How to Beat Consumerism and Social Media and Help Save the Planet! 13 Daily Dangers and 13 Actions to Defeat Them!

There seems to be a product or service for our every need and want these days, and we no longer need to search too far, nor wait too long to get it.  Supply has exceeded demand and the competition is fierce.

On-demand and fast delivery has decreased the anticipation and excitement of waiting for nearly anything we desire.  New releases and the latest upgrades are occur within the year rather than within the decade. We can quickly order from our phones and smart watches, and using our bio-metric signatures, such as our fingerprint and facial recognition.

Everything in our lives is nearly instant and deliverable immediately or on the same day.  More and more small suppliers are pressured to provide a similar convenience as their multi-billion competitors.

We are already becoming desensitised to this convenience and accept it as a norm.

13 Daily Dangers of the Costs Behind On-Demand Products and Services - and 13 Actions to Defeat Them!

1. Money leaks from our savings:  Convenience means we are more susceptible to spending through impulse to satisfy short-term desires, especially with everything at our fingertips.

Take action:  Know where your money is going by having a simple personal income and expenses record which you update weekly or daily.

2. Entertainment Overload:  We no longer have to wait from week-to-week for our favourite shows and music and can binge-watch at our convenience anywhere we carry our mobile phone.  Most new series and movie franchise productions are released at least annually.

Take Action:  Only watch or listen to what is meaningful to you!

3. Convenience Foods and Drinks:  Many convenience foods are available within a few minutes in any urban environment.  Manufactured from the cheapest chemicals, sugar, oils and salt, junk food meets our impulse to satisfy our hunger and thirst.  As our tolerance for sugar, oil and salt grows, we become less healthy and prone to medical conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.  Our discipline to make our own breakfasts, lunches and dinners has depleted, with many of us indulging in what was once an occasional treat, now on a daily basis.

Take Action:  Resist the temptation to eat when out and about.  Take your own food.  If you are socialising, discipline yourself to buy a healthy drink only and wait until you get home to eat.

4. Quantity:  With prices cheaper, we buy and consume more.  Many products lack the quality for long-lasting usage and are disposable.  It takes effort to find quality goods.  

Take Action:  Choose to spend on good quality long-lasting items.  A quality item does not mean the most expensive brand available!

5. Environmental damage:  The amount of energy, materials and production used to satisfy our demands and convenience has consequences for the environment with naturally occurring species being replaced with “ingredients” for manufacturing.

Take action:  Wherever you can, buy sustainable products that you have researched for having the least impact on the planet.

6. People exploitation:  People are subject to supply and demand.  When a market is saturated, people are paid less to bring the price of goods down.  Cheap labour means a poorer quality of life for many people in our world, who often work longer hours than they should in poor working conditions.

Take action:  Educate yourself on what companies exploit labour in their manufacturing.

7. Fast fashion:  To keep up with the seasons and fast changing fashion you need to spend a lot, hoard a lot and dispose of a lot.  If you need to impress others, then you are sacrificing personal style and taste for keeping up with everybody else.  Mountains of seasonal clothing ends up in landfill every year.

Take action:  Learn what colours, styles and hairstyles suit you and follow this rule alone.  Your clothing and appearance will endure the seasons for longer.

8. Mindlessness:  With everything fast, effortless and automated, we no longer have to think through processes.  Many children don’t know how things are made and the resources they are created from. Many adults don’t either!  I am often surprised by how many people have zero maintenance skills.

Take Action:  Educate yourself on the origin of the items you own, their materials and the processes that have created them.  Occasionally make you dinner completely from scratch, do the dishes, handwash some clothes, try repairing something; just get hands-on from time-to-time.  You will improve your resilience and resourcefulness.

9. Social media and messaging:  Team-work, collaboration and communication has become disassociated, diluted and open to misinterpretation through instant messaging and emails.  Thousands of years of evolution requiring face-to-face communication has quickly been halted by technology.  Even dating has lost its personal interaction.

Take action:  Wherever you can, make the effort to speak to someone face-to-face.  If this means overcoming your shyness or social anxieties, then the only way to improve is through gradual practice, face-to-face.  Don’t hide behind emails and messaging!

10. Conformity:  Our rebellion and uniqueness is being challenged by social media expectations and market-dominating mobile phones, gadgets, and fashions.  We wear the labels of these companies without questioning the money-making machine behind them, providing them with more advertising.

Take action:  Consciously choose what you buy and wear, and know that every time you display a label, you are representing the practices of that company and providing free advertising to profit that company even more.

11. Someone is choosing for you:  Your intentional choice gets swamped by quick convenience and someone else is making a decision for you.  If you don’t choose for yourself, someone else is in control of your life.

Take action:  In every moment you have a choice.  Make your choices a conscious action by weighing up the pros and cons, then making your own decision.

12. Weakness and inaction:  When things come easily you become weak and reliant on others. Resilience comes from overcoming obstacles using our own resourcefulness. It is difficult to grown when your pain is pacified easily by outside conveniences. Comfort is too easily bought, but it doesn’t last.

Take action:  When an obstacle appears, have a go at resolving the problem yourself by tackling it with conscious thought and action.  Remember there is usually another way to achieve something without spending money on it or someone to do it for you.  The effort pays off in your personal growth.

13. Desensitisation and a lack of appreciation: We have been desensitised by the ease of availability, particularly through online shopping of nearly everything in our lives.  If we no longer have to make the effort of earning things through time and effort, we lose appreciation for attaining them.

Take action:  Learn to earn through patience and effort.  Don’t opt for the easy way out and appreciate the process along the way.  The journey is often more valuable than attaining the end result.

What’s the Intent Behind the Companies Who Provide Convenience?

Well, companies are made up of individuals and individuals are driven by varying amounts of:

• An instinct for survival and a human need to improve systems or lifestyles.

• Competition and greed through wanting to win and wanting more.

• Feelings of power, security and control through financial and material possession, and sex

• Anger over a past or current hurt.

• Jealousy and pride through a feeling of low self-esteem and wanting to feel of value by impressing others.

 This combination of individuals results in the companies own rules and norms to protect and expand the short-term profits of the company, often in isolation or ignorance of the damage it can cause to the world.

What you can personally rely on in a world full of distraction, desires and impulses!

You can consciously challenge consumerism and social media expectations by asserting:

• Your uniqueness and individuality

• Your intentional choice in the moment.

• Your face-to-face connection with others.

• Your connection with, and appreciation of nature.

• Your resilience and persistence in the face of challenge.

• Your positive personal values and beliefs and acting from them.

• Your respect for others, the environment and the future of the planet.

Most importantly, be yourself without harming others. You don’t need to show off to, or impress, anybody.

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