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The main characteristics of the consumer society are high consumption and disposal rates. But, this is only possible because of the big variation of products, that creates in us a feeling of urgent desire. The current consumption system, that is called Materials Economy, is based on the stages of extraction, transformation, distribution, consumption, and disposal. This system is in crisis because it is a linear system, facing some problems, such as the finite amount of raw materials and the waste generated.

Through advertising is capable having a better knowledge of new products and we are presented with the products that we have come to feel a need for. We always desire what we don't have, always wanting more and more and despising what we already have, creating dissatisfaction and frustrated desire. That is the base of consumerism.

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Consumption: This is the stage where consumers purchase and use the products. It involves the utilization of goods for various purposes, such as personal use or investment.

Using resources (products) to satisfy human wants or needs. Consumption can be necessary both for sustaining life (food, shelter, etc) and discretionary (things that cause entertainment, luxury goods, etc).

Consumerism: Only exists because it makes us feel pleasure. It is a lifestyle based on consumption. Consumerism is characterized by an emphasis on shopping, advertising, and the pursuit of novelty and trends. When we feel a need to buy something, to consume, even if we don't need, when consuming provokes pleasure in us. It emphasizes the role of consumption in achieving happiness and pleasure, often equating material possessions with personal success and well-being.

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This concept explains that consumers buy products not for their direct use value, but as a way of signaling social and economic status. High rates of conspicuous consumption can be really wasteful, because real resources are used up to produce goods that are not valued for their use but it can serve as a signal to others and help establish someone's identity. It can also affect social and economic conflicts, because of the high rates of consumption.

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It is the use of goods and services by households or individuals to satisfy their needs or wants. It is a social phenomenon in which people consume goods or services for reasons beyond their basic use-value.

It is fundamental in the economy, evolving everything, from the food we eat and the clothes we wear to the services we utilize, such as education, healthcare, and entertainment.

We are currently in the “golden era of consumption”, where consuming is our identity, and it represents value (as consuming means money).

The way companies have to force more consumption, the way they make the population buy more, can work in two ways: Perceived obsolescence and planned obsolescence.

The fashion industry also has a similar way of working: There are cycles and trends that renew themselves to make you buy more, throw it away and then buy it again.

This big consumption leads to air, water and land pollution.

Consumption is the driver of this whole linear system (Materials Economy). Because it plays a central hole in driving economic growth and prosperity. It basically “builds” the economy, since it is the stage where products come to us, that we consume them. While consumption drives the economy in the system, critics argue that this linear model is unsustainable, due to its dependence on finite resources, environmental degradation, and social inequalities. Now there is increasing interest in transitioning towards more sustainable economic systems, such as the circular economy, which aims to decouple economic growth from resource consumption, also minimizing waste by promoting resource efficiency, reuse, and recycling.

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Consumption is one of the biggest concepts in economy and it helps determine the growth and success of the economy. Businesses can open up and offer all kinds of great products, but if we don't purchase or consume their products, they won't stay in business for very long.They change very often.

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The number of consumers grows by second. And if everyone lived like western consumers we would need 5 planets to support us. The consumer class will grow from 3.5 billion in 2017 to 5.6 billion by 2030. The fact that more people are able to enjoy the benefits of buying goods and services, but also going beyond their very basic needs is essentially positive. But brings numerous bad consequences that affect our planet and our daily lives. This huge amount of consumption is called overconsumption.

As we know, working with a linear system (the Materials Economy), in a world of limited resources, is a huge problem. This system basically transforms natural resources to waste.

Consuming makes us feel good and pleasured, but there are many issues caused by it. Such as overconsumption, waste generation, resource depletion, environmental impact of products, social and ethical concerns and health impacts.

Understanding all those issues requires a multifaceted approach, that includes our education and awareness (consumers education), such as learning how our products are made and where they came from, policy interventions, the promotion and popularization of sustainable consumption and production practices.

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It happens when the ecosystem can no longer sustain the use of its resources, happens in overconsumption and overproduction. It overloads and damages earth by the use of its natural resources, affecting forests, fish, soil, minerals and water, which collapses ecosystems, ruining habitats and endangers the survival of many species that contribute to our circle of life.

Damage to the environment and the economy:

Overproduction and overconsumption, add to the, already, high level of pollution and toxic gasses that contributes to global warming. Basically everything we do involves materials that have been extracted, processed, transformed, bought and sold, taxed and subsidized. Our economy is built around these raw materials (natural resources) like trees, gas, oil, metal ores, water and fertile land. From 1970 to 2010, our natural resource consumption has more than tripled. Overconsumption worsens climate breakdown and increases air pollution. It exhausts the planet's life support systems, like the ones that provide us fresh water. It also makes us missing materials that are essential to our health and quality of life. Contributing, directly or indirectly, to environmental degradation, climate change, pollution, social inequality, waste generation, biodiversity loss, health impacts and resource depletion.

In the last decade, a lot of industries have grappled with the disastrous effects of producing more than people can afford to buy. These industries include fashion, agriculture, manufacturing and automobiles.

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The huge amount of products that are made everyday, with a lot of variation of products and materials, this consumption often leads to the generation of waste, including packaging materials, discarded products, and other byproducts. All resulting in pollution, can harm wildlife and cause risks to humans.

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The extraction and consumption, in general, of natural resources, such as fresh water and minerals, leads to resource depletion and scarcity. This is affecting our daily life and if it continues with all this waste, that also causes pollution, will also affect in the future, negatively.

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social: Consumption is closely related to identity and  it has become a means of communicating social messages, in which the values and meanings of what we consume is an important part of our social and personal experiences. As people, we compare a lot ourselves and our consumption levels with other people, and it is one of the most important ways we evaluate ourselves to others. One example that measures the social comparison based on consumer values is the fact that whether people consider themselves "poor" often depends on the condition of those around them.

The increase of social interactions are influenced by consumer values. Most people have various reference groups, these groups influence the behavior of consumers because they compare themselves with that group, and there are also aspirational groups in which a consumer wishes he/she could belong, so people often buy and behave like the group they would like to identify with.

However, the nature of social comparisons has changed over the decades. The idea was emphasized by the comparison being between individuals and families with similar incomes and backgrounds, because people did not want to feel left out as new consumer goods and living standards grew. Nowadays, the new consumerism is more aggressive and anonymous, so it's less socially benign, and that has come to the fact that nowadays people are more likely to compare themselves with those far above them in the economic scale.

environmental: The production process that creates every consumer product requires natural resources and generate waste and pollution, and the problem is that we do not see the true ugliness of the consumer economy and so are not motivated to do much about it, and because of the distance between,for example, malls and their associated mines, wells, corporate farms, factories, toxic dumps, and landfills, that are sometimes in the other side of the world, it fades our perception that something is fundamentally wrong.

In the ecological impacts of consumerism, most people focus on the "trash" that is generated by several industries and businesses, but most of the waste generated comes from the impacts of extraction or manufacturing phases, which are normally hidden from the consumers. The vast majority of  this material is discarded as mining waste, crop residue, logging waste, chemical runoff, and other waste prior to the consumption stage.

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Planned obsolescence: is when a company plans that the product will work for a very short time so that the customers need to buy a new one really quickly, generating more money for the company but also producing a lot of damage on the other stages of the consumption system.

→ What is the problem with this system? This form of production is not only causing a lot of damage by having to produce a whole new product, but also, by the use of false advertising, can make the “loyal customers” not trusting the company anymore, feeling betrayed. Furthermore, some of the environmental problems with this phenomenon are mainly connected to the large quantity of waste produced around the world. According to Iberdrola, “In the case of the European Union, it is estimated we produce more than 2.5 bn tonnes per year”, this shows that many products are wasted each year but they actually could be avoided if planned obsolescence wasn’t so common.

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Perceived obsolescence: is when a company releases a new and more advanced product and the customers feel the need to get always the new version, so they could be on the most updated version, but, most of the times, they don’t really need a new version

→ This phenomenon, on the other hand, is focused more on the overconsumption of the society. Moreover, perceived obsolescence is the idea that society has of updating your cell phone, computer, technologies, makeup, clothing, etc.. This event often occurs when consumers believe a product is no longer useful when a new version of it launches, and it is not only wasteful but it also brings a vicious cycle into many people’s life, implementing an overconsumption society. As mentioned in Study.com, “The perceived obsolescence definition is when consumers believe a product is no longer useful or no longer holds value, so they purchase the newer model or upgrade that product.”. We can also notice that the environmental effects are the same as the planned obsolescence, as they both repeat the linear system of extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal.

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Advertising: is a marketing tactic involving advertisements to promote a product, service or cause. It helps industries to reach out to potential customers and encourage them to buy your products. An effective advertising campaign can help you to increase customer reach and to build customer awareness of your business and brand.

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Many people advocate to “save the earth” and to have healthy buying habits, but most don’t realize and formulate ways to really put a stop on this cycle.

Buy clothes and items from longlasting, trusting and sustainable brands, for example, Patagonia, a brand that uses 100% renewable energy in the US and globally, they use 76% renewables as a source for their electricity. [https://www.patagonia.com/home/]

Raise awareness by promoting to friends and family ways to prevent overconsumption.

Reduce the use of plastic: we are not polluting the world by only overconsumption, but, by reducing plastic and wasteful supplies from other parts of our lives, we can decrease the effects.

Travel lightly: especially by car, one of the most wasteful forms of transportation.

Learn how to repair your own products, that way you don’t need to buy new and updated versions often.

These are only some of the ways that you can put a stop to the many problems that come with overconsumption in our society nowadays by simple forms at home. Remember, not only we need to change our behavior towards buying at home but also at society and political levels, but it is always nice to help as much as you can.

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https://www.storyofstuff.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/StoryofStuff_AnnotatedScript.pdf

https://chat.openai.com/c/1f4c63b1-7297-4d87-81b8-8c99a287e9e4

https://technologystudent.com/prddes_2/matecon1.html#:~:text=The%20environment%20is%20damaged%20by,the%20form%20of%20atmospheric%20pollution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM

https://theconversation.com/sales-increase-by-up-to-56-when-shoppers-know-a-product-will-last-57149

https://www.iberdrola.com/sustainability/planned-obsolescence

https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-perceived-obsolescence-definition-examples.html#:~:text=Perceived%20obsolescence%20refers%20to%20a,theirs%20is%20working%20just%20fine.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jiec.13187

https://www.bu.edu/eci/files/2019/10/Consumption_and_Consumer_Society.pdf

Video “The Story of Stuff”

Text “You only use 44% of your closet”

Article “The problem with outsourcing America's trash”