Chapter 65: Shop ‘Til We Drop
This chapter is about consumerism and shopping as an addiction. This is a very real factor in a lot of young people’s lives today. There’s always something newer and better and shinier whether that be clothes, makeup, furniture, jewelry, phones. In order to make money, pretty much every area of your life has been exploited in a way that you can buy a better version of it. This goes for holidays, and even seasons. You need new holiday dresses, sparkly makeup, more layers, a better coat! Theres a million reasons at any time that you should be buying something new. Even mental health has become a marketing ploy through “self care” shopping incentives. “Treat yourself.” Corporations are now roping in your mental health as justification for buying something. In the same way that trends come and go and are an extremely fast moving tactic in order to get you to spend more money, consumerism and the way the industry works overall is the same speed. I’ve found that a way to sort of step back and remove yourself from this track is to browse in thrift and vintage stores instead. Once you become familiar and comfortable with thrift and vintage environments it sort of takes off that pressure to buy, buy, buy! You’re able to find timeless and unique pieces at any time of year and they end up meaning a lot more than quick trend pieces ever will. You get more time and use our of them and this can help remove you from the frenzy that is consumerism.
