Hey Pandas, What Are Your Views On Growing Materialism? (Closed)

I find it easy to grow if you have the right compost.
(I'll see my way out...)

Yay convenience. Boo the over excess. I am all for things that make my life easier. But at what point does that become more of a hassle than a hack? Fact is, we are trained, indoctrinated, each and everyday. The news, the ads, social media. Consume. Buy. Purchase. We are convinced we need these products. Convinced that it will fix everything the age of social media say's is wrong with us, because WE ARE their bottom line. So go clean your house with vinegar, it will be fine. Wash your dishes in good ole fashioned dish soap, how much did that fancy s**t cost? The coffee you make in your 12 cup hamilton beach pot, will be just fine. No need for some elaborate contraption with 15 separate, but functioning parts what have to be individually cleaned. Want foam, shake the d**n half-n-half.

I grew up in the 1980s. It was just big hair, shiny stuff, having cable tv and overt materialism. No internet, which has changed everything. We used to ride bikes and have snowball fights. People now are so shallow if they were puddles they would dry up in five seconds in the sun. Influencers are the whiniest most self-absorbed and uneducated people and annoy me to no end. And they are everywhere! If an "influencer" recommends something, I'm not buying it. Just go away and get a real job. And being polite seems to have gone with the wind.

Here in Europe, many governments seem to be advising that all households should store enough water to last 72 hours - just in case... I suspect the advice is sound.

It's been "growing" for thousands of years, which is why people invaded other countries. I don't think anything has changed, other than media (social and mainstream) make us more aware of it.

I don't really know if materialism is growing. I find that my generation (GenX) is far more likely to be guilty of conspicuous consumption than millennials. And we are less likely than Boomers. Perhaps that's simply because we, and Millennials, have respectively less wealth with which to consume. But I think there's also starting to be an understanding that all that consumption comes with major environmental costs. Costs which future generations will bear. That said, consumerism in general is a byproduct of capitalism. If we are satisfied with what we have, then we need not consume. And if we don't consume, we need not grow economically. And the whole system falls down. So for capitalism to work, you need to always feel dissatisfied with your lot in life.

I don't think it is growing, in fact, Joann stores closed recently. If you want to sew your own clothes, it's hard to find material.