A Consumer-Driven Culture

I remember back when I was in Ninth grade and took a class that opened my eyes to fantasies, trends, and the reality of commercial swaying of the Public in advertising. The masses were conditioned in a constant “out with the old and in with the new” propaganda and indoctrination revolving door that kept the unsatisfied and buying more. The newest model car, the latest hit songs, the newest beer, the latest fashion, the newest favor ice cream, et cetera kept the vicious cycle going. That class taught us to identify the ploy to snatch every dollar that the fat, dub and happy market could without us even noticing. It was like the old “Magic Eye” picture where items popped out, like the flying bird in the picture above. This consumer-driven culture of “shop till you drop” created a dependency on an economy of continuous purchasing, that when the public stops spending  on everything under the sun for any reason, the economy collapses and many businesses fold up. 

 

It wasn’t about the “latest and greatest”; it was primarily about making money by creating covetousness and getting others to desire that which they so not have and spend money on stuff that we may not necessarily need. The term, “keeping up with the Jones” has been around a long time, but so has “Thou shalt not covet”. Exodus 20:17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.” That is carved in stone as God’s Moral Law in the Ten Commandments. 

 

Pastor Willie spoke of this phenomena in a Sunday sermon last year  and it all came back. A consumer-driven culture is defined as a business term used to describe the effect of social status, societal values, and community activities on the overall purchase and consumption of goods and services in society. In other words, in consumer culture, a large part of what you do, what you value and how you are defined revolves around the buying and consuming of things. To pull this off successfully, people are constantly exposed to the market offering her products and services to consume. A significant amount of the radio and television airtime is spent advertising goods and services. Billboard signs line the highways and bi-ways. Banner ads are on the search engines you use  on your computer, then they track where you visit on the Internet. And in the magazines that you read, about a third of the pages consist of ads. We are bombarded with the message to spend, spend, spend. Some theorists have regarded consumer culture as oppressive and manipulative, and some argue that it is a good business model and consumer sovereignty. 

 

It is not truly a Consumer-drive culture, but a consumer-tempted culture. They dangle the newest shiny bobble in front of you so that you see it, want it and you get it.  Christian, as Ephesians 5:15-16 says, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” 

 

In Christ, Brian