The Role Of Materialism In American Culture

Do you constantly buy products, but they go straight to the trash after some time? Then you go off and buy new and better products? This is an example of how American culture is based upon materialism.Materialism is a tendency to consider material possessions and physical comfort as more important than spiritual values.American culture is based on materialism, due to the evidence of our overconsumption, our beliefs, and how we’re taught into materialism.

Research has been proved that the more children are becoming materialistic.“An earlier survey by the Center for a New American Dream found that almost two thirds of parents “believed that their children define their self-worth in terms of what they own” and more than two thirds thought commercialism had an undesirable impact on their children’s values

and worldviews.” This was tested by Central for a New American Dream, who say parents think that the way a child expresses themselves is by the stuff they own, which is changing the way children are viewing the world and their values.

“One survey of sixth-grade children found that what the boys wanted most was money. They dreamed of having “five million dollars and two days at the mall.” This was another experimental research in the book The Success Ethic, Education, and the American Dream, where they asked sixth graders what was their dream and they responded with wanting money. We are over consuming in our own materialistic needs which influences children’s values and views.

As a nation we value freedom, equality, and independence, but materialism has changed our views, now making consumption and wealth our primary values. Social psychologist, Tim Kasser said, "Our form of capitalism encourages materialistic values, and the research shows that people high on materialism ... are more likely to engage in unethical business behaviors and manipulate people for their own purposes."

This proves that our government is actually making us materialistic. After the 9/11 attack, president Bush,at that time, said to go and buy more products, in order to help fund the war. In his book The Values Americans Live, L. Robert Kohls said, ”But by any standard, Americans are materialistic. This means that they value and collect more material objects than most people would ever dream of owning. It also means they give higher priority to obtaining, maintaining and protecting their material objects than they do in developing and enjoying interpersonal relationships...Since Americans value newness and innovation, they sell or throw away their possessions frequently and replace them with newer ones.” Kohl's explains that Americans have a value of something new, which leads to them buying newer products and they tend to have a difficult time developing relations with other people. In his article, George Monbiot said, “This is the dreadful mistake we are making: allowing ourselves to believe that having more money and more stuff enhances our wellbeing, a belief possessed not only by those poor deluded people in the pictures, but by almost every member of almost every government. Worldly ambition, material aspiration, perpetual growth: these are a formula for mass unhappiness.” This means that American tend to believe that having a large amount of money and having the latest products makes us happy, and the reason for this is because our government is the primary cause for it.
We have become materialistic by the influence that ads are portraying, and our insecurities. Sharon Beder said, “By promoting consumerism to children, marketers and advertisers are seeking to breed a new generation of hyper-consumers and surveys suggest that they may be well on their way.” Beder is talking about how advocates are targeting children for their promotions in order to create a new generation who consumes more. Christine Carter said, “So materialism and the behaviors that go with it—desiring and buying brand name clothes and luxury items—can be symptoms of insecurity and a coping strategy used to alleviate feelings of self-doubt or bolster a poor self-image.” She explains the possibility that Americans who buy expensive products may have insecurities, so they buy the products in order to boost their self esteem. In an article, Shanzeh Khurram explained that, “Shopping is not a problem on its own; It's the obsessive accumulation of unnecessary products, along with the hope that buying a Chanel bag will somehow make you happier that is problematic. The things that we own often end up owning us, and that's what I see around me. People are obsessed with material goods. We're bombarded with ads telling us how a certain car/shoe/phone/soft drink will make us happier, cooler and more fulfilled.” She also explains how we are being brainwashed by advertisements to buy products in order to find happiness and feel better about ourselves.
Materialism is affecting us a culture. American culture is depending upon materialism for happiness. Our overconsumption in products is affecting our society, especially children which changes their views of the world and values, as well as our beliefs which are changing our perspective in what we want in order to gain happiness, and we’re being taught by the over marketing of ads and our insecurity of our image. The importance of this is to prove that the world will soon fall apart because of our need for new products, which takes away our resources from the earth, and it will soon fall in despair.