Do I need more?

Am I utilizing my resources well?

Environment is what influences and eventually creates us. Psychologists say that 30% of our personality comes from our environment (read about Bouchard et al and their Minnesota Twin study) therefore we are largery dependent on where we are. I want to share how the environment I found myself in affected my personality for a short while, but has taught me a lesson which will be remembered for a lifetime. Habits coming from an excessively capitalistic environment are not any good.

You see, I was and still am a minimalist in a way. My motto is not to buy things I essentially do not need (this ranges from clothing, food, tech…). However, this has changed recently. After coming to the USA in order to study, I was struck by the possibilities of a modern-day shopping. Advertisements and Amazon offers did not really effect me in the beginning; or so I thought so. In the last 5 months I have bought a new laptop, a new phone and a ton of other new fancy gadgets and other things I found useful. Currently, I am waiting for my student salary which will be quite enough to keep me happy until the new one arrives. However, I want to spend my salary on a new phone even though I really, like really, do not need one. I am planning a trip with my sister over the summer, a trip I really need to save money for but yet again, I really want a new good phone (as if I do not have a good one already) to keep me happy. What a folly.

The power of the American capitalistic system (mind you, not only American)is that it is everywhere and that it is quite subliminal. Amazon is an amazing company and its offers are great, but its strength is in its power to advertise. Recently I’ve read an article on “The Daily Currant” about a woman who has killed three in order to get an “Xbox One” for her son. Naturally, I know that this article was satirical in nature but it was quite enough for me to realize that now I became a part of this system. One more event (or a product), a real one, has also gotten me worried about this kind of consumer culture; Apple’s iPhone 5C. This one is so good one can do a case study on it. Everyone, and literally everyone, was (there are many who still are) aggravated by the fact that Apple’s iPhone’s are so expensive and Apple has finally chosen to do those people a favour by publishing an iPhone 5C. However, as the data show, iPhone 5C is not performing well on the markets. “iPhone 5C stands for cheap and I don’t want it!” my friend said to me and got me thinking; where are we going? Of course, there are many more things which struck me after I started researching about modern-day consumerism; the fact that more money is spent on hair products research and development annually than on humanitarian aid is appalling and thought-stimulating enough.

In the end, one can only state that we are more obsessed with what we can get rather than with what we already have! Indeed, I am not against consumerism for it does stimulate growth of economy therefore the standard of civilians, but I am very much against the brand led imperialism which depersonalizes us all. I realized that I was not utilizing my resources well and that I was spending my money on irrelevant things. Trust me, when this strikes you it will hurt. It is because of that that I have chosen to say no.

Will you say no?