With the advent of industrialization across the globe, the need for making the consumer friendly platform to sell and marketing of the goods manufactured in the industries across the globe arose to a great extent. In quest to achieve that goal all kinds of advertisement and marketing mechanism came into play in the day to day life of the common people, promising all of them a very fulfilling and uplifting lifestyle in general. It was only after this phase of modern and progressive society ,that the word ” consumerism came into the domain of products and consumerism the market open to all. The tendency of the consumers to become a habitual and addicted consumers is something which is referred to as consumerism in the larger context of life at marketplace.
There can be numerous scenario of being a consumer in general sense but coming to the issue which we are discussing right-now ia all about being an overrated and over enthusiastic consumer and being some kind of habituated to it. the level and extent of consumption of what is available in the market can be broadly segregated into the need and want of the consumer.therefore, being precise to the fact, this consumer becomes a consumerist when he tends to move towards the ” want ” phase of consumer from the “need ” phase of consumer and this whole phenomenon is broadly termed as Consumerism.The idea of being a consumer is conventionally appreciated when it is limited to the “need” aspect of it and criticized when it becomes the “want aspect of being a consumer.It is so because, considering the availability and distribution aspect of the resources in our world,we had somewhere been failing in managing them in judicious manner at each and every level of production and consumption.
Given the resource constrains that the whole world is facing in the contemporary world, it is very difficult to quantify the approx amount of resources required to be distributed in various resource constrained sections of the society.Obviously, it is not the direct effect of consumerism but it does play a role in such types of after-consequences.
So, by in large we see that there has been a culture of consumerism been prevalent in our society. More precisely speaking, we understand how it has crept into our day to day lifestyle of Indians within the period of last few decades. It has more or less came in a parallel time frame with the advent of western culture and it’s dominance in our lifestyle.
But, most importantly it is an urgent need of time to look back and analyse the after-effects of it. Has it been of some advantage to all of us or is it leading to some hollowed framework of social fabric for future generation. It is very important to discuss and talk about the consequences of consumerism in our social framework of Indian society.
Feudal culture has always been an integral part of Indian society. And consumerism has in one way or the other been attached to this culture. Today the feudals have changed and the narrative of feudalistic society has also shifted.
No matter, we talk for hours about the cultural ethnocentrism, the fact of the matter is that they have degraded to a large extent. Our prime basis of social and cultural believes have depleted. The hard reality is that we are accepting the intellectual slavery of west, day by day. We have became a mera market for western products and the new cultural trend is that of beaing a blind follower in day to day practices. We are adopting the false propaganda of modernism and progressiveness. The cultural race of bubble reputation is leading to loosening of the core basis of our existance and somehow getting traped in modernism. The extinction of controlling mechanism of culture in society has made us directionless and lost in various illusions. Our society itself is not self-regulated. Advertisemen and broadcasting mechanism has changed our mindset. There is a power of dillusion secretly working there in it.
Therefore, what will be the ultimate result of the widespread extension of this culture? This is a matter of grave concern. There is an over exploitation of our limited resources. The quality of life is not going to improve by consuming packed food materials and cold drinks, no matter they are internationally recognised. There is a widespread increasing gap between different sections of the society, social behaviours are also depleting day by day. This increasing devide of living standards is giving birth to anger and distress. As long as this pseudo social culture of show-off will spread, the social anamoly will increase. Our cultural esteem is obviously depleting, as well as we are distracted from our primary socio-political and economic targets. The developmental goals are somewhere getting missed and we are behind some pitty-momentory goals of no real value. The boundaries of socio-cultural conducts are breaking and moral standards are getting compromised. Individualism is increasing along with self-centered approach being overpowered among other social-ethos. The greed and lust is prevalent by leaps and bounds. Where will it stand-by? We don’t know.
Healthy cultural and social impetus requires our eyes and ears to be open to all and still standing firmly on our own basic framework in place. Consumerism is weakening our social footholds. It is a threat. Future is a big challenge!
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