The term consumption is a term that can be understood both in an economic sense as well as in a social sense.
Action of consuming a good or service or food
When we talk about consumption, we are referring to the action of consuming, of buying different types of products or services that may present different degrees of importance or relevance with regard to our quality of life.
Consumption has to do with the economy since it is the factor that encourages economic movement and gives it dynamism. At the same time, consumption is a social phenomenon since it can be transformed into a lifestyle and significantly change the way in which individuals develop their day-to-day life. Consumption also has to do with spending, just as it happens with energy, a food, a service.
Consumption: engine of the capitalist system
The notion of consumption of goods, products and services is closely related to the capitalist system. Although in the history of humanity the notion of consumption was always present, it obtains a special value or meaning from the moment in which capitalism is established as the governing system of society. This is so because one of the most important elements of capitalism is the circulation of capital or money through, precisely, the purchase and sale of products, that is, consumption.
Consumption is what follows the production of certain products and services, being the final step in the economic chain. Thus, the higher the consumption, the higher the production and therefore the more dynamic the economy. Consumption always implies the possession of a certain amount of money or capital that is invested in the purchase of a product or good (long or short duration, for example a house or food respectively), and that purchase always has to do with the possibility of increasing a person's standard of living.
Exacerbation of consumerism: you are someone the more you consume
However, as is known, current societies are defined as 'consumerist societies' since the parameter that is normally taken to establish the level or quality of life of a person passes more by the amount of goods that he has than by the form in which he leads his life. Consumerist societies establish that in order for one to feel full, one must constantly and almost compulsively consume different types of artifacts and services, making consumption endless in the desire to always increase or improve what one already has. Thus, it can be said that consumption is today the fundamental element of world economies.
Meanwhile, the human tendency to buy goods and services in a quantity greater than what is needed is popularly called consumerism, and the person who practices it as a consumerist.
Advertising, competition and technological progress as triggers of extreme consumption
Generally, the factors that trigger it are usually the constant publicity that we receive through the various media, and that tell us, among other things, that if we buy this or that thing we will be prettier, younger, happier, or we will be recognized socially; and technological progress and competitiveness also contribute their share in this regard.
The fallacies of consumerism: we are not happier to buy and buy
We must emphasize that of course this is not the case objectively, buying a certain product will not make us younger or happier, however, subjectively for many it is like that and then that is where consumerism finds its success, which of course does not always generate positive or pleasant consequences for people individually and socially. If not, on many occasions it just causes the opposite, envy, sadness and anguish, among other feelings, in those who cannot access those goods or who do not feel happier after their purchase.
Negative impact on the environment
On the other hand, we must say that consumerism also tends to have a negative impact on the planet because in that inordinate desire to produce more and more, so that people consume and consume, they may fall into an overexploitation of available resources and subdue them to a certain risk of extinction in the short term, not to mention environmental pollution that can trigger the production of some products that are not environmentally friendly.
Although sometimes it is difficult to distance oneself from that barrage of advertisements that invades us in daily life from all sides: television, radio, internet, public roads, magazines, and that encourages our consumerism, it is important that we keep in mind He has some basic questions ... a recipe at hand in case we want to fight as equals to the consumer in us ...
In principle we have to have an established budget that takes into account what we need and discards what is not necessary; and we always have to choose those quality products and not get carried away by the promises that some brands make in advertising
