Has There Been a State Change in Consumerism?
I may not have been a prime example of a mid-80’s vintage mall rat while growing up, but I certainly wasn’t too far off. The defining locations of where to go during my first two years of high school were the various malls of north Dallas. NorthPark. Galleria. Valley View. Prestonwood. During my last two years, it was all about Woodland Hills in Tulsa which was within walking distance of Union High School—as long as you didn’t mind being a little late to class after lunch. I never minded, much to the chagrin of my parents.
The mix of non-stop advertising on cable TV, fast food, the perfection of the convenience store, and that subtle but powerful feeling of happiness just buying something was a strong part of my coming-of-age experience. In fact, I’d go so far to say that American consumerism wasn’t just any part of my experience, it was one of the defining aspects of it. For better or worse, it will always be part of my psyche at a very low level. The fact that I try to only channel it towards only buying well-made products that embody the values I want to promote doesn’t change the fact that it’s there and is part of how I interact with the world.
And yet, something’s changed over the last couple of decades. Part of that change is certainly within me as I’ve grown up and become much more aware of some of the forces that motivate me. There’s another part of it, however, that seems to be a mutation. A metastasis of sorts. Something about the forces that were in effect when I was growing up seems to have gone through a state change and now they are stronger than ever.
The use of pepper spray in WalMart by people searching for deals on piles of cheap disposable crap is certainly an easy to point at symptom of it. The sheer volume of high-volume advertising on broadcast TV is another, especially on the kid channels. The harshest sign of all for me, however, was spending a day with my youngest sister last week during the Thanksgiving holiday and realizing just how much of her life is occupied with figuring out what to buy, when to buy it, and what storage to buy to store everything else that has been or will be bought. I think we talked about other things for all of about thirty minutes.
It was exhausting.
It’d be easy to blame these uneasy feelings on simply being older. Over forty and all that. I’d love to do that and picture myself as turning into one of those get off my lawn types. It’d be an easy way out, in fact. I don’t buy it. Somethings up.
