New, Unrealistic Consumerism

In Juliet Schor’s article, The New Politics of Consumption: Why Americans Want So Much More Than They Need, she explained how America became such a consumerist society and why we feel the need to keep up with it. Many Americans cannot afford to spend the amount of money that is needed to keep up with the upper class consumer. One big problem is that Americans strive to be considered upper class, therefore spending the budget that members of the upper class have. Television has set up an imagined community of big spending consumers, making it seem as though no matter how wealthy you are, you have to keep up with the newest products and technology. Research by Susan Fournier and Michael Guiry has proven that “35% of their sample aspired to reach the top 6% of the income distribution, and another 49% aspired to the next 12%” (186). This leads to Schor’s new term, competitive consumption, which is the “idea that spending is in large part driven by a comparative or competitive process in which individuals try to keep up with the norms of the social group with which they identify” no matter how much money they actually make (185). In my opinion, being too wrapped up in a consumerist society can take you away from what is actually right. High-class consumerism becomes the “norm” to many Americans, taking them away from the reality that many people rarely are a part of the high class, large consumerist society.

By watching shows like Gossip Girl, it can take you away from what is actually the “norm” for society because many can be desensitized to what is impossible to achieve. In Gossip Girl, college students live in the high end of New York City and live exceedingly luxurious lives. The characters in that show are extremely unrealistic – taking trips to Europe on a whim as an example.