The Effect of Consumer Culture on Education

The Effect of Consumer Culture on Education Consumer culture has without a doubt affected my education. Education

involves many things we value, and much of what we value has been

bought. Whether it be the calculators we use in math class or the

texts we read in English, commodities are helping teach us to do

things. On another level however , consumer culture affects our

personal education in that we act and think differently than we might

if our culture was less about that which can be bought or sold. Much

of this is due to the coverage of events presented by the Mass Media.

We watch people on a screen and learn from what they are doing. Some

events are blown out of proportion and some are swept under the rug.

We are faced with the difficult job of deciding for ourselves what

knowledge is important for us to retain and what we should ignore.

We make an effort to present ourselves a certain way, because of the

values that our society puts on different appearances or attitudes.

Both these things are values which an individual can easily attain.

One can simply buy the latest trends, (or counter-trends) and look

"cool" or fashionable. That is half the battle. To attain the attitude

that fits in with popular society you must learn from that which is

valued in our culture. As Mark Edmunson believes, one can find this in

television, movies, and music- in short the mass media. We see

people's stage characters and we plan to be like them, seemingly

unaware to the fact that these people are just acting. The image that

is seen as "cool"...

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...choose to have, not what we must have in

order to survive.

Consumer culture has taught us that our lives depend almost entirely

on money. If we accept this fact, those without money are basically

screwed. It is very hard to gain enough respect from the world that

will allow you to make money if you started at the bottom. For that

reason, people who have done this and succeeded are true success

stories. When taking education as a commodity itself, like college or

high school, we pay to be taught what else in our life we should

value; attitudes, opinions, and knowledge. We learn these things from

a variety of sources, but popular culture plays a role in each of

them. Whether it be a selective group, a television set, or a

professor, consumer culture is at the root of the messages being

passed on to us as an audience.