Take a deep breath and indulge in this visualisation for a few moments.
When you feel ready to move on, imagine a world where mindless consumption isn’t rewarded with likes, hearts, thumbs, or spikes in sales. Can you see that? How does it make you feel?
Mindless consumption is like indulging in the most horrifying session: eating crisps, chocolate bars, cookies, and white bread with sugar on top and drinking five different sodas simultaneously. The majority of us wouldn’t be able to last long conducting such a revolting experiment. But when it comes to buying what we don’t need or spending money we don’t have, the majority don’t see such a toxic lifestyle as problematic.
Before the pandemic, people roamed the aisles of shops, strolling along big, brightly lit shopping centres with one objective: finding a good deal. Once the deal was found, the pleasure pheromones kicked in. Often leaving a hole in the buyer’s wallet and actively contributing to pollution and environmental deterioration. Don’t waste your precious time pointlessly walking around the shopping centres looking for a deal. Life isn’t that long; imagine all those amazing things you could have been doing in that time instead of shopping.
Build a new habit of shopping with purpose, and only when you need it.
Pushing society towards mindless consumption is the priority for marketers, celebrities, corporations, and, believe it or not, governments.
Suppose we follow the not-so-gentle nudge towards consumption. In that case, we only harm ourselves and those around us by adding to global pollution, air quality degradation and the prospect of Earth becoming uninhabitable for humans one day. Where will we go if that comes to pass? Mars? Really? Just imagine living in a permanent lockdown, because this is the only way life on Mars would look. We may still be some years away from Star Trek reality kicking in. However, as long as we cannot easily planet-hop, respecting and looking after what we have on Earth should be our collective priority.
I realise that our existence is burdened by consumption: adverts, TV shows, social standards and social pressure; all those one-of-a-kind Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Bunny Rabbits B-day deals are created for shoppers to spend. Mindless consumption is often responsible for masses of debt. When the times are good, and jobs are easy to come by, with lots of hard work, debt can be paid back, but when the times are lean, just like now… this is when the real troubles begin. Buying anything on credit that isn’t essential or long-lasting works against the customer.
I “love” shopping when there’s a sale. It’s a great way to save money, but mindless shopping or using the money I don’t have to shop does “only” keep the corporations repeating the same lie: that customer demand forces them to destroy our resources.
Nobody needs 15 pairs of jeans or five different bikes; buying a new iPhone yearly is bonkers. Social status (I’m not talking about the billionaires who seem well prepared for life after environmental collapse) won’t save anyone from the overheating planet, starvation, and unpredictable weather. Buying heaps of food in a rubbish bin because there is only so much a person can eat also adds to the Earth’s ecological degradation. Food production uses up a lot of natural resources. If you buy products that come as a by-product of deforestation, you are actively supporting the annihilation of our planet.
Mindless consumption is a dangerous habit, but luckily, we, as consumers, can address it without waiting for governments to pass laws or corporations to change their ways. We just need to be vocal about demanding sustainability, the possibility to repair goods (train young people in the trades of fixing things), and the longevity of the items we buy.
In reality, people need very little to survive, be happy and thrive. Mindless consumption is nowhere near that list. Globally, we need a shift that rejects consumption-driven culture and lifestyle. There is not much time anymore to debate and set goals. Just look at the tons of rubbish everywhere, mostly plastic. I’m confident that sending our garbage to Mars is not a viable option.
If you want to have a realistic idea of what our future may look like, watch “Wall-E”. The trajectory humanity has embarked on worryingly closely resembles the plot of this excellent film. Just remember, only a chosen few may make it to Axiom, a spaceship drifting aimlessly in space for eternity. Well, if there were only a way, we could all contribute to preventing global pollution and ecological collapse… anyone… anything…I’m all ears.
Quick Tips
- Try to eliminate as much disposable plastic from your household as you can.
- Try to buy second-hand items or fix ones you already have instead of immediately disposing of them.
- Only shop for things you need, not just because something is cheap, but may be of no or little use to you.
PS. I’m made by Made by Dyslexia, so expect small typos and big thinking.
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