Unimaginative Consumerism

Ahh... Consumerism. We have always heard campaigns yapping about it in our ears litterally. But what really is consumerism? Consumerism is defined as the happiness from purchasing material possesions and consumption. Unfortunately consumers these days do not have the grace to literally enjoy the product that they bought. Everyday the moment you walk out of your house, turn on the TV or the radio, read the newspapers and surf the internet, you will be bombarded with a bewildering pleathora of advertisements aimed at brainwashing you.

The government's propaganda are usually anti-consumerist & genereally aimed to reduce inflasion by causing fear amongst consumers from buying products that might be deemed unnecessary. Products tat you will just buy because you feel like having it and then subsequently just putting it aside after you have just purchased it. Because of these campaigns, cosumers have become so fearful that they might have just bought something that they wouldnt need. Something that will turn out useless. Something that will not perform to their requirements and thus this fear manifests itself in hesitation when purchasing a product from a sector that they do not know about very well. For instance, when you want to buy a flash drive for the first time, you will observe the people around you. What brand do they generally buy. Which model? And since a lot of people have heard of the brand Kingston in the RAM business, they just get ouy there and end up buying a Kingston DataTraveller USB 2.0 flash drive. The result?

In just one assignment group that i was in, almost all my group members are using Kingston DataTravellers. Even the group beside my table!! Bluddy hell!! And whats even more amusing is that everyone have a different model so we compilled them all up to form the complete product range of Kingston's DataTraveller 2 series. From 256Mb all the way up to 2Gb. Amazing isn't it? Its just so mind boggling that everybody just goes out and get one of these without any tought of the possibility that there might just b other alternatives to this boring product. I mean come on la... Sometimes people mix up each others thumbdrives just because they all have the same one. They cluth their thimbdrives so securely in their fists fearing that they will mix it up with someone elses.

GET A DIFFERENT ONE for crying out loud. Dont act like zombies and just get what everyone has. Just because everyone has one it doesnt mean that its the only one out there. Since this is not Ajinomoto or Tupperware which other companies can only make inferior copies of, we can freely choose other brands as they offer the same product but packaged better, suiting your individuality. Do you want to become a robot, a zombie or even a stereotype? If the answer is a resounding NO, then when you are buying something that you are unfamiliar of again, remember this blog. You can be different!

Just remember go do your research on the internet before hand. Its easy and al you have to do is to go to websites by third party independant reviewers like PC magazine who independantly test products. Read their reviews and decide for yourself which suits you best. Besides, the stuff you use SOMETIMES DOES reflect your personality.

Another problem in consumerisme is consumer stupidity. Small amounts of it is good news for the manufacturers but in large doses it can be a real problem. When i saw this label on a washing machine in Harvey Norman, Queensbay Mall, I couldn't help but wonder why they have to put it on the washing machine. Besides this sticker, there was also a sticker that warn you against dipping your hand in to the water because it might be hot.

Then the picture of the dumb American who managed to sue GM because of his accident came to my mind. That dumb ass managed to sue GM for not stating that their cruise control does not take over the manuvering of the vehicle. He actually set his GM truck on cruise control in a freeway and went to the back seats to eat his bananas while the truck was on cruise control driving down the freeway where it swerved off the freeway and subsequently crashed. I guess stupidity does pay off since he managed to win such a dumb lawsuit. Someone must nominate him for the Thomas Edison Prize. (a prize like the Noble Prize only this is for people who accomplished outrageous acts of stupidity)

That incident and manymore like it must have plunged the industry into fear of people sueing them again just because something really obvious wasn't stated clearly sumwhere on the product. They should just put a big sticker that says it all. "Warning! Caution! Achtung! your stupidity in handling or ussage of this product may cause you harm in variable degrees which are proportional to your stupidity. Always use common sense in the operation of this product and always put your safety first". Hah! A label like this will certainly suffice for all applications of products. Save printing costs summore. No matter how safe engineers make things, the factor that determines how safe a product really is ultimately lies in our hands. So always use your logic, common sense and judgement to operate a product and also to choose something that you like instead of being a brainless zombie. People eat brains you eat brains. People dig shit you dig shit.

Disclaimer : This blog is not to promote washing machines nor is it to promote Kingston DataTraveller 2 thumbdrives. The author of this blog wishes to promote variety in consumerism so that the consumers themselves are happy of a product not just because they are good, but also because it is their own choice.