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Consumerism of the young generation:
Necessities vs Luxuries
by Indunil Thenuwara
Look around you closely ... it
would be hard to spot anybody not speaking into their mobile phones,
plugged into their I-pods or tapping away at their computers. Young
people would be clad in the latest international trends and driving
around in the latest vehicles.
 Today’s youth yearn to buy more and more. Their success seems to
depend on the number of their material possessions. Consumerism, or the
purchase and use of a plethora of goods, is what drives the modern
generation. In today’s society, these items especially gadgets are
“must-haves” to compete with one onother and announce the fact that one
has ‘arrived’.
Mind you, just any other gadget wouldn’t do either. They have to be
the latest, with a multitude of features; the more advanced and
complicated they are, the better. If they feature facilities and
technologies the owner will never use, even better.
However, these youth are willing to part with loads of hard-earned
(sometimes not so hard-earned) cash just for the ‘privilege’ of boasting
about these new features to their friends and colleagues.
These high-tech gadgets were not available in this country, say, two
decades ago, but the people managed to do just fine without them.
But now, they have become such an integral part of our lives that we
actually wonder how we ever managed to live without them. Modern youth
have become such slaves to these technologies that it’s as if they
cannot even breathe without these accoutrements.
Modern-day consumerism is not limited to high-tech gadgets. Go to any
clothes store, supermarket or the humble grocery. S
eason or no season, it will be bursting at the seams with hundreds of
shoppers buying loads of everything the particular shop has to offer.
One would think the country is expecting a sudden shortage of clothes,
shoes, jewellery, food and other consumer goods.
 Thousands of rupees are spent on goods which don’t amount to
necessities. In fact, a research done some time ago revealed that the
average middle class Sri Lankan woman spends between Rs, 2,500 and 3,000
per month on items like clothing. Saving money and investing on
long-term projects seem to have lost the appeal that they held for
generations past, with modern youth spending more and more money on
massive buying sprees.
Birthdays, anniversaries, and other special events in the calendar
such as Christmas, New Year and Valentine’s Day are celebrated with the
splashing of money on everything available in the shops. Religious
messages are lost in this frenzy of accumulating more material
possessions.
For some people, shopping is a form of therapy (known as retail
therapy). Some actually try to fill the boring gap in their lives with a
‘healthy’ dose of shopping.
With the lack of leisure and entertainment options for middle class
people in our country, shopping is a form of solace and a welcome break
from their dull routines.
Of course, those who benefit most from this overt consumerism are the
shops and vendors. After all, they fulfil a need of the society. If the
consumer is happy and the supplier is happy, who are we to complain? |
