Want and New Trendy Shoes
Through the passing of time, the reach of advertising has become even more widespread in society and the underlying desire for consumers to buy “stuff” has been constantly growing. Some analysts say that this desire stems from fears and insecurities. Others say that corporations use advertising to exploit consumers as early as in childhood, and through magazine ads and trends.
If you think about society before the invention of advertising, they never had the urge to go shopping and buy new cars, gadgets, clothes or the hottest new trendy shoes. Fair desires were more closely tied to their needs such as food, shelter and basic transportation.Advertising and consumerism have magnified these desires within us. Today more than ever, we are always wanting to buy and spend more. In the 1960s, typically only one family member needed to work in order to support everybody else. Today, most families need to wage earners. And people are more in debt than ever before.
We rarely take the time to ask ourselves: why do we need all this stuff? Why are we working so hard just to have clothes we don’t need, stuff we won’t use, and trends that I don’t even really care about? What we need to ask ourselves is: do I really need this, or is this just a desire created by marketing and commercials?Commercials and advertising feed off of our peers by making this deal like we’re not good. If we don’t have the latest bottle or are not wearing the latest style, then we are not as good as the person who does. That’s why trends change every season and new models come out every year. It’s an endless cycle of phones, cars, cameras, MP3 players, T-shirts, and shoes. If we can take a step back and see the reality of what advertising does to us, we can save ourselves a lot of stress and money by differentiating queen needs and unnecessary wants.It is possible to slowly let go of desires. Wish gradual effort, we can learn to be more conscious of our impulses and reasoning behind why we want to buy something new.
Often times, we don’t really need to buy something. Over time, if we distance ourselves from these desires, we can simplify our lives by buying less, spending less, getting into less debt, and earning less. Most importantly, we can be happier with what we do have, rather than dwelling on what we don’t have.
