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Consumerism, alienation and conspicuous consumption
Consumerism is the belief that personal wellbeing and happiness depends to a very large extent on the level of personal consumption, particularly on the purchase of material goods. The idea is not simply that wellbeing depends upon a standard of living above some threshold, but that at the centre of happiness is consumption and material possessions. A consumerist society is one in which people devote a great deal of time, energy, resources and thought to “consuming”. The general view of life in a consumerist society is consumption is good, and more consumption is even better.
In Marxism, life is about the exchange. However, the exchange is not equal to consumerism. Some people always gain more, and some gain less than what they deserve. (Becker, 1984) Take the suicide issues of Foxconn’s workers as an example, they committed suicide because of the poor working environment and low wage. “The underside of culture is blood, torture, death, and terror “ (Jameson 1984: 4)
According to Veblen, conspicuous consumption is that consumers prefer a product because it is ‘expensive’ and ‘luxury’. (Veblen, 1899) We consume with sentiments and this kind of consumption distinguish us with ‘others’.
The self-image (especially on social media) is also a kind of consumerism. We promote ourselves as a ‘product’. This also leads to a precarity in a relationship that we tend to invest in others to gain something. We want to look ‘pretty’ and ‘rich’ on social media, to be the same as others (mostly the celebrities and peer).