Is consumerism robbing you of your health and happiness?
There is no denying that we are living in a world of consumerism. Being literally bombarded with signals to BUY BUY BUY wherever we go. Exiting most MRT stations, you will be greeted with a mall with bubble tea shops to quench your thirst, bakeries for a quick snack you can buy on your way to your destinations, shoes, cosmetics, fast food chains, clothes, and jewelry at your convenience. In the past, the major sale in Singapore happens during the Great Singapore Sale held in August and maybe the year-end Christmas sale. Gradually, there was the addition of Hari Raya Sales, Black Friday Sale, 11.11 sale, along with 10.10 sales, 9.9 sales and it seems like there is a sale every month. At its core, consumerism encourages the insatiable appetite to acquire goods way beyond our basic needs. Is the culture of consumerism costing you your health and happiness?
“It’s just a harmless little snack”, whispers the snack devil. What sort of harm can it cost, you might ask. When the occasional snack becomes a daily habit, it adds up, adding inches to your waistline. Shops offer new range of products, new flavours, promotional items and discounts to grab your attention and your cash. The make you feel like you are getting a good deal for purchasing them. Plenty of these foods are deep fried, highly refined and processed, hardly the healthy choice. In the long run, succumbing to consumerism can definitely cost your health.
What about non-perishables such as fashion goods? What's the harm in them you might ask. Even though they do not spike our blood glucose like when we drink bubble tea or ice cream, constantly chasing the latest fashions can distract us from what brings true happiness. For most of us, our wealth is finite and what we spend our money on shows the importance they play in our lives. Do you really need to get every colour of the same design? Do you really need a micro bag just to put your earphones in? How often do you even wear each article of clothing? Brands tend to sell the idea that you would need to purchase this dress or that pair of shoes in order to look cute or cool. They tell you that you need to complete this 10 step or 20 step skin care process in order to look beautiful. We have to ask ourselves what are we chasing and why do we do that? Is it because we are trying to fill the void with materialism? Does buying more stuff even fulfil us or cause more unhappiness? Have you ever camped for a new launch only to find that you lost out in cart-ing out the item and feeling sad and depressed after. During the launch of the MoonSwatch back on 26 March 22, you could see snaking queues in front of swatch shops all round the world. Fights even broke out in some cities, all because of a plastic watch. Is it really worth the stress and effort?
Consumerism would not have been so rampant if not for the media and social media. Influencers drive sales of products they endorse to those who aspire to be like them. The recent netflix show ‘Celebrity’ clearly demonstrates this. The creation of hashtags like #OOTD encourages consumers to show off their daily outfits, emulating the culture of always needing to show new clothes. The constant pressure to acquire more possessions can lead to financial strain, emotional and psychological stress. We get sucked into a cycle of desire and dissatisfaction that is fueled by a never ending state of comparison and envy. We see celebrities, influencers and even friends showing off new cars, exotic holidays, clothes and compare that with what we do not own. Focus falls on what we lack which is a total opposite of a state of gratitude and that causes unhappiness. The consumers are not the only victims of consumerism. For the retailers and content creators, they are also under immense pressure to portray their best image and churn out new collections. They may force themselves to do live reels late into the night, affecting sleep. They may force themselves to go on extreme exercise regimes or dangerous diets just to keep up appearances. They may undergo immense stress to launch collections frequently to keep consumerism’s attention to “the next new thing”.
Besides your finances, consumerism robs you of a lot more than you realise. It robs you of your time. Quality time that can be spent building strong relationships versus camping for new limited edition sneakers. Time you can use for physical activities and exercises versus queuing up in snaking long lines for the latest donut. Time you can use to recharge and relax in nature versus constant scrolling on the phone looking at what other people possess and comparing your life with theirs. Quality time learning a new skill versus spending time bingeing on Netflix. Time to explore your creative endeavours versus spending time on forums and social media being told what is in fashion and what is not, what you should wear and what you should put on your face. If we calculate all the time lost to consumerism, you never know what you might have achieved. Perhaps you would have learnt a new language, written books, played a musical instrument, spent more time with people that mattered, got healthier and fitter, served the unfortunate, played a new sport. Society on the whole may be more creative, healthier, happier and more fulfilled.
So what can we do to reduce the stronghold that consumerism has on us?
Be mindful of whom you allow to influence you.
You have the choice to follow, you have the choice to unfollow but know this, whoever you follow is not merely another number on your list but that person has the authority to capture your attention. You can follow inspirational figures that you can draw positivity from or you can follow a blog shop or a brand who is more than ready to push new products into your feeds to influence you to buy your product. It is much easier to avoid than to try to resist temptation. Most social media platforms are already pushing advertisements to you whether you like it or not. Phones eavesdrop on conversions so they can sell you products. We do not need to voluntarily follow brands whose main goal is to push for profits and use you as a human capital.
2. Feel the pinch when you spend money
In this highly digitised world that we live in, we use digital current a lot. We pay with credit cards, we use our phones to pay for food and we do online shopping. Research has shown that when we use cash, we feel the pinch more compared to using digital currency. Physical currency makes any payment more tangible and real and hence makes buying a more realistic experience. As it becomes slightly more inconvenient for us to spend, it may cause us to be less inclined to do so. For some, this might be useful to avoid being subjected to consumerism.
3. Consider if it is a WANT or a NEED.
Before we click the buy button or make the next impulse purchase, do consider if the goods we want to buy are a want or a need. There can be endless wants in life. A new car, a new house, new shoes and new clothes. But when we truly consider if we already own a similar item that serves the same purpose, a lot of these items are not needed. Buying only what we need can also be environmentally friendly. There will be less wastage which means less trash, less landfills, less incineration, less carbon footprint. This is more useful than purchasing another t-shirt made from recycled bottles.
4. Live a more intentional life.
You have the control and power to make choices in life. Living an intentional life is exercising that power. Conversely, when we allow the mass media to have control of what we wear, how we spend our money, we succumb to taking the blue pill and live a life without purpose or meaning. So take the red pill and be awoken to the true reality and not let consumerism have a hold on your life.
5. Be part of the solution.
We can be part of the problem or part of the solution. Social media’s influence on consumerism is only possible when we partake in the movement and the hashtags. What you post on your posts, stories and reels can affect not only your social network but can carry a butterfly effect around the world. If we stop posting # OOTD pictures, we can reduce the effects of consumerism. When we stop posting extravagant travels and expensive purchases, there will be less comparisons and envy, leading to less unhappiness.
6. Do not use shopping to seek comfort
We all encounter stress in our lives and there are a million ways to destress. We do not have to use shopping as our stress buster. There are much healthier ways to deal with stress. Try exercising, meditation, talking to a friend about it, breathing exercises or spending time in nature. All of which you do not bring your wallet or use your credit card.
7. Your self worth is more than your possessions and ‘likes’.
Your self worth is determined by yourself. It is not measured by the amount of designer bags you own, not by the exclusive property you live in, nor the number of ‘likes’ or followers you have on social media. If you start measuring your worth based on worldly possessions, you will be bound to be unhappy. The never ending comparisons with others who posts more lavish holidays or goods will keep us unhappy. There will always be others with more exotic holidays, more shoes, faster cars, bigger houses. Instead, value the quality of your relationships and the impact you make in other people’s lives. As to ashes to ashes, dust to dust. When we leave this earth, we will not be able to bring any possessions with us but the memories and the positive impact in other people’s lives continue to live on.
In conclusion, the pull of consumerism may be very rampant and strong in today’s society, but we can still exercise our own free-will to reduce its power and not be a victim. There are steps we can take to disallow consumerism to rob us of our health and happiness but only if we make a conscious decision. Life can be healthier, happier and more fulfilling.
