My Consumer-Fast

Hello dear friends.

After watching No Impact Man, I found myself thinking about one of the strategies enacted by him and his family: refraining from buying anything new for a year. Yes, a complete year.

I've decided to take up this challenge. Food (for me, Tristan, and the girls), toothpaste, soap, shampoo, etc. are not on the fasting list. The main things that I will refrain from buying will be clothing, shoes, trinkets, gadgets, CDs, movies, etc. Basically, things that I already have.

I truly believe that a consumer-fast, for me at least, is necessary. I want to be able to go into a store and avoid the impulse of purchasing unnecessary items. After making this decision, I decided to test out the theory. I walked into Ross, the land of never ending things and cheap prices. The act of looking around, knowing that I would not be buying anything was actually liberating in a sense. I knew that I was going to leave the store without spending money. However, I also felt the sting of perceived obsolescence.

Perceived obsolescence is a system that has been exercised for all of its worth by our consumer culture. Annie Leonard (the woman who created the brilliant "Story of Stuff") refers to this when she asks viewers if we ever noticed how quickly styles change. One year, jeans have bell bottoms and the next year, they have skinny pant legs. T.V.s have rounded screens, and now they have flat screens. So, what effect do these shifts in style cause?

According to Leonard (and I happen to agree), say we have a T.V. with a rounded screen. Once the flat screened T.V.s come into fashion, you are increasingly persuaded (because of advertising and peer pressure) to buy the flat screen T.V. Never mind if your T.V. works just fine. That's not the point. The point is, in order to be an effective consumer, you have to be on top of these stylistic changes. You cannot have an outdated "thing." This is perceived obsolescence. We perceive that our things are outdated, causing us to throw them away and replace them.

Now, returning to Ross: I found myself looking through the racks of clothing, at the shoes, at the sunglasses. I noticed how fashion has changed (plaid shirts, linen, buttons on sleeves, etc.) and I have to admit, I felt the urge to buy these things because my closet is not made up of this new fashion. And here is the conundrum that we, as consumers, face. Do we keep what we have, or, do we throw things away and replace them with the latest style? This tendency to be updated is so ingrained within us that I felt the pull towards purchasing.

I will continue keeping track of my consumer-fast on the blog. For now, it seems to be going well. Let us see what happens after the first month is over.

(Excellent news: Tristan has decided to join the consumer-fast, although, he likes to call it changing his consumption patterns!!)

Cheers,
s