It’s Christmas time and that means trees, churches, time with family, parties,and shopping.

In our society we need lots of objects that make our life easier; but have we
taken our materialism too far?

Black Friday shopping helped me realize that humans are becoming “addicted” to their need to
always have the latest items. While driving through Target’s parking lot I saw people rushing for
flat screen TVs, new kitchen gadgets and every other sort of thing you can possibly buy.

The problem is we don’t really pause and think to consider do I really need a new TV?
Do I really need to buy that really expensive hoodie that is half off now?

We get hooked on consumerism at a really young age, as kids need to have the latest toy in
order to feel included, and it continues as teenagers and adults are always lacking something and there
is always something they need “really bad.”

I include myself in this group, as sometimes I go to the store and buy something that  I don’t need that much, but somehow have convinced myself will make me feel better.

Coupons also play a role in feeding this addiction.  They make us bigger consumers. When you get a coupon you get this feeling that buying is going to be cheaper so you can buy things that you will not usually buy because, the deal is if you buy three items you get one free.

But do we stop to consider how we are being encouraged to buy more and more just to get a deal? When you buy those three items they always give you the cheapest one free. Is it really worth the deal?

Also dollar bins are really tempting, all those cute little things, they are cheap aren’t they?   I
always fall for those, even the most absurd things catch my eye and I need to buy them. But
again shouldn’t we reflect if we need that or not.

Of course I’m not saying that now we cannot buy anything. But what we really need to do is
reflect and think about that thing that we are buying and if is really worth buying it now because
we may not even need it in the future.

I conducted a survey for high schools students about what they think about shopping and
their shopping habits. The last question was about if they thought that shopping was
becoming an addiction. Most of the people in the survey liked shopping and did it quite
regularly. But none no one thought that shopping was becoming an addiction.
Some people  liked shopping in shops better because they can really try on the clothing, while others prefer online.

The results suggest that either consumerism is not a big problem for Cotter students or we are self-deluded about the power of this habit.  You be the judge.