Consumption, Needs Or Prestige?

Consumption is something closely related to our life. We sleep, eat, watch, travel to somewhere, and soon, and those all stimulate us to consume almost everything in our life, for instance foods, beverages, dresses, suits, gadgets, and so on. Consuming is sort of our life style today. Believe it or not, realize it or not, we’ve been doing it all over the day. Even sometimes, we just buy—or let’s say “consume”—anything that it might be unnecessary. The number of city malls could be the indicator how big the existence of consumption life style among us. Malls, with their own glamour, serve people fancy stuffs which are so appealing to be bought. Malls also have their own ways to persuade people to buy their products. For example, the annual discounts, the member discounts, the night sale, and several pleading ways could be used to attract them buying compulsively.

            The factor of consuming behaviour around people nowadays might be because of three reasons. First, the imperialism and colonialism. Those things give impacts to the colonized country, since the colonizer’s lifestyle somehow becomes the role model for them, or at least it is adopted or internalized. Hence, they might consume anything the colonizer did. Second, the economic growth. Since the economy is developing, the production of some products is gaining, too. It might be because there is an expanding in social classes which is followed by the raise of needs and living materials. People tend to have more demands, and more demands mean more consumption. Third, the development of technology. We acknowledge each others that technology becomes the major factors of all persuasions. People can easily get information about these and those by clicking here and there in internet, listening to radio, watching massively the tv, and so on and so forth. The social media? It is enormously connected to us. Facebook, twitter, line, path, and so on, make us effortlessly knowing the trends and any kinds of “what-so-happening” things and stuffs nowadays. It is intense and major fast. More over, technology makes people easier to buy things. We all know online shop, it is the matter of clicking-here-and-there shopping. You even don’t move your body to get the products.

            Consuming nowadays is not about fulfilling your needs. It is more than that. There is a shift in consuming behaviour in our society. It is occasionally the matter of image branding, how you build your self and in what way you want people judge you and see your self. People will consider you as an upper-class person when you have your brand new i-phone in your hand. The better products mean the better self image. Do you remember the remarkable events which people lined up in Senayan City only for buying the discount Crocs? That showed how much Indonesian people got too much attached in consuming behaviour.

            All and all, we do consume in every day in our life. We sometimes “shop till drop”. We even don’t know what we shop for. However, the sense of gaining prestige is somehow reflected in our consuming behaviour. It is not about fulfilling needs, yet it is constructing self branding.