Emotional disadvantages of consumerism

1. Emotional disadvantages of consumerism Sheila M. Vélez Loucil#S00695480

2. Consumerism- is a social and economic order that encourages the purchase of goods and services in ever-greater amounts. • The theory that a country that consumes goods and services in large quantities will be better off economically. • Consumerism for example, is an industrial society that is advanced; a large amount of goods is bought and sold

3. Emotional have been described as discrete and consistent responses to internal or external events which have a particular significance for the organism. • Emotions are brief in duration and consist of a coordinated set of responses, which may include verbal, physiological, behavioral, and neural mechanisms. • Emotion is often associated and considered reciprocally influential with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, and motivation.

4. Consumerism is becoming the hallmark of most world economies. • A cultural pattern of using purchased goods to satisfy wants and to mark social status, personal worth and group identity. • Companies and businesses create choices in consumers so consumers already have a ‘need’ when they engage in buying behavior. • Although this need could be personal and social, the need could also perfectly an emotional need to possess.

5. A person’s standard of living is valued by his or her material possessions. • Puerto Rico has a consumer economy and is known for its material growth and prosperity. • But presently, the economy is reeling under the pressure of recession. People who have lost their jobs are finding it difficult to meet both their ends.

6. The incessant pressure to acquire material goods can result in negative effect: emotional disadvantages of consumerism. • There are certain effects such as low self esteem and loss of self confidence, approval dependent on possessions and status rather than on personal values, preoccupation with externals and habituation for more material. • The material wealth is the deciding factor about whether a society is highly developed or not.

7. Craving for goods is high. The wants and desires of the people increase. • The better their income, the better their purchasing power. • But in case, they are not able to do so, and then they feel dissatisfied. One is in a race to earn more and is forced to cope up with stress and other work related tensions.

8. Crime rate also increases as wants to possess expensive gadgets increase: thefts and robberies take place. • Personal relationships also get affected as people are busy trying to earn more to maintain their standard of living.

9. Consumerism has also resulted in ecological imbalances. The natural habitat is being destroyed to create more goods and build more buildings. • Industrial pollution is affecting people in many ways.

10. People lifestyles have also changed in the sense they are more lavish, full of material comforts rather than focusing on simplicity. • Psychological health also can get affected if one’s desires are not meant such as depression.

11. Friendship, family ties and personal autonomy are only promoted as a vehicle for gift giving and the rationale for the selection of communication services and personal acquisition. Everything becomes mediated through the spending of money on goods and services.

12. Consumerism interferes with the workings of society by replacing the normal common-sense desire for an adequate supply of life's necessities, community life, a stable family and healthy relationships with an artificial ongoing and insatiable quest for things and the money to buy them with little regard for the true utility of what is bought.