The Role of Consumption in Structuring my Day-to-Day Existence & the Academic Study of Consumption
Consumption plays a significant role in our day-to-day existence because it allows us to meet and cater to our needs and desires. The act of consuming is defined as the act of using, eating and/or digesting resources or products. Moreover, we consume whether it is intentional or not. These can be in the form of consuming goods like food, information, shopping or travel for leisure and entertainment. “Consumers embody a simple modern logic, the right to choose.” (Gabriel, 1995). According to Gabriel, choice is a powerful tool that consumers have access to and that consumerism is able to drive the economy. In modern society, consumers are able to practise their ability to choose what they would like to consume and how much of it they consume. These choices are also often shaped and projected through one’s social and cultural backgrounds, as well as one’s personal autonomy.
In the following paragraphs, I will discuss my own consumption in terms of food, shopping, information as well as entertainment with the aid of the unit readings and some sources of my own research.
Firstly, as a basic human necessity, one has to eat food and drink beverages to quench one's hunger thirst. Since eating and drinking is already practised since young, oftentimes we do not think much of it anymore because it has become a natural part of our lives. However, what we may fail to realise is how our choices in consumption structures the way we live. On a daily basis, I get to choose what type of meal to consume for breakfast, lunch and dinner or the additional snacks I would consume throughout the day. However there are certain factors that affect my decisions. For example, as a consumer, I have the option of deciding whether I would like to purchase an affordable meal in a food court or if I would opt for a meal more costly than usual in a restaurant. My finances (at the time being) however, determine if I am able to treat myself to a dish that is slightly more expensive than my usual lunches throughout the week. As a student who still mainly relies on her parents for financial support, I have to check if the supposed meal is within budget and how often I can splurge a little bit more on food. This may not be an issue to someone of a higher socio-economic status and can thus have lesser limitations and have broader food experiences. Through this, we can observe that consumption can be an indicator of one’s social class.
Next, I would like to talk about shopping. “Throughout most of recent history, shopping has been viewed as a laborious activity, one that must be undertaken as a means of survival. The activity rarely, if ever, possessed qualities that could be considered enjoyable” (Timothy, 2005). That is not the case for me though, shopping for clothes is a leisure activity for me and one that I particularly take in. I enjoy taking my time to browse through the store to select articles of clothing that strikes my attention. As I grow older, I find myself being more particular about the quality and price of clothes so I spend a bit of time roaming around different stores looking for the best deals and good quality fabric. As a teenager though, I used to impulsively buy clothes as I found myself influenced by trends online and I had wanted to dress similarly to my favourite artists. It was also some form of retail therapy for me. Looking back, I do not even wear these clothes anymore because of its quality and it is no longer my style of clothing. Unfortunately, mass produced fast fashion apparels were the most affordable option as opposed to ‘sustainably-produced’ clothes. Many individuals vilify people who buy fast-fashion clothes because it is produced unethically but sustainably produced clothes are not cost-friendly to most people. In a chapter by Littler (2014), it is questioned if ethical consumption is “...mainly used as a high-end status pursuit for the moneyed classes, a panacea for middle-class guilt?”. For instance, ethical consumption is marketed to the more affluent and ‘educated’ society, where they have the means to afford and live the eco-friendly or green lifestyle which then further divides the rich and poor, increasing inequality amongst society.
Thankfully, I have realised that impulsively buying clothes in bulk is unnecessary and a waste of money. This change of mindset has reduced my spendings on clothes and has also lessened my tendency of over-consumption. I rarely visit retail stores nowadays but I still do find myself surfing the web to browse through clothes. Now, I am more selective of items I purchase and am trying to build a capsule wardrobe which consists of staples and long-wear clothes as opposed to buying ‘trendy’ clothes which I am only going to wear less than 10 times.
“The problem is not that people own things: the problem is that things own people. It is not consuming but consumerism we criticise; not affluence but affluenza” (Hamilton, 2005, p8). To expand on this phrase, many struggle with conspicuous consumption where wealth and status is displayed through branded or materialised goods. Personally, I have yet to experience this because I currently do not have much interest in luxury items. It is however not unusual for one to see, especially in this age where almost everything is shared online. Through influencers and celebrities, we often see them decked from head-to-toe with branded items perhaps due to sponsorships or so as to present them of a higher socio-economic class from the masses. I can see why this form of consumption may be detrimental to those who fantasise about that certain lifestyle.
For entertainment, I consume a lot of media to satiate my boredom and curiosity. To be frank, I could spend hours, mindlessly scrolling through social media platforms like TikTok, Twitter and Instagram. I also receive news information from these applications. I suppose that because the content is bite-sized, it is easier for me to digest and consume. Content that shows up on my timeline becomes more and more personalised because of the data collected through my likes. This would then send an instant gratification to my brain because the system shows me videos or pictures that I am interested in. However, I find that my social networking usage decreases my attention span. I find it harder to focus and sustain my attention during longer forms of media like 3-minute videos or long articles. I prefer watching TikTok videos because they are short-form content rather than long Youtube videos as it is difficult to sit through a whole video. From a scholarly journal, it is discussed that individuals are constantly on “an information overload from both the quantity of information available and the speed of which information gets into the hands of individuals through advertising and multimedia” (Carstens et al., 2018). This means that in an information and an attention economy, we are persistently exposed to information and it is unavoidable. Whereas attention of individuals are scarce or deficit because one has so many choices of consumption. The increase of social networking usage could be interlinked to the fact that human beings are social creatures who desire to be a part of a community (Lukinova et al., 2014). Since social media allows one to connect and communicate with people from all over the world, the human desire to interact with one another is fulfilled. Therefore, social media usage and consumption rises.
Through the readings, one is able to critically analyse the semiotics and reasons of consumption. Consumption is complex and comes in a variety of forms. We not only consume physical, tangible goods but we also consume experiences whether it be in consumption of food or through our shopping experiences. In restaurants, one takes in the ambience of eating in a store, usually in the presence of other people who are dining in. There are unique visual and audio elements when one sits and dines in a restaurant as opposed to eating at home. The same goes for physically travelling to the shopping centre. Shopping malls are designed to attract consumers of all different profiles. Even though it may be unsaid, one can recognise that certain shops or shopping malls are targeted to a particular group of people (especially the rich and more privileged) because their consumption of goods drives the sales for such luxury stores.
However, consumption should not be polarised to “purely negative” nor should one categorise it as “purely positive” (De Solier, 2013). One should not automatically criticise an individual for being unable to use ethically-produced goods because for many, they are not affordable. From Littler (2011), ethical consumption may be used by the government and corporations to push the narrative of responsibility to individuals on making an environmental change and ‘go green’. Whereas these big organisations do not take the accountability for making real change given the power they have yet are profit-making through the supposed ‘pro-environment’ products they sell to consumers.
To conclude, the academic study of consumption helps to define how acts of consumption could be influenced through social, cultural, environmental and economic factors. It acts as a guide for me to be more conscious and critical of what I consume. The concepts I have learned allows me to realise and be more aware of the negative implications of consumption on an individual and societal basis. Although we have a choice as the consumer in what we consume, it also makes me question whether this so-called ‘power’ is just manipulated and curated by companies in order to profit off of us. Lastly, it also helped me realise that pursuing our consumption habits may be a means to better one’s life, one’s formation of self-identity, as well as in pursuit of happiness.