Consumerism Consumes Us

Hi welcome to my tumblr blog Consumerism Consumes us. This blog is about consumerism and how it is ruining our life. Food is and always will be my best friend, my consumer identity mostly revolves around food. The majority of what I buy when not exactly is food, almost everyday after school you will see me buying unnecessary things like twinkies because I love them.

[consumerismconsumesus-blog]

This is what people have become… We have slowly evolved to just become mindless and controlled. It has become a epidemic, wide spread through out the world.

[consumerismconsumesus-blog]

Labor unions

http://www.salon.com/2013/11/29/breaking_massive_black_friday_strike_and_arrests_planned_as_workers_defy_wal_mart/

This article is about the Walmart employes threatening to go on strike for black friday. Black friday is a very important event for Walmart as so many people take advantage of their deals. Walmart employes know how much this day is valued, and they decided that they way to prove their point was to jeopardize the most important day of the year.

Employes were sick and tired of being payed such low wages, they peacefully protested how they need the money to support their family. They clearly value their families  and they want to be able to support them.

I think that this was a very effective way to get their message across. They caught the attention of the company and the media. 

If the people who took part in this actually end up convincing the company to raise their employes pay checks then they would be affection so many people around the world. Many people would now make more money which they could use to improve their quality of life.

[marensconsumerism-blog]

Tally of all the unfortunate deaths and injuries that have ruined the holidays for Black Friday shoppers; violent shootings, pepper-spray accidents and shocking tramplings.

This is simply madness…

[consumerismconsumesus-blog]

And people said that this year it was more "peaceful".  Two people were shot and killed over a toy at Toys "r" Us… 

[consumerismconsumesus-blog]

What my bio says

No matter what I do with the coding I just cannot get the bio to clearly show up. So I have decided to post it here instead:

Hi welcome to my tumblr blog Consumerism Consumes us. This blog is about consumerism and how it is ruining our life. Food is and always will be my best friend, my consumer identity mostly revolves around food. The majority of what I buy when not exactly is food, almost everyday after school you will see me buying unnecessary things like twinkies because I love them.

[consumerismconsumesus-blog]

SeaWorld boycott: Girl boycotts SeaWorld during Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade

A 12-year-old girl from TriBeCa, New York decided to boycott the SeaWorld float during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Rose Mccoy held up a sign after evadi

I really admire what this girl did. It really took some courage.

[consumerismconsumesus-blog]

Are you really a anti consumer?

[consumerismconsumesus-blog]

This is a very true representation of stores like target.

[consumerismconsumesus-blog]

Is your life really all that bad?

[consumerismconsumesus-blog]

Collaborative Consumption

In class this week we put together our own little swap city. Every student, (if they remembered), offered a product or a service. I found the swap city to be very fun and very effective. From our swap city I traded a piece of candy for a awesome handmade necklace and the rest of my bag of candy for Starbucks. 

I believe that there are many different ways that we could run our economic systems. One thing I think of is based off the book "Specials" from the "Pretties" series. In the book they live in a world from the future that is very high tech. The way that most of their "stuff" is produced in the game is "the hole in the wall", every room has one. The way to get what they want is to either have a high popularity level or to earn credits. I think that this would be a very interesting way to live. Imagine if there was a way to have a hole in the wall and when you request something you would of had to work very very hard for it. Of course there is no way of exactly creating this hole in the wall but one day there   may be.

Another way we could change our economic system is by using swap cities regularly. You don't have to pay tax and part of your profit does not go to the government. It would also be a pretty cool thing to do. 

I really enjoyed the swap city and I wish we could do it again.

[consumerismconsumesus-blog]

“I was part of that strange race of people aptly described as spending their lives doing things they detest, to make money they don't want, to buy things they don't need, to impress people they don't like.”

 Emile Gauvreau

I chose this quote because it is describing what life has become. We do things to simply impress other people or ourselves. We don't really need the things we do yet we do it anyways. Imagine if everyone didn't do this. Yes it would be quite chaotic with people not going to work but just imagine a world where people did not have to pay things like taxes, the demand for many things would be outrageous. But if we found a way to live like this imagine how much happier the people would be...

[marensconsumerism-blog]

I think this video is not only hilarious, but also connects to to our topic of consumerism. I think that this man probably values very different things than less wealthy people. In the video the only family he mentions is his wife and she’s not necessarily mention because she’s a nice sweet honest person. I wouldn’t say he values family as much as other people. He also says at one part that he’s going to buy a llama because he can and I think that says that he doesn’t really need it or even want it but he has the money to so he will.   

[consumerismconsumesus-blog]

I agree with Maren, this video is quite hilarious. Yet I disagree with what she stated about his wife. I more believe that he's wife only gets mentioned at one point because he values his money much more than his own wife, where as Maren said that she is a nice sweet honest person which seems to go against his personality. 

This video is a prime example of consumerism, he wants to buy a llama because he can. He is then he is offering llama rides which he would most likely make people pay for.

He also mentions in the video that he spends a lot of money on a sword which he does no have any use for but he doesn't pay his rent, this is showing his consumer identity in a sense that he finds that sword more important than his own house. The sword would simply be for show and to brag, he has no use for it. Where as his house is a actual need, with out his house he would be homeless and to keep the house he has to pay rent.

I found this piece just really caught my eye, it was a perfect way to describe consumerism. I believe that the producer really got his message through as he portrayed the main character as a stuck up jerk. This was a brilliant way to show what consumerism can do you you.

[consumerismconsumesus-blog]

I chose this quote because it just shows what peoples consumer identity has become.

People are changing who and what they do and are to be what society wants us all to be. We have become slaves to consumerism and society, we no longer do what we want to and buy what we want to.

We do jobs that we hate simply to make the amount of money that we want to buy a certain thing or to live a certain lifestyle. We think that if it is on a ad it is what we need, if everyone else has it I must need it. But we never do, we simply do this to fit into society.

[consumerismconsumesus-blog]

Did you know that November 29th is buy nothing day? There is a reason that this event falls on black friday. Buy nothing day is a large protest on consumerism, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buy_Nothing_Day). People will either protest in the streets, as seen in this article, or just stay home and not endure the chaos of black friday.

I chose this photo because I believe that it strongly represents this event. It is in fact talking just about "Buy Nothing Day". This photo explains it would be so much better to create something by yourself, it gives you many options of what you can do. 

Not only is it informative but I believe that it is very eye catching, its aesthetically pleasing. The colour that the artist chose just seems to catch my eye. It starts our with a darker colour that is easy to read and will catch your eye and then it suddenly pops to red for the most important part that just hooks you in. I also notice that around it the picture has the two colours, I'm not sure if it was a decision of the artist or just a mistake, but I actually believe that it enhances the art by drawing more attention to it.

Like I said before I just believe that this is a perfect representation of "Buy Nothing Day".

[consumerismconsumesus-blog]

USA VS Canada

https://soundcloud.com/julie-s-3/debate

Me and my partner Maren came to this debate on the assigned side of the USA. We chose to mostly get out information from cool fact sites or different places with stats. We chose these sites for information because we found them to be very informative and a fun way to get the facts. You can look at our research and debate pillars here (https://docs.google.com/a/cssstudent.com/document/d/1A9OSXTO-veMqST1RME2LiV40WJ0udonIi8IBIJ6P4qE/edit)

We were also asked to find a current event for this post. The post had to relate in scarcity, in our assigned country, in some way. I chose to learn about what the USA is doing about the problem of water scarcity. I chose to do this article,    (http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2013/08/02/how-10-western-cities-are-dealing-with-water-scarcity-and-drought/), because I found it to be very informative. It gives you information on what each state is doing to tackle their problem of water scarcity. Many places have now put “water police/patrol” in place. In Denver the water patrol will show up at a water offenders door and have a face to face conversation with them and explain why they are asking them to do this, they will also supply the people with water efficient hoes cover which cost 4$ a piece. A second offender will get a citation on their water bill. I believe that the USA is tackling the crises quite well.

I was trying to find some very strong arguments against Canada and I found a article about how there are 200+ pharmaceutical drugs that have become very scarce. The worst part of this is that at first the government refused to release a list of what drugs were on this list. This effects me greatly because I recently got a much needed surgery and if one of the pain killers or anaesthetics that I needed was on this list than I would not of been able to get my surgery. In a sense this is representing my consumer identity because due to my weight age and allergies I needed a certain anaesthetic and if the government had still refused to provide a list at this time I would either not be able to get my surgery or I would just be completely unaware of this. In this case the government has greatly affected many peoples consumer identity.

[consumerismconsumesus-blog]

I absolutely love this picture because i believe that it is a perfect representation of this society.

Everyone suddenly thinks that if their "stuff" if brand name they are better. It convinces people to spend more money to buy brand name thing which is now changing their consumer identity.

I personally could care less about sunglasses, I more go for the colourful ones and occasionally which ones are the cheapest. Yet for clothing I tend to get most of my clothing, at blue notes which isn't a very popular brand name, but I am in love with my DC shoes. But I don't get these shoes because their something everyone else has, I just personally love the shoes. Now I could just go to a store like target and get non brand names for cheeper, but for some reason I'm always going to lean towards the DCs. This is part of my consumer identity and for some reason I can not change it, I just love my shoes to much

[consumerismconsumesus-blog]

Gin connections post

Callys parents were told that their health care would not pay for Callys treatment. Cally was in treatment due to her cutting, she cut for multiple reasons. The healthcare wouldn’t pay for it due to the fact that it was self inflicted and their healthcare does not cover that. Cally believed that cutting was fine but did not realize what would happen in the long run.

Cally lives in Canada, so their health care is provided but I was not aware that Canadian health care doesn’t pay for mental treatment centres.  I would like to do more research on which provinces provide mental health coverage and which don’t as it seems odd that it would not just all be the same. When the health care doesn’t pay for Callys treatment it greatly affects Callys family,

At first Cally was confused about why her father was not there and I believe that she would of felt hurt. Once she learned that her father wasn’t coming because he had to work extra shifts to pay for her treatment I feel like that she would of felt guilty about it and now feel bad for her father having to do this. Since healthcare is not paying for her treatment it is converting her familys consumer identity. Her father is now having to pull extra shifts so he can support his family and keep Cally in treatment. This must be hard on her father due to the fact that her brother is already severely ill and has many special needs including a tutor since he can not attend school.

Cally doesn’t feel like she really has her own identity, almost everything she does is controlled by her brothers illness. She can’t go and see friends because she needs to stay home to help her mom watch her brother and clean. This impacts Callys worldview greatly as all she really gets to see is her family. When she goes to the health clinic she gets a new view on the world, being introduced to new people and places, this is most beneficial to Callys identity.

In the health clinic there are already many girls there for various reasons, some drugs, some eating disorders and some self harm. Cally really gets a new view on what the world is like outside of her spotless home. Cally would get a small view on the black market when meeting the drug addicts.

[consumerismconsumesus-blog]

Pursuit Of Happyness

As as class we watched the heartfelt movie “The Pursuit of happyness”, the movie touched the brutal issues of homelessness and heavy job competition.  

You will notice that in the title of the movie happiness is spelt wrong, I  believe that this is because at the daycare that Chris (the main character) son attends has it spelt like that on their sign.  I first thought that it may be spelt wrong on the sign because the daycare owner is most likely a immigrant and may not of known how to properly spell the word when they first opened the daycare. After talking to Mrs. Waite I realized that it is so much deeper than that. “Happiness is “ I’ not ‘Y’ “. When I realized that it completely caught my attention and I started to think about the movie deeper.

There are many life facts that you can learn from this film, such as, just because you think investing in something may be good you need to do your research first. When Chris bought all those bone density scanners he thought that many people would be demanding them when in reality he struggled to sell all of them. When he made this choice he greatly affected his family consumer identity. His son, at a very young age, has to live through the harsh conditions of homelessness, and Linda leaves him because she can not stand it anymore. Chris thought that these would be money makers when in reality they sunk the whole family.

I feel like there are many different theme statements that people could interpret from this movie but to me I strongly believe that the theme statement is “You need to pursue happiness not wealth”, if you read the title you will see some of this. I believe that this is the theme statement because throughout the movie Chris says all we need it to be happy, if you’re happy i’m happy, this shows that you need to be happy to do what is needed. When Chris starts to lose his happiness everything sinks a little bit, they aren’t able to get into the shelter that night and Chris is not able to eat because he only has enough money for one person to eat. When Chris is at work he tells jokes and is just happy which in the end pays off.

I really enjoyed the movie and I wish that we could do more things like this in humanities. I felt like it was a very good way to get the students to connect to the piece.