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Distracted by Shoes

Started by Jarred · 9 months ago

The following is a guest post from Daniel H.  Welcome back, Dan!
In a recent NY Times column, David Brooks describes a deterioration in American culture over the past century, noting that “America once had a culture of thrift…but over the past decades, that unspoken ... Continue reading »

2 comments

  • Ashish

    11 months ago

    Big questions!

    I think a lot of this is inextricably bound up with the extent to which we view consumption as a form of expression. The people who waited in line to make sure they were among the first to get an iPhone, for instance, were making a statement about who they were as much as they were making one about the exciting novelty of the iPhone. I think it's a good thing that our wealth has allowed us the luxury of devoting so much energy to these pursuits--I'm sure many East Germans burst into tears the first time they stepped inside a West German store--but I think it's easy to lose sight of the boundary between using our shopping choices to augment our growth and using those choices to fill in for our normal processes of maturation.
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  • Daniel

    11 months ago

    I agree that this is true. It's troubling to me, though, that even as we consume, we do not often question how advertising can affect us morally or spiritually. While we may have the freedom to express ourselves in many ways as consumers, we also should question our needs vs. wants and ask ourselves how advertising addresses these. I feel that advertising primarily addresses our wants rather than our needs, and it seems that, in general, the marketing process does not build us up as humans but instead appeals into our deepest flaws of greed and insecurity. I guess I just wish businesses and advertising as whole cultures would spend more time figuring out how to help us become better humans, instead of being satisfied when we become worse ones.
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