decides he wants to upgrade his Toyota Camry to a Ferrari then he is being materialistic. Odds are that this man cannot afford this superfluous vehicle and his fantasies are getting the best of him. He is wasting money on unimportant things.
Materialism is a tendency to consider material possessions and physical comfort as more important than spiritual values. In the real world materialism is problem like seen in the movie “Affluenza: PBS Program on the Epidemic of Overconsumption”. We watch this movie in class and it showed a look at the rampant materialism consuming America. It showed how media control our pockets and our money. It showed how people in America spend money for no reason and why the spent the money. Media showed new products every day and people go shopping the next day for the product because media .People follow whatever they see on media or whatever the next person is doing. Media is the main means of mass communication (especially television, radio, newspapers,
For the longest time, it has been American culture to praise wealth; we have always been in love with the idea of money. It is due to these fundamental American values that many, whether rich or poor, desire to present themselves lavishly as a person of fortune. Thorstein Veblen, a renown Norwegian-American economist/sociologist, was well-known for his famous theory of “conspicuous consumption”. Veblen, being a vocal opponent of capitalism, shared his theory of conspicuous consumption which spoke of the consumeristic habits of people—which he frowned upon— and the tendencies of the rich to waste their money and the poor to waste their time. Veblen elaborated on the ways in which the rich waste their money in the purchase of extravagances
Ever since the end of World War II, the American people have had access to an increase in available goods and have been able to
When Americans continue to spend, then they have no money to save. They don 't have the money to do some certain things in life and this impedes their chances of success in life. In conclusion, Materialism in America is a normal way of life, however this is causing us to be behind in the teaching of the foundation of the Unites States, it is als is causing us not to be able to uplifted or elevated in life because there is no more money.