by E Eisenberg Upper Sixth
Rebelling against the toxic cycle of consumerism in fashion The Industrial Revolution saw the rise of competitive business in the United Kingdom, heightened further by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the triumph of Europewide capitalism over communism in 1991. Since then, the popularity of social media and the globalisation of business has created an even more competitive atmosphere for nearly every brand. The solution is to encourage everyone to buy: to constantly introduce new things into their lives, to treat objects as disposable and temporary, and to always be looking out for what the next big thing will be. While it’s fun to pick new clothes for new occasions, new decor as the seasons change and luxury items just because - I mean, who doesn’t need different dinner plates for different occasions? - This is having a detrimental effect, not just on the environment as goods are made rapidly cheaper and with less and less care, but on the individual. According to Life Squared, the average person sees over 1,600 advertisements every day, and advertising is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s easy to slip into a cycle of never being happy with what we own, because something newer and better is always on the horizon. Similarly, it seems to be impossible to be satisfied with the lives we have made for ourselves because they do not contain the things that we are told will make it so much better. Millions of people every year look at their smartphones the second a new one is released and heave a sigh of disappointment at the fully functional device. 75% of televisions are scrapped for no reason other than that the owner considered it to be out-of-date, less than 20% of which are recycled. Televisions are considered to be one of the most important items in the home. If we think about our most important belongings in this way, what does this mean about how we think about
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