I think that consumerism is what some might say a double-edged sword, with one edge being sharper than the other. I think that consumerism plays an important role in society. It has its positive side but it also has a pretty big dark side. Consumerism has a substantial part in society, economy and the environment. While there are plenty of arguments about the problems of consumerism, I would like to focus on a few. The first issue is what I think the most obvious problem with consumerism and that is; what is consumerism doing to our environment. There are examples everywhere about how we cannot continue on the same path that we are headed. We are consuming at a faster rate than ever before. This one topic is loaded with negativities for instance, because we are consuming more, we are also creating more trash. I was curious to understand how much trash is generated by each person and according to the EPA website, it is around 4.4 pounds per person per day. That is an astounding amount of waste everyday and that is just in the U.S. It would be alarming to see the worldwide statistics. Producing that much waste each day requires that each person buy and consume products. This brings me to my next topic. One idea that I absolutely hate is the concept of planned obsolescence. The fact that we design things to fail infuriates me. We are in a day and time with such amazing technological advance, yet me still build things to fail. Why? That is an easy question to answer. Money. We have the ability to make things last much longer than they do however, that would decrease the amount of money made by those companies. So, these companies keep us coming back for more because they know their products will break. They also know that their products make life easier and because we are all about an easier life and we depend on them, we continue to support this concept. I think that IPhones are a perfect example of this. Every year there is a new IPhone that comes out. Last years model still works but it doesn’t work as well as the new one, with the new technology and features. We need the latest and greatest model to “keep up with the Jones’” Now how does Apple make money from those that don’t want a new phone each year? They come out with “updates” that require more memory and slow the old phones down. This forces people to upgrade because eventually the phone is to slow to even use. It is not just Apple that does this. Every company that produces products has and will continue to do this until we as consumers say enough is enough. The last problem I enjoyed learning about with consumerism is image. Image is everything in today’s society. What we wear, what we drive, what phone do we use, what food we eat, are they the “cool” brands? Consumerism makes us a shallow society. It is a deception that the more we have; the better we are as individuals. The nicer the product, or the more expensive brand, the more accepted we are in society. Our self worth is based on the items that we can afford rather than who you are as a person. The demand is there for us to only continue to consume. We are constantly surrounded by the impression that we need this product and that product, while there isn’t a need; it is strictly just a want. It is sad that this type of consumerism continues on a day-to-day basis. Our society is only concerned about ourselves individually rather than the community as a whole. I think that the image is a major negative aspect of consumerism and is harmfully affecting our civilization. I read a quote the other day that really stuck out to me, I am unaware of the author or exact quote, but it was along the lines of; “The problem with consumerism is that it makes people buy things that wont make their life any better.” This really hit me and made me think about what makes me the happiest in life. It’s not what I have but whom I have to experience the “products” with. Relationships mean so much more to me than objects. Why does our society continue to consume at such a high rate? It’s a simple answer: because we can. We are ultimately responsible for consumption and we choose how much or how little to consume. I think that as a whole more and more people are connecting the dots and are realizing the impact that we are having on the planet and are slowly improving on certain aspects. We may not have found the perfect antidote for the negatives of consumerism, however; we are making steps in the right direction. With all the negatives of consumerism, it is still important to focus on some of the positive. The world would not be what it is today without consumerism. Consumerism gives us jobs, creates greater production and deeply impacts the growth of our economy. It plays an important role in our society, economy and the environment. I just wish we could focus not so much on what we buy or own, but rather who we are and how we treat others.