Introduction
Materialism and consumerism may not seem like a problem to many, but it defines majority of the current population. The most gullible group is of course the children, whose innocence captures advertisers and marketers, who in turn force parents to spend on the products being sold.
There are a variety of factors leading to a lot of consumption by children, for example, advertisement and peer influence. This paper will deal with the topic of materialism and consumerism; the positive and negative effects of consumerism especially on children; and finally mitigation strategies to be undertaken to ensure that children are better future consumers.
Materialism and Consumerism
Materialism has been defined as the tendency to be materialistic i.e. have the desire to spend the resources one owns on material things and attaining a comfortable lifestyle in general. Consumerism on the other hand puts a direct link between how many things one owns and their happiness (Chapter7, 2009, p. 1).
These two go hand in hand and the distinction line between them is very thin. Both go beyond the necessity of satisfaction of needs and they create the desire to want to own more and consequently create an image. Hence majority of the reference in this paper will be on consumerism, though the terms may not be used interchangeably.
Capitalism is heavily influential on consumerism (Chapter7, 2009, p.2). A capitalist economy will have the mindset of creating more market for themselves, ensuring “same consumers buy more of the same” or having innovations that will definitely increase demand (Kapur, n.d. p.1).
When there is an “economic crisis”, government will go to the extent of ensuring that people consume more just so as to sustain the economy (Chapter7, 2009, p.3). Thus consumerism is a concept that goes beyond the individual and has far reaching effects even to the economy of any particular state. As Kapur (n.d., p.1) stated, “children were invented as consumers” (Kapur, n.d., p. 1), a sad but a real truth and fact, and they are serving their purpose in fuelling the economy.
Children between the age of 9 and 14 are more susceptible to being materialistic and hence end up being heavy consumers (Goldberg, 2002, p.1). This age group has been called the “tweens” a name given because the 9-year-olds have not reached puberty while the 14-year-olds are past puberty (Goldberg, 2002, p.1).
Children are majorly targeted for the following reasons: they have their own money, they determine how their parents spending trend and they are the major future consumers (Zoll, n.d. p.1). In the US, $36bn in sales per year, is directly connected to children consumers (Goldberg, 2002, p.1), while in the UK, ÂŁ30bn is from the child market (BBC, 2008, p.1).
In Australia, a lot is invested to advertisements targeting the “tweens” to the point that when they are young adults, their sense of choice has been heavily corrupted and they can barely make independent choices without being influenced by brands (Hamilton, 2006, p.8).
In the past, there was a huge difference between goods or services available to the ordinary people and those who could afford the highly priced ones; not anymore indicates Hamilton in what he called “democratisation of luxury” (Hamilton, 2006, p.1).
The poor are competing with the wealthy as regards their consumption (Hamilton, 2006, p.1). A definite sign that consumerism in the society has increased, can also be observed from the number of cars owned by individuals, the cars they drive, mobile phones, different home devices, entertainment gadgets, obesity in children among others (DeAngelis, 2004, p.52).
In an article by Zoll (n.d., p.1), she quotes a clinical psychologist who states children are so inclined to their friends possessions and how their desire is to make money when they grow up or become older (Young, 2011, p. 1). How did children become so obsessed with their looks and possessions? What has led to the increase of consumerism?
Factors Leading to Increased Consumerism
Advertisement
Advertisement in this day and age is part and parcel of our world and its effect is felt everywhere, from online sites, to mobile phones to billboards on the streets, to commercial breaks in between television shows. They not only promote products but also sell “cultural practices” for example it’s the in-thing to have this or that (Nordicom, 2006, p.110).
These advertisements are geared to lure the consumers, especially children who watch about “25,000 ads a year” in the US (Chapter7, 2009, p.1), while in the UK, the numbers are much lower at about 10,000 (Shah, 2010, p.1).
Children are also a prone target since they will not only enhance current markets but also enhance continuity since they will be identifying particular brands (Shah, 2010, p.1). Children are expected to nag their parents to the point of driving them to buy the advertised good (Chapter7, 2009, p.4). Marketing and advertising is not a concept that appeared out of the blues, but it’s been evolving with time, meaning in the future it may even get worse (Abela, 2006, p.3).
Past History and Peer Pressure
Children with a less fortunate background are also prone to materialistic behaviour, in a sense to try and make up for their misfortune (DeAngelis, 2004, p.1). In the UK, as stated in an article by Bennett, over 69% of “poorer children” desired jobs with very good salaries and were more involved in shopping as compared to 28% of the children who came from well-to-do families (Bennett, 2008, p.1).
A different study also showed a connection between low income and “mental health problems” in children: for weekly incomes below £100, 16% of children were affected, for £300- £499, only 8.6% children are affected and for incomes over £700 only 5.3% (Bennett, 2008, p.1)
. When the children themselves were asked they admitted to wanting to fit in with all the latest fashions or technologies (Bennett, 2008, p.1). Peers use commodities to gauge the value of their opponents a trend to “keep score with each other” (Lawson, 2006, p.1).
Parental Influence
The blame should not only be placed on outside influence but parents are also considered to have a part to play (Shah, 2010, p.1). There are those who will encourage good values to their children and hence to some extent shield children, but its generally hard for them to beat the advertisers and marketers who even have qualified professionals to make sure that advertisements achieve the desired effect (Shah, 2010, p.1). Absenteeism of parents is also another thing to be considered since they are normally busy working in order to give the child a better future but in the process, it leaves the child unattended and unshielded (Nordicom, 2006, p.117).
Education and Consumerism
The school institution which is supposed to be a safe haven for children has become otherwise and education has been “commercialized” (Shah, 2010, p.1). All fields have been infiltrated from trips to school materials that are sponsored by different companies who ensure the children are aware of the products that are on offer for them (Shah, 2010, p.1).
“Educational news programs provided free to schools contain advertisement” (Chapter7, 2009, p.4). A case in point is that of a company in Britain which had the promotion that “the more chocolate one ate, the more sports equipment one gets” all in an effort to get the kids to be actively involved in sports (Shah, 2010, p.1).
For instance, “a basketball would be about 170bars of chocolate” a very ironic promotion since the children would now have health risks and issues to deal with (Shah, 2010, p.1). The same case goes for the US, where the “education system” is a booming business netting around “$650bn” (Shah, 2010, p.1).
With all the aforementioned factors leading to increased consumerism among children, there are visible effects that act as a signal. The positive and negative effects of consumerism are discussed below.
Positive and Negative effects of Consumerism
Consumerism is mostly associated with the negative aspects, which are quite many in comparison, but there are positive aspects to be considered. Among them: a country’s economy is heavily influenced by the spending power of the population, hence the higher people spend, the more a country benefits; higher productivity; availability and variety of goods and services offered; creation of job opportunities; better lifestyles, among others (Shukla, 2009, p.1).
The many negative effects include: children being exposed to environments not appropriate for their age, hence very detrimental to their growing up (Goldberg, 2002, p.1); the saving culture especially in the youth, is destroyed and replaced with a spending trend (Goldberg, 2002, p.1); high risks of depression, “less happiness”, and various “social pathology” (DeAngelis, 2004, p.1).
There are increased rates of crime, especially among the youth, due to the gap between those who have and those who don’t (Lawson, 2006, p.1). In order for “failed consumers” to obtain what the “rich have”, they will definitely result to theft (Lawson, 2006, p.1). There is also a connection between “materialism and a reduced well being”, since people will be chasing after desires instead of meeting their necessities (Abela, 2006, p.2).
Another detrimental effect is the impact consumerism has on the environment (Chapter7, 2009, p.2); lands are used to build houses, malls, warehouses (Verdant, n.d. p.1). The pressure is also put on natural resources due to the ever increasing production of various commodities (Shah, 2010, p.1).
Debt is also not far off from individuals who are trying to maintain a lifestyle that they cannot afford; this is especially in reference to parents who turn to credit cards for solutions (Chapter7, 2009, p.1). This is no wonder why children cannot learn the saving culture since the credit card has taught them the concept of buying now, and pay later (Chapter7, 2009, p.1).
Current Policies
Children should be taught from an early age that they should not chase after what the advertisers are out to sell, but should in fact place more value to who they are rather than what they own (Bennett, 2008, p.1).
Different states and nations are trying to curb the effects of advertising since it is the one that heavily influences consumerism to children: advertising in Sweden has been stopped since the year 1991, especially during “children’s prime time”; in UK, as of 2008, “junk food advertising” shown to children during their television program time below 16 has been enforced (Shah, 2010, p.1).
Greece for instance has also banned the “advertising of toys to children between the hours of 7am and 10pm” while Quebec put a stop to all advertising targeting children under 13 years of age (Zoll, n.d. p.1). Despite all these restrictions gaining a lot more popularity in Europe, in the US it’s not so because marketing to children are seen as a First Amendment right.
The industries themselves have not been left behind in trying to take up control measures to ensure that children are well guarded (Nordicom, 2006, p.111). Some of the products that industries have taken initiative to “self-regulate” are to do with alcohol, tobacco, junk food among others (Nordicom, 2006, p.111). As for the entertainment industry, parental guidance has been promoted but only with so much success (Nordicom, 2006, p.112).
Dr. Elliot Barker, who is a Canadian psychiatrist and child advocate, offers the following recommendations with regards to the current consumerism: meeting children’s emotional needs so as to eliminate the need to substitute this by being materialistic; families participating in activities that are “non- commercial”; effective parenting, among others (Hunt, 2004, p.1).
Young also proposed focusing on “spirituality, relationships, philosophy, learning and ethics” as the greater solution to not falling in the trap of consumerism (20011, p.1). Other than these methods that are aimed at increasing the persons value, different methods have also been proposed including: “higher gasoline taxes”, “progressive consumption tax” i.e. the more one consumes, the more they are taxed, and tax is exempted for money that is saved, improving public goods and services so that people do not fall back on privatized goods and services (Chapter7, 2009, p.13).
Conclusion
The children are definitely to be protected from all the “insanity” of advertisement and they are to be allowed to grow up in environments that allow them to make independent choices as consumers and not to be arm-twisted per se.
When children follow the right path of consumption, then future generations will not be enslaved by consumerism since they will have good examples to emulate and hopefully positive values will have been instilled in them.
References
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Bennett, R. (2008) Pressures of Consumerism make Children Depressed. Web.
Chapter7. (2009) Consumerism. Web.
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Goldberg, M. (2002) Children and Materialism in the New Era. Web.
Hamilton, C. (2006) Marketing and Modern Consumerism. Web.
Hunt, J. (2004) The Natural Child Project. Web.
Kapur, J. (n.d.) Rehearsals for War: Capitalism & the Transformation of Children into Consumers. Web.
Lawson, N. (2006) Turbo-consumerism is the driving force behind crime. Web.
Nordicom. (2006) Young People and Harmful Media Content in the Digital Age. Web.
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