Prisoners of Consumerism

"In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy." -Ivan Illich (1926-2002)

Consumerism is taking over our lives. Everyone is either always buying needless things or wants, but cannot afford, these needless things. The quote above, by Ivan Illich, proves that point. He says that everyone is either a "prisoner of addiction" or a "prisoner of envy." This means that some people are addicted to buying; they always need to buy more. The other half wants what the wealthy have, but cannot seem to afford it. Based on all of the information we have read on this topic, consumerism is a bad thing. People become too greedy and obsessive with buying all the time that they are "slaves" to the society. No good comes out of a consumer society.

Making Memories

The article that we read mentioned that many advertisers were trying to promote items that create memories. This advertisement is promoting family game night. The advertisers are saying that by buying clue, and other board games like it, many memories will be made. This commercial shows a picture perfect family, and makes the viewer think that they are this close because they bought this game and started a game night. The parents, kids, and even teenagers are excited about "Wednesday." Will most families really have a game night every week like this family does? Probably not. If other families are anything like mine they will do a game night for about two or three weeks, and after that everyone will be too busy. But, the commercial is hopeful and makes it seem like family game nights can make everyone's life better, and that is exactly what people want to see during a recession.