thoughts

something i wrote in college last year, just thinking about media and the way it works.

I think that consuming is incredibly important to so many Americans. We get caught up in what Apple sells or the newest fashion or latest beauty trend or the coolest style of music, and then try to shape our lives around that. We want to attain these things so we can be the “coolest cat on the block”. And yet, when we get these things, we’re never really sure if they really represent us or if we’re just joining the bandwagon to fit in with everyone else.

One thing consumerism overplays is the worth of external beauty. The makeup and hair industry must rake in so much money by convincing women that they NEED to be beautiful, and they have no worth if they do not look a certain way.  It seems like they’re telling us to pile on the product to hide who we really are: “discard your natural beauty, your true self, and come on look like our perfect ideal!” It’s kinda sickening to think about.  Consumers believe this lie, lose respect for themselves, and start following the marketer and producer. The marketer continues to cut down their customers, because that’s what pulled them in in the first place.  Granted, Dove has taken steps to embrace this, but they’re still selling their product. It’s like fake individuality.  Our concept of true beauty has gotten so skewed that you can only be truly beautiful on the outside.  They don’t sell things or give you advice to cultivate a beautiful soul! “Forget your soul, and focus on your body.”  Our bodies are merely casings for the lasting soul inside! So instead of focusing on important values, like honesty and trust and love, we’ve skewed them so we can push our products! For example: “if he loved you, he’d use a condom” “if he loved you, he’d buy you diamonds”. This is clearly a marketing strategy that turns truth on its head. Production is manipulating our minds to convince us they know the truth. Now it is common to say “I love your shirt! Love your hair! Love your teeth!” Really? Are you committed to their shirt till the end of time? Have you said your vows? Are you willing to put that shirt before yourself? Come on people. Love is thrown around far too often and commercialized into something it is not.

Also I watched a documentary in poli sci about these marketers who followed kids into their homes and videotaped everything they did, just so they could get a better idea of what they liked and what they reacted well to in order to market to their products better. They weren’t even using that information to learn psychological information to benefit the kids and help them with issues they were dealing with.  This is how the manufacturer has become slave to his own product. Even if he doesn’t believe in it or the image or message it portrays, he will continue to sell it because it will get him money, which will in turn make him happy. To stop producing this or speak out against it would be to go against the grain, which society often seems to look down upon. Success is measured in terms of how large your income is, how steep your bank account, how many “fancy” things and “high-on-the-social-ladder” events you attend. We don’t care who or what gets in our way- we squash them. “Sorry, I’m on my way to the top, and you’re just an obstacle I need to trample over to get there.” What is the top anyway? Some stupid ideal we’ve created. We assume we have all this time to enjoy our riches, that these things will last and sustain and hold us together. But we never know when it is our time to go. In reality we’re only just a coronary ready to blow, or dormant cancer, or a car crash away from the exit of our bodies.  So why spend this whole time adorning our bodies when it’s only temporary anyway? Throughout this life, we are only preparing to exit our bodies.  So we should be building into and encouraging and loving each other’s souls, not our outside appearances. What are our bodies worth? “Store up your treasures in heaven, where rust and moths do not destroy.” The Bible backs this up clearly, knowing that our souls will be the only thing entering the afterlife, whether heaven or hell.

The American is always reaching for more goods in search of what makes them whole. If we take a step back and look at how people are surviving in other countries, in way worse circumstances with way less than what we have, yet with so much more happiness, how could we think that material items are going to fill us? The more we have, the more we have to depend on, and none of these things last. They rot away, and what are we left with when we die? An empty body that we’ve poured so much into yet lies there decaying in a casket. It’s our souls that will last. Oops sorry we didn’t invest much in those. We were so concerned about how we measured up, how we appeared to others. #WHOOPS. In order to keep making a living, producers have to keep making more things to sell, more lies or tricks to make their products sell, and thus we just fall deeper into consumption. We need to take a step back and get our priorities straight. The cultivation of material simplicity and relational richness is what will result in true happiness. If we aren’t happy with the version we have now, what makes us think we could be happy with a ‘better’ version? We will always find a little flaw to complain about, or it will just get boring and we’ll want something bigger and better. Consuming doesn’t end unless you find a way to control and train your appetite, and consume things that are healthy and nourishing.

The amount of money we spend on ad campaigns and purchasing these cheaply put-together products is unreal. Imagine if we invested that into our education systems, our social uplift programs, our resources for the down-and-out. Now that would be an act of serious value. Money well spent on something that is going to matter, that is going to last. Teach people to think for themselves, rather than trying to skew concepts into one narrow, corrupt tunnel of vision.  Have we honestly found nothing better to do with our time than to lie and waste money? Seems like a forgettable existence. It’s time to leave a lasting legacy. Apathy is the easy way out.