Consumer Gazes, how we look at things in regards to what we buy and what we don’t buy. One thing we brought up in our class discussion that I found extremely relevant was society’s inability-nay-refusal to differentiate between wants and needs. We are always saying we need to get something when we are and can live perfectly comfortable without it. However in contrast to this we have the idea that without people targeting our consumer gazes people would not be inclined to buy many things and that would make our economy suffer (and I think we’d all agree we don’t need that).
Now, I’m going to take a second to shamelessly whore scouting. Although scouting has some particular fundamentals I disagree with, the discussion on wants and needs made me see a particular benefit of the scouting program. The whole reading makes me think that people need to go camping more, because nothing makes you differentiate between what you want and what you need than carrying everything you have in a fifty pound backpack. It makes you focus on not overpacking (which can be related to overspending) and you have to focus on what you truly need and only take recreational items(‘wants’) in moderation. If more people were to learn this lesson we may be spending enough to keep the economy running but we wouldn’t be digging ourselves deeper in debt.
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Thi is very true. We are so concerned about the name on our backs, and not the wastefulness of our money. We need to learn how to shy away from what others think and start thinking for ourselves. The problem is, our society has been so brainwashed by so many companies, many people believe they are not falling victim to these types of things. Others will say that they would just prefer this brand rather than admit to the fact that they are just a pawn being played by the system.They do not even realize what has happened. Some clothing is just as good as another, but because it has certain markings, or a certain logo, it is mistakingly thought to be better.
Some clothes however, are actually made stronger and warmes than the non-brand clothing. It is a delicate balance between what is wanted and what is needed.