consumerism at it's finest

The academic study of consumption has taught me how it is something that everyone lives with, whether it is done perfectly and ethically or not. Consumption in my life is not perfect but it has helped me through finding my own identity and being able to look forward to travelling.

Tourism has been something that I have been interested in. I had joined many tours that I would be interested in, which would mainly be pop culture as well as historical culture. With the study of consumerism, it is known that tourism is something that people would advertise when visiting a new country or a new location. Joining tours is often used to guide tourists in well-known places. With the quick rise of media such as television shows and movies, it is easy to capitalise a place where it is set in. An example of this would be the London tours where a majority of the setting is based from the Harry Potter franchise. For fans such as myself, the appeal is high as many people would want to experience and take in the sights that the characters have (Lee, 2012). The consumption of these tours would be targeted towards the fans, giving them something to look forward to through engagement by posts. This has helped me with consumption in my life as I constantly look for something that would interest me in travelling as I would read on different articles and posts that are related to it. Another thing that has been becoming popular in the last three to five years is anime. Because of the popularity of anime for people living internationally, Japan has created tourist spots, specifically in Akihabara, the biggest tech city in the country. One of the most popular spots is anime museums where it can showcase the art and character designs where fans can purchase artwork and merchandise both physically and through online shopping. This leads to people enjoying the products as well as supporting the artists behind them

The way that people use consumption of trends are the way they identify themselves, whether it is through their culture, politically or their sexual orientation and gender. Identity is a way for someone to find out what they are in their world and their purpose to live. There are many people that reject labels but for others, placing labels on themselves are a way to find out more about themselves and where they belong (Gabriel & Lang, 2006). Knowing my own identity plays a major part of my life through culture as I have grew up in Australia while a majority of my family are South-East Asia such as Singapore and Taiwan. As during my teenage phase, I had an identity crisis on who I am and what I should be. Such as keeping my Asian culture alive or to create a new one. Having social media such as Instagram and YouTube is a way that contemporary consumerism has taught many people on keeping a healthy balance and showing it to others.

Ethnic and cultural consumption is a way for people to identify themselves and can be often shown in literature and pieces or work and art. An example being this is how migrant workers are often depicted running a small business, the common one being restaurants and cafes. Although, outside of literature, it is still a common practise. This is through the act of migration. People who travel to a completely different country to live in are often forced to make a living to survive. Having a small business allows people of different ethnicities and cultures to try something new. With the rise of social media, it is easy for people to spread information about different cultural food. Which can allow people to be exposed to different cultural hierarchies. Shopping locally rather than in large mainstream department store chains can be seen as an ethical consumption. As compared to the many large department stores, local shops such as mom-and-pop shops are often sacrificed for higher prices and less variety of products. A small percentage of these people who shop in that way often have a feeling of forming a personal relationship to the staff of the local stores. Such as the cashiers and workers.

The study of consumption has made me more conscious of ethical consumption. As developing countries are mostly responsible with creating fast-fashion through sweatshops. The people that can really afford ethical consumption are people who belong in the middle class or upper class. However, it is noted that people in the working class aren’t necessarily able to afford ethical clothes and are more able to get clothes from fast-fashion brands such as H&M and Zara as they are more readily available and cheaper compared to the ethical option. Through studying how ethical consumption can be a negative stance, I find that it divides people through their wealth and can create a sense of unfairness for people in the working class. However, I am somewhat in-between working and middle class. I still think about my options and choose more ethical consumption when I am able to as I believe that if people choose to be more ethically responsible, it could make productions towards fast-fashion be more ethical and cater to be more environmentally sustainable.

When I was a child, I would accompany my family to travel to new places, whether it would be going to a new place down South of Australia or even to a whole new country. It was when I was an early teenager when I began to truly appreciate visiting a new country. I fell in love with the culture and food from Japan, to the point that I begged my mum to go three times. Once when I was thirteen, another time when I was sixteen and again for my 21st birthday. Each time, we would visit a different part of Japan. We went to many temples and themed cafes, one of my favourites being a ninja café where we got to see people dressed up as ninjas and performing tricks. We, however, didn’t join any tours whenever we went to Japan, only because we wanted to explore by ourselves and find out new places that wasn’t common in tours. One of the favourite places we went to was the golden temple in Kyoto where the temple has been covered in 400 kilograms of golden leaves. I even got to purchase a gold leaf from of the markets there. To this day, it retains as one of the best things I have ever purchased.

The role of consumption has been something that I have had since I was an infant. Since I was born in Australia and my parents being born and raised in South-East Asia, it was bound to happen that I would be consuming something. From travelling to experiences in culture and food to spending money on things that I enjoy.