I’m going to talk about
consumer society because, yes, we live in a world where we are
constantly pushed to buy more and that's not good. When you wake up
in the morning, you check out the social networks, etc., right? Well,
next time, count the ads! Out on the street and on public transport,
billboards big and small are almost everywhere you look. On average,
you’re going to see about 1600 ads in just one day (according to a
Life magazine dated???), without really realizing it. All that info
goes into your brain and drives you to want more and more. Adverts
promote the idea/feeling that life can be magical if we just buy the
stuff the admen are trying to flog us. Also, there are the huge sales
extravaganzas like Black Friday, when the temptation to get something
(you probably do not really need) at half price is difficult to
resist! In the end, we can only be frustrated at not being able to
buy all these things.
Advertising works on
comparison: we are encouraged to compare ourselves to others, to see
what others have that we do not; this makes us envious. The
frustration pushes us to buy more. There is also the mimicry effect.
In adverts, people are shown as having an object (like a car or a
fridge) which makes them “happy”. We all want to be happy like
the people in the advert, so we buy the object associated with that
feeling. We mimick the people in the ad. Do you believe a hapy life
is about having tons of things?! Myself, I was a bit unaware of the
power of advertising (on me) until quite recently.
If you think about it,
consumer society depends on making people want to buy a lot of
things, most of which are not necessary. The cost is not just on
people's mental and physical health, but also on the environment.
Think of all the resources you need to make all this junk we buy so
frenetically! What quantity of pollution was emitted in making,
packaging, transporting, consuming and disposing of the overpriced
and probably unrecycleable thing you bought?!
On
average, a French person throws away 21kg of electronic devices per
year and only 20% will be recycled. 88% of French people change
their phones though they are not broken. 3 million business computers
in working order, less than 4 years old, are destroyed every year
(according to Wefund). To manufacture a 70g smartphone we need 70kg
of material. The ecological cost of this is scandalous! Not only are
we over-consuming resources, but there are also greenhouse gas
emissions associated with the production of these products.
I think it’s possible
for you and me to challenge consumer society. First of all, start
sorting through your objects; do you really need all of them? You can
give away some of them to associations or just sell them. Then try to
buy the things you really need, and if possible that have been
recycled, in second-hand shops like Emmaus, or on apps like Vinted.
As for the electronic products try to keep your devices until they’re
dead and if you want to buy new ones buy the reconditioned ones on
websites like Back Market.
I have a bright wonderful son, now a student, who is vegetarian and a climate activist... He is, however, a fashion victim! He finds it "normal" (he says) to spend more than 20 euros on a pair of trousers (he has ten decent pairs in the wardrobe at home!)... Do you have any advice I could give him to disuade him from wasting his money and adding to the pollution and exploitation of the fast fashion industry?!
ReplyDeleteThéo SABATIER writes: People buy things they don't really need and this is a waste of money and it wastes resources. I agree with you, we have to buy less, even when the prices are low (during the sales for example). But, most times, things are not cheap, which is why we have to take better care of the things we do own in order to avoid buying them again.
ReplyDeleteHélèna BAUDOIN writes: I agree, Emma, we live in a state of constant overconsumption. I myself am very easily influenced by adverts, especially by those abominable billboards! Even worse are the websites that use cookies that note all the sites we have visited and the products we are interested in so that companies can target us. And, as you say, we want to immmitate the Internet influencers and so we buy what they have. While listening to your talk, I thought about all the waste our consumer society generates. If today we are incapable of recycling relatively simple electronic devices, how will we cope with the waste of yet more advanced technologies (we are surely heading towards transhumanism)?
ReplyDeleteMali CHARGROS responds to Hélèna Baudoin’s comment on Emma Larue’s talk: Hello Hélèna! After reading your comment, I’m now even more wary of advertising! We are indeed willing victims of the consumer society we are part of. It is as if our raison d'être is the consumption of ever-more goods and services! We are brainwashed by unrelenting ads and intrusive billboards... You mention something that I hadn’t paid much attention to before: the cookies that are targeting us on the Internet. We are being pushed, unawares, to buy things that we don’t really need! Thanks to you, I’ll now be more careful about targeted advertising! Your comment and the talk itself make us understand that we need to be more selective in what we purchase. We need to ask ourselves: “Do I really need this thing, can I afford it, will it make me happy?” Also, we need to think about the environmental and social impact of the goods on sale (who made them and what were the working conditions?). Our purchasing power needs to become a force for good!
DeleteMaximilien BIDET writes: You said, Emma, that one of the reasons for overconsumption was the pernicious influence of ads; we watch 1600 ads per day, which is enormous! A really fast and easy way to avoid adverts on our social media is to have an adblocker or simply to deactivate cookies on websites.
ReplyDeleteHello Emma, I’m Mali and I too gave a talk at the EDYF. Your speech about consumer society and the negative effects of ads made me think a lot more about what I buy and why. People today, including me, are influenced by ads because we want to be “happy”, to compare ourselves to others or to be like the stars on TV, by buying things we don’t really need. You also tell us it affects the planet and how, even if our device or gadget still works, we keep buying an awful lot of things, especially when it’s Black Friday, like you said. By our behaviour, we’re overexploiting the planet because we want more and more everyday. I feel a bit guilty because, when I was younger, I wanted a lot of things that I did not even use, so now, once I have bought something, I make sure that I use it and for a long time too!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think we have to learn to be happy with what we have. Sometimes I think that people who have less than we do in our developed country are sometimes happier. I see on TV that, in Africa, people often seem happy because they live in small villages. They seem content with what Nature has given them (though I’m sure it’s not like that all the time). As Baloo the bear sings in the Jungle Book, we should be happy with “the bare necessities”, don't you think?
Paula KAUFFELD writes: I completely agree with Emma: ads are tricking our minds! When we see something on billboards, or repeatedly on internet, we usually end up wanting it! What I usually do when I want to buy something, is I wait three days after I have seen it. After those three days, I have usually forgotten about it so I don't buy it, or I realise that I don't need it because in those three days I haven't missed it in any of my activities, so I did not really need it. This trick works for me and maybe it will work for others. For electronic devices, I always take for example the old phones of my family or friends if I want a new one. This way, I don't have to buy a new one and it avoids all its production process. Also, when we see something that we want to buy, why don't we try to make it at home with things that we can recycle? We can do it with members of our family or friends and have a great afternoon together doing DIY. Recycling, having fun, and having something new at the end of it that we wanted, I think it's a great deal!
ReplyDeleteMalaurie WAHL writes: Emma, I totally agree with you! We live in a capitalist society in which people consume too much. I’m like everyone else: I am easily influenced by advertising and I know that I buy a lot of things that I don’t really need. Do you know “Les aventures de Télémaque” by Fénelon (1699)? The author imagines a society in which the people content themselves just with what they really need. I’m not sure that I want to live as frugaly as the people in that book, but if we were to live like them, all would be different... Thanks to that book, I realized the extreme consumption of goods in our society and now I make more of an effort to buy less.
ReplyDelete