Friday, December 1, 2017

THE EFFECTS OF CONSUMERISM

In recent years, a host of people must have heard about consumerism in the globalizing world; nevertheless, have they ever considered the effects of this concept? Even though consumerism has different kinds of connotations, as is commonly known, it means high levels of consumption, in other words the selfish and frivolous collecting of products. In today’s world, people consume and consume regardless of various drastic outcomes of over-consumption. Accordingly, there are several effects of consumerism on individuals and the earth.

In the first place, as time goes on, conditions change along with the developing world. Correspondingly, lifestyles of individuals have been changing in the sense that they are more lavish and full of material comforts rather than focused on simplicity. Hence, people’s wants and desires increase. For example, new devices are released to the market everyday and people want to have them. They think that the better their income, the better their purchasing power. But when they are not able to do so, they feel dissatisfied. Therefore, this circumstance gives rise to depression and stress for individuals in the long term. Moreover, the crime rate also increases because people start to steal when they want to possess expensive gadgets.

On the other hand, consumerism has a number of damaging outcomes for the earth. The production and consumption of commodities requires the use of natural resources such as wood and water. Consequently, natural resources might be used up and destroyed due to high levels of consumption. Furthermore, the use of commodities themselves create pollutants and waste, and that causes ecological imbalances and environmental pollution.

All in all, consumerism has a variety of effects on individuals and the earth. It brings about stress, depression and crime for people and it harms the earth and damages the natural resources. To eradicate consumerism, we need to look at drastic outcomes and figure out the reasons of these problems.

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