LESSON 1 - BOOK

• In this age of digital technology, everything in our society is based upon the idea that consumption should be as easy as possible.
• In the "I shop therefore I am" trend report we are looking into the world of consumer culture.
• Shopping has turned into a lifestyle.
• The power of consumption is stopping us from finding true and sincere happiness.
• Shopping often works as a substitute for something that we are missing in life.
• As a primary consumer, the issue is about what we buy and what we choose to invest in.
• “Consume” is defined as “use up, to spend wastefully, to destroy." The

  definition shows that consumption has a negative connotation.
• Behind consumption, there is production.
• Consumers keep companies alive. These companies pay people whose earning put food on the table. This is the pattern of consumption.
• It cannot be denied that consumption is important.
• Consumers are often portrayed as "victims," exploited by greedy companies.
• Every person has "free will"
• As a consumer, free will comes with responsibility and obligation.
• Conscious consumption is about practicing responsible buying habits.
• For many people these days (with the younger generation as the vulnerable group) happiness seems attached to buying something.
• Consumption has become an addiction.
• Mach (1993) argued that identity is a symbolic idea.
• Identity is defined as the image we build for ourselves through social interaction.
• A person's identity is dynamic and through communication with others and through different ways that a person interacts within the cultural atmosphere and social relation.
• Factors that affect identity include:

  • Social relations of power
  • Symbolic image of the world
• “Identity” as we know it now derived as mainly from the work of psychologist Erik Erikson in the 1950's. Identity may refer to:

  • a social category defined by membership rules, characteristic attributes, or expected behaviors
  • socially distinguishing features that an individual takes pride in having
• Studies have observed that every waking moment in a modern lifestyle has become a cycle of “alternating time-space for work and time-space for consumption” (Sassatelli, R., 2007)
• Consumerism is one of the strongest forces affecting modern people’s lives.
• The term consumerism does not simply mean the constant barrage and intrusion of ads in our lives, but everything that is connected to the modern society’s idea that to be happier and more successful we have to buy, buy, buy, and buy.
• Social media reinforces the tendency of people to compare themselves to others. This makes people active consumers on a regular basis.
• Consumerism not only affects our behavior but also affects our thinking process.
• Avoid the trap of consumerism:

  1. Exercise intellectual independence
  2. Consume less, live more
• William James, considered as the father of psychology and one of the brightest minds in the area of philosophy stated that "people had a material self."
• James wrote in 1890, "man's Self is the sum total of all that he CAN call his"
• The material self refers to tangible objects, people, or places that carry the designation "my" or "mine", this encompasses man's concepts of the things he owns.
• The said "material self" include the man's body, family, and reputation, even his clothes and his house, his lands and horses and yacht and bank account.
• If these possessions progressed, man will be victorious, if they decreased, man will feel sad and depressed.
• This "material self" motivates man to work hard and procure more possessions.
• Two subclasses of the material self:

  • The bodily self - This is composed of the intimate parts of a person. It includes our bodies; physical, emotional, and even psychological and morals.
• Two subclasses of the material self:

  • The extracorporeal (beyond the body) self - The extended self. It includes all of the people, things, places that matter to us, and the products of our labors.
• Prior to the time James wrote his book, psychological research on self was restricted to the physical self.
• Two ways to determine if an entity is part of the self:

  • Examining our emotional investment in the entity
  • To see how we act towards it.
• According to Gordon (1968), people spontaneously mention their possessions when asked to describe themselves.
• Gordon:

  The collections we have are not simply treasured for their material value; instead, they represent important aspects of self.
• Gordon:

  Possessions serve a symbolic function; they help people define themselves. It signals who we think we are and how we wish to be regarded.