Video: Materialism in American Culture (A High School Perspective)
Curious about what’s on the mind of high schoolers these days? Washington, D.C.-area students Eva Kung-Bi and Raenya Sharma compiled this short video on “Materialism in American Culture,” which explores the historical roots of the country’s drive to consume, for their AP Seminar class, an introduction to advanced research.
They entered the documentary into the annual C-SPAN “StudentCam” video contest, which in 2019 focused on the theme “What Does It Mean to Be American?” The competition encourages students in grades 6–12 to think critically about issues that affect our communities and our nation, and to capture that thinking in a 5–6 minute documentary for the opportunity to receive cash prizes.
For 2019, the contest asked students to “Choose a constitutional right, national characteristic, or historic event and explain how it defines the American experience.” According to the contest website, student submissions “should evaluate how this right, characteristic or event is upheld in our society, or challenged by current events. Rights or characteristics may include aspects of democracy, opportunity, liberty, justice, equality, diversity, unity, individualism, other rights, guiding principles, or shared values.”
As classmate Max Vroda, who submitted the video to New Dream, explains, “Materialism was just the first thing we thought of as an answer to that topic, from being in American society for our whole lives. The rest of the documentary’s ideas came from research.”
The video features an interview with New Dream Advisory Council member Kelley Dennings.
