An argument made is that when affluenza starts to infect our communities, it starts a vicious cycle. We begin to choose things over people, a choice that disconnects us from community life and causes even more consumption and more disconnection.
Today, society is becoming so obsessed with the buying of goods. People continuously buy and buy in order to make themselves appear as elite and powerful through consumption. Americans constantly buy in order to fill voids in their lives but instead of filling their void, it just becomes greater and as a result they feel empty. I can remember when I was younger and the ipod first came out, it was the "it" thing to have. If you didn't have one you felt inferior to those of your friends that did own one. Today, not much has changed. People work longer hours and do not spend as much time with their families. My dad, has worked in NYC the past 35 years. Although he is always around to make my events or other family functions, he works very long, grueling weeks. However, he does this in order to provide a good life for my mom, sister and I. The way that the economy is currently, I do not see this problem of work 'becoming people's lives' changing. People will always have the desire to want more than they need. People lose sight of what is really important and necessities and what are nothing more than wants and luxuries.
I agree that America has become a materialistic society where people value items almost as equally as they value living things. It is a shame that our society has become like this but it is not something that just suddenly happened. These materialistic values were built on over a long period of time from the mass media and just the society in general. I feel that people fail to look beyond the actual products but only care about the "having" of the particular goods like the iPod. Like the reading suggests, the American consumers become more disconnected with their actual lives and instead become absorbed into this excessive consuming madness.
ReplyDeleteI find the picture is extremely appropriate with regards to your comment. As you said, "Americans buy in order to fill voids in their lives...", and as is shown by the picture, their "voids" are not necessary things. Instead, they are wants and desires, and as the picture shows, when those wants and desires aren't met, they feel emptiness and sadness. It is sad that we feel the same way as that of a poor child who doesn't have the means to acquire food when we can't afford the next big game. And as you said, "people lose sight of what is really important".
ReplyDeleteLiving in America, we have a lot of things that people who suffer don’t have. We have a lot of food and medicine for everyone. However, kids and adults in third-world countries hardly have anything eat and drink. Almost everyone over there dies from malnutrition and disease. Kids in third-world countries have it rough and it’s sometimes rare that they get something to eat. I see kids who complain that they don’t have a cool toy; I wonder what they say and see if they meet poor, starving kid. That’s a REAL world situation for them right there.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Rizzo section 80.
It seems as though many of the problems in American consumer society are the consequences of the problems of affluence, hence the name of the book Affluenza. When people do not have to worry about the necessities of life, they begin to focus on their wants and desires. Increasingly, these wants and desires become a sort of need for people. The result is that American children worry more about their video games then they do about their food. They know they will always have food, but getting the newest x-box game is not always a given. The priorities of many Americans have thus become muddled. Ultimately, consumer society places more emphasis on wants then on needs.
ReplyDeleteTom Reilly, Section 01
This theme of Americans buying in order to fill the voids in their lives is reoccuring. We often fill these voids with products and material objects -- however, how do we gain the money to buy such things? We work overtime, weekends, Holidays, etc. in order to get extra cash. Yet, once we buy such things are our wants and desires truly met? I sincerely don't think so. So what exactly are we spending all this time overworking ourselves for? We in turn lose time, which I think is probably the most valuable commodity one cannot buy.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the part of the book about how Americans have this false sense of security when they move to the suburbs and then become disconnected from the community, it made me feel pretty awful. When people live in big cities they interact more with each other but when they live in the suburbs they barely know their neighbors. In the past it was perfectly “normal” to ask your neighbor to borrow some sugar, now people would look at you like you are crazy. Then we feel lonely and lock ourselves up in our gated houses and communities. The feelings increase, so we purchase objects to make us feel better and that does not help. Like the old phrase reads, “money can’t buy you happiness,” and I agree with it 100%. Life is not about acquiring the most money and having the most things. What people need is the interaction with other human beings, without it we feel lonely and worthless and buying objects to fill that void only destroys us further.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about feeling inferior. Its interesting because the feeling of inferiority happens within my own family! My brother kept making fun of me because I refuse to have an iPhone. I'm sure its a great phone, I just don't feel like having one. When I told him I upgraded my blackberry he thought I was a fool...Still thinks I'm a fool actually :P
ReplyDeleteI too see this norm in American culture where a parent sacrifices so much of their time to provide a good life for their family. Some of this motivation I attribute to those parents who grew up in a home that was not monetarily comfortable. Each generation now has this idea that they must do better than their parents did. Not in a competitive way, but in the sense that because our parents worked so hard to make a good life for us, we in turn should work harder and be more successful as they were as an act of gratitude basically. What bothers me about this, is that once a family has advanced itself to a certain socio-economic status and they can give their children all that they desire, what effect does that play on the kids? Unless the parent is very careful about raising them to believe that although they may have the means to have whatever they want, that affordance had to be earned with years of hard work. In a culture where the motto is generally, “if you’ve got it, flaunt it”, I wonder how these children will face the real world if they have never been exposed to hard times and hard work.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the statement that the problem of work becoming people’s lives is not changing. I feel as though some people work so hard to have a big house and nice car, but have no time to enjoy these things. People work 10 plus hours a day at a job then drive their BMWs home to their 8 bedroom house just in time to grab something to eat, a shower, and go to bed. Material good have become a defining factor about a person in today’s society and if a person is unable to have the newest material good, they will sacrifice something needed to get that object. I have a friend who goes to school and works a part-time job to help her pay for things through college but she has gone semesters without buying books for class because they were too expensive but went out and brought a brand new iPhone (because her new blackberry was stolen in Atlantic City.) I know this is a common trend among people but when are needs going to out weight wants?
ReplyDeleteAmanda Smith 01
While I definitely agree with this, I think that there is an incredibly striking statements made in chapter 5 in terms of work demands and lack of sleep. For example, I find it incredibly humorous that Americans work more than any other country yet we consume the most. I think the self induced void we put ourselves from overworking, in addition to lacking cultural care for conspicuous consumption, has hindered our ability to be self aware. If you look at the story of John Beal, in chapter 8, it was only until he had heart problems that he slowed down and realized that all had eroded from a nearby creek.
ReplyDeleteI'd say we need more breaks, but I think we are moving too fast.
It all depends on your priorities in life. I know plenty of people who work less hours because they want to spend time with their families and they value social interaction over material possessions. At the same time many people are forced to work long hours by their companies or circumstances. If you have to work two jobs to pay the bills who is saying that you do not care about your family or your priorities are in the wrong place?
ReplyDeleteMy brother recently started working after getting out of college and he puts in 40 plus hours a week because if he does not their is no guarantee that he keeps his job. Although it is sad that society has changed so that we feel we need these possessions to prove ourselves, it is up to us to reject that by maturing to the point where we do not need to prove to our neighbors or coworkers that we are good enough for them.
Nice perspective... Some terms that come to mind are; keeping up with the "Joneses”, living to work instead of working to live. I believe if we keep life simple then and stop putting so much emphasis on things and possessions then we will be able to distinguish the difference between needs and wants.
ReplyDeleteDanielle's right about wanting more than we need and losing sight of what's important, especially now with the holiday season starting. People will stand in front of Macy's store window to ogle their Christmas display and ignore the homeless man who sits nearby eating a bowl of kitty kibble--luxury versus necessity, indeed.
ReplyDeleteThe cartoon picture truley say's it all. Americans & I'm sure some other countries have mixed up priorities, in the U.S there are common luxuries that people have so they do begin to buy to just fill a void but the truth is that what we buy we do not really need we just want or desire it. In the begining people would get things they needed (food,shelter ect....) but over time technoloy has moved certain things to the back burner & the it things to have & need are ipods,iphone,droids,xbox ect but the truth is that most people in 3rd world countries or even some people in our own country that are homeless & underfed would rather a warm place to sleep & food in there belly then the lastest new fancy gadget. People just need to understand that to much technology can be more harm then good, take a second to step outside & look at what technoloy is doing, it really is just isolating people but yet it hides under the "social networking" pages that make us think we are not alone & yet if you look around chances are you are just sitting some place alone on your laptop. Not really connecting to the real world & what is going on in it.
ReplyDeleteAnneMarie Esemplare Sec. 80
I agree with the general point of your blog and I believe the picture you provided ultimately backs up your statement. Upon reading your blog, I could not help but to recall a quote from one of my favorite movies, Fight Club. "The things you own end up owning you." This goes along with the point you make that we as a society become a slave to the goods we by. We often by things we do not need just to feel the "satisfaction." I truly believe we should all learn as a society to walk away from the technology that owns us and start living. "It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything."
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