As consumers, we’ve gotten so used to endless shopping, hauls, and reviews; influencers and celebrities telling us to buy this, buy that. But now a new trend is rising that seems to be telling us to do the complete opposite. Let’s talk about why more and more people are going for underconsumption core. Is it really just a fad? Or are we already seeing the rise of another cultural shift?
I mean, I've cut advertising out of my kids lives almost entirely. It's now down to mostly what is seen in stores as we go through them and product placement in movies and streaming, with an...
I mean, I've cut advertising out of my kids lives almost entirely. It's now down to mostly what is seen in stores as we go through them and product placement in movies and streaming, with an occasional asinine radio ad about spying on customers.
As such, we have about 10,000x less toys than most of their friends. We do have a lot of craft supplies and buckets of miscellaneous Legos at their disposal, so they often invent new things rather than demanding the latest and greatest garbage shilled on Disney. It is getting mildly worse as they get exposed to their peers raving about said garbage, but that's more excusable, and they end up pulling their friends back a bit too, so a net win IMO.
My one kid has been using a hot glue gun and Exacto knife unsupervised since Kindergarten, other parents are flabbergasted by this. It's amazing what a little instruction, patience, healthy respect for tools, and independence enable.
It's re-enforced for me that removing advertising reduces demand for unnecessary stuff. It is therefore essential to kill advertising in order to save the planet.
We already know how bad advertising is. Advertisers keep saying they are necessary to tell people about products and services they might not otherwise know of, and to be fair there is a lot of...
We already know how bad advertising is. Advertisers keep saying they are necessary to tell people about products and services they might not otherwise know of, and to be fair there is a lot of truth to that statement, but by far the largest advertisement campaigns are those meant to reinforce your recognition of brands you already know. Think your Coca Cola or Oreo. The people making the ads know this too; why else do you think it’s so rare to talk about how their thing is better than anyone else’s? Advertising makes the world a worse place, and because we have decided we would rather watch an advertisement than pay a little more for our media, it’s never going to go away.
No, but we can start seriously turning the dials against the most harmful advertising, the way we did with cigarettes and alcohol. Ban gambling ads. Ban food ads. Ban drug ads. Heavily regulate...
No, but we can start seriously turning the dials against the most harmful advertising, the way we did with cigarettes and alcohol.
Ban gambling ads. Ban food ads. Ban drug ads. Heavily regulate ads targeted at children, the same way we heavily regulate online services targetted at children.
It's a good little video that covers a lot of angles: what is it, where's it from, common criticisms and boundaries of where it becomes just regular consunsumerism or fetishizing poverty. My...
It's a good little video that covers a lot of angles: what is it, where's it from, common criticisms and boundaries of where it becomes just regular consunsumerism or fetishizing poverty.
My personal opinion is that it's a trendy, click collecting way of saying "frugal is good". And I'm all for that.
The caution, but also where my hope lies, is that we will break free of consuming cheap easily breaking things in favor of one [item] that lasts decades. Cautionary Sam Vimes reference is needed here:
The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. ... A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. ... But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.[4
My hope is that we will move away from fast fashion into quality cotton/linen/wool that lasts, and away from cheap pleather nonsense into one leather bag for life kind of thing. We can accessorize with colorful smaller things like a broch or a little dangly chain instead of needing a whole another trendy piece. But being able to BUY long-lasting items of good quality is itself highly problematic for the majority of us who can't afford to be frugal.
I recently looked into leather bags and even items in the hundred of dollars range won't last for life. Thousands of dollars for one bag is very different from the maths of 10 vs 50 boots. Recently I bought a pair of $200-300 Salomon shoes thinking they were expensive and hence will at least last a bit -- nope, they gave me wet feet within 6 months.
My hope is in buy it for life but I fear that there are no options left at all for quality item not just 5x, but even 20x what we can afford.
I mean, I've cut advertising out of my kids lives almost entirely. It's now down to mostly what is seen in stores as we go through them and product placement in movies and streaming, with an occasional asinine radio ad about spying on customers.
As such, we have about 10,000x less toys than most of their friends. We do have a lot of craft supplies and buckets of miscellaneous Legos at their disposal, so they often invent new things rather than demanding the latest and greatest garbage shilled on Disney. It is getting mildly worse as they get exposed to their peers raving about said garbage, but that's more excusable, and they end up pulling their friends back a bit too, so a net win IMO.
My one kid has been using a hot glue gun and Exacto knife unsupervised since Kindergarten, other parents are flabbergasted by this. It's amazing what a little instruction, patience, healthy respect for tools, and independence enable.
It's re-enforced for me that removing advertising reduces demand for unnecessary stuff. It is therefore essential to kill advertising in order to save the planet.
We already know how bad advertising is. Advertisers keep saying they are necessary to tell people about products and services they might not otherwise know of, and to be fair there is a lot of truth to that statement, but by far the largest advertisement campaigns are those meant to reinforce your recognition of brands you already know. Think your Coca Cola or Oreo. The people making the ads know this too; why else do you think it’s so rare to talk about how their thing is better than anyone else’s? Advertising makes the world a worse place, and because we have decided we would rather watch an advertisement than pay a little more for our media, it’s never going to go away.
No, but we can start seriously turning the dials against the most harmful advertising, the way we did with cigarettes and alcohol.
Ban gambling ads. Ban food ads. Ban drug ads. Heavily regulate ads targeted at children, the same way we heavily regulate online services targetted at children.
It's a good little video that covers a lot of angles: what is it, where's it from, common criticisms and boundaries of where it becomes just regular consunsumerism or fetishizing poverty.
My personal opinion is that it's a trendy, click collecting way of saying "frugal is good". And I'm all for that.
The caution, but also where my hope lies, is that we will break free of consuming cheap easily breaking things in favor of one [item] that lasts decades. Cautionary Sam Vimes reference is needed here:
My hope is that we will move away from fast fashion into quality cotton/linen/wool that lasts, and away from cheap pleather nonsense into one leather bag for life kind of thing. We can accessorize with colorful smaller things like a broch or a little dangly chain instead of needing a whole another trendy piece. But being able to BUY long-lasting items of good quality is itself highly problematic for the majority of us who can't afford to be frugal.
I recently looked into leather bags and even items in the hundred of dollars range won't last for life. Thousands of dollars for one bag is very different from the maths of 10 vs 50 boots. Recently I bought a pair of $200-300 Salomon shoes thinking they were expensive and hence will at least last a bit -- nope, they gave me wet feet within 6 months.
My hope is in buy it for life but I fear that there are no options left at all for quality item not just 5x, but even 20x what we can afford.
Glad to see Cara being mentioned here. It's a nice fit for Tildes :) Aubrey Plaza's less crazy twin :D