Materialism

Materialism

People in today's society are not materialistic at all!!! Okay, maybe a little bit...alright, so maybe a big bit...OKAY, FINE, I ADMIT IT!!! The society we live in today is SO materialistic it's not even funny!!! I mean, look around you! T.V., magazines, radio, billboards, flyers...

Teen Vogue Magazine cover

Shoe of the moment, Cool Jewels, Season's jackets? If that's not materialism, I don't know what is!

Have you flipped through a teen magazine lately??? Huge waste of paper! Frankly, I fail to see why trees should be cut down to print all that garbage on them!

There's about fifteen full-page ads before you get to the table of contents! And it doesn't stop there. Flip through it! You'll notice that the page to the left is part of an article (which, may I add, is full of not-so-hidden materialism, such as, "Get Hilary Duff's totally awesome hair by using this hairspray!"), and the page to the right is yet another full-page ad!

I'm sorry, but I think it's terrible that teenagers (especially females) are bombarded with magazines that are more than 50% ads about how to improve your looks. Not only does it put teens under unbearable pressure to own everything advertised, they also mutilate what little self-esteem they've been able to hang on to so far! Am I the only one that thinks this is simply outrageous?

ENOUGH BILLBOARDS?!?!?

Honestly! How many billboards does a person need to see in five seconds???

As outrageous as it may seem...

Stop saying, "how dare they?!" and admit it! You buy what you see advertised without thinking twice!

I found both pictures totally amazing...and NOT in a good way!

First of all, why does a person need to see so many different brightly coloured BUY THIS!'s in five seconds while driving down the street? It's because while people drive, they're not really paying attention to the billboards, but their subconscious is.

So if a guy drives past a billboard featuring Britney Spears shaking her booty and pouring Pepsi all over herself or something, he might ignore it. But the next time he's at that vending machine, he's more likely to pick Pepsi over Coca Cola because that Pepsi billboard will be fresh in his mind.

So, basically, what the billboard with the model in the yellow bikini says is true. A person is more likely to buy whatever they advertise on a billboard, regardless of what it is, because their subconcious remembers it.

Of course, we can't forget a business's most valued advertising tool:

TELEVISION

TELEVISION! And, along with it, comes its most vulnerable audience: CHILDREN!

Ask a child who George W. Bush is. Chances are he'll have no idea who on Earth you're talking about.

Ask him who Ronald McDonald is! He'll say, "OH, HE'S THAT CLOWN FROM MCDONALD'S! I'VE SEEN HIM IN ONE BILLION DIFFERENT MCDONALD'S COMMERCIALS! THAT'S HOW I KNOW WHO HE IS!"

And it's true. Children are sponges, absorbing all kinds of information. That's why children are especially susceptible to the materialism breeding ground that is television. It shows them which toys they should be dying to have, which fast-food restaurants they should be begging mom and dad to go to, etc.

Then this materialistic child becomes into a materialistic adult that in turn brings up another materialistic child, therefore contributing to a vicious cycle of materialism that will be very difficult to end.

Okay, okay, I'm done teaching you all about the not-so-hidden places where materialism attacks our society.

But what's the point of being aware of materialsm if you don't do anything about it? And there are so many things you can do to stop this vicious materialism cycle!

Don't obsess over fashion trends that will be "so last season" in two weeks.

Don't load kids with toys. If you've seen a child with a favourite toy, you know that if you take it away, he'll bawl for hours. However, if you take away his not-so-favourite toy, he couldn't care less. So why load him up with thousands of not-so-favourite toys that the child will probably only use twice in the toy's lifetime?

Basically, the trick is this: don't overspend! Don't buy things if your gut tells you that you'll only use them once!

One last thing. You know the whole "A girl can never have too many shoes" cliche and other stuff like that? PLEASE don't live by it!!!! It really IS quite air-head-ish when you really listen to its message! :)