Consumerism and Faith

994 Words2 Pages

In today’s world, people in general like to keep up with the latest things such as gadgets like the iPhone. They tend to spend an ample amount of time on their gadgets or whatever the latest item is instead of dedicating their time to the more important things. During family dinners, everyone is usually on their phones. People may prefer to spend a day at the mall instead of volunteering. High credit card bills can result from spending so much money on the new things rather than paying bills. The social pressure to keep up with these material items has an effect on quality bonding time which has an effect on money. Consumerism actually sets a person against oneself because of the never-ending mission to acquire material objects therefore people should not concentrate their religious faith in materialism. Consumerism is the idea that influences people to purchase items in great amounts. Consumerism makes trying to live the life of a “perfect American” rather difficult. It interferes with society by replacing the normal necessities for life with the desire for things with not much concern for the true value of the desired object. Children are always easily influenced by what they watch on television. Swimme suggests in his work “How Do Kids Get So Caught Up in Consumerism” that although an advertiser’s objective is to make money, the younger generation is being manipulated when seeing these advertisements. Before getting a good understanding of a religion, a child will have seen and absorbed at least 30,000 advertisements. The amount of time teenagers spend in high school is lesser than the amount of advertisement that they have seen (155). The huge amount of advertisements exposed to the younger generation is becomi... ... middle of paper ... ...s means being satisfied with what one has and getting effective use out of them. While Swimme implies that the desire for possessions has become the new “religion”, people need to focus on living a life with purpose over desiring material things. Faith guarantees complete gratification only when a person surrenders the object or idea of interest. Ultimately, people need to place their priorities first and do everything in moderation. Everyone should strive to make a life, live it to the fullest but at the same time, take care of what needs to be taken care of. Works Cited Swimme, Brian. “How Do Our Kids Get So Caught Up in Consumerism”. The Human Experience: Who Am I?. 8th ed. Winthrop University: Rock Hill SC, 2012. 155-157. Print. Paul Tillich. “What Faith Is”. The Human Experience: Who Am I?. 8th ed. Winthrop University: Rock Hill SC, 2012. 269-273. Print.

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