This has been said
over and over. But
fuck it, I'm saying it again.
The line between desire and necessity blurs in our consumer culture.
Marketing strategists don't just sell products –
they craft narratives, weaving wants into the fabric of our
perceived needs. They tap into our emotions,
plant seeds of desire, and nurture them with promises of better lives and brighter futures. Even when our rational minds whisper "
I don't really need this," the
siren song of carefully crafted advertising can transform simple wants into seemingly urgent necessities. Sometimes we
pause, catching ourselves in deep desire, and wonder: when did
this want begin to feel so essential?
In today's digital landscape, desire isn't just created –
it's engineered with precision.
Social media has transformed
our feeds into endless
shopping aisles, where advertisements slip between photos of friends and family like uninvited guests at a party. Influencers have become walking billboards, turning every aspect of daily life into a shopping opportunity. Perhaps most telling are the niche collectibles that capture our attention and wallets – take
Funko Pops, for instance. These vinyl figures perfectly illustrate how marketing can turn a simple decorative item into a must-have collection, convincing us that one isn't enough when we didn't need any to begin with.
Our collecting impulse has morphed into an
endless cycle of consumption. What started with simple pleasures like trading baseball cards has exploded into
an all-encompassing pursuit of ownership – from jam band concert recordings to luxury timepieces to seasonal home décor that changes with each passing holiday. The hunger to acquire has grown so voracious that we've created a new economy of side hustles, where everyone seems to be both buyer and seller,
each of us simultaneously feeding and
being fed by the machine of modern consumerism. We've transformed from a society that occasionally collects into one that
constantly consumes, trapped in an endless loop of buying and selling to one another.
So please.. take time to pause and reflect.
Review your possessions carefully, distinguishing between genuine necessities and mere wants. Consider changing your shopping habits – support local businesses instead of defaulting to online retailers. Learn to darn and patch your clothing or support a local tailor to do it for you. Go to scratch and dent, wood recycling or freecycle stores for kitchen and bathroom projects. Forgo giving your monies to
CEOs, large companies, and their shareholders all the while harming the environment with shipping and handling from the
other side of the planet. Instead, explore
local thrift stores and antique shops for furniture like love seats or kitchen tables. Find a local small appliance mechanic to fix your household appliances or lookup how to do it yourself. When we prioritize quality over
bargain-priced furniture and mass produced crap from big retailers like Walmart and Ikea, we can invest in pieces that last rather than contributing to the cycle of mass-produced items rushed to meet corporate quotas.
Anyway,
now is the time.
Heck, it was always the time.
Pitter patter.
Edit: Yes. This has been said, I know what I sound like, and one person cannot save the world. But if all of the world decided suddenly
boycott everything, it would be magical.