The Effect Consumerism Has on Both My Life and the Environment
By: Emily Hackett
Tags: Environment, Consumerism, Cosmetics

For most Americans, the sentiment of taking part in consumerism begins at a very young age. Between the morning cartoons are colorful advertisements for toys and board games. And although I had no sense of monetary value at such a young age, two payments of $15.99 sounded like a great deal for the new Wubble Bubble. We never bought anything from the “As Seen on TV” section of the mall, but as a child, it was the peak of affluence to have a toy that was seen in the commercials.

It is interesting to reflect on this idea as I have grown up, how I was always jealous of the other kids who had toys that were constantly shown in commercials. As I got older and went into middle school, I would be jealous of the girl who wore clothes from Justice to school, a pinnacle of the 2000’s fashion scene. When I got my first job at age 15 as a lifeguard, I was able to (somewhat) have my own freedom with my money. I am a notorious money saver, but I was able to buy a shirt if I liked it or get a smoothie for my friend in the summer.

However, when I quit my job at the beginning of my senior year in high school, having less financial freedom made me question my spending choices in the previous two years. I was able to buy my own gas and shampoo, and other things I consider necessities. When I didn’t have the savings to provide myself with things that I simply just wanted. With a lot of self-reflection, I realized that I did not have a need for most of the things I was buying.

Recently, I have learned some startling information that had never previously occurred to me. Everything in the American business market is targeted to make us buy things for the sake of buying them. The Story of Stuff organization has put out multiple videos revealing the truth of consumerism. Two of the videos that caught my eye were on the topics of bottled water and cosmetics.

The cosmetics video, in particular, felt relatable. Women specifically are targeted for this type of advertisement, and industry. The pressure to appear perfect has been a large part of the female experience for decades. Many women buy cosmetics without knowing that the ingredients in them are barely regulated. The video mentions how cosmetics companies treat humans like lab rats, waiting to see if the chemicals in their product will have a long-lasting effect on our health.

What stood out to me most in the video was how the cosmetic industry is linked to American consumerism. Products that are marketed with words such as “natural” and “organic” do not actually have legal standards for what these words mean. A product can be labeled as “natural” but have petrochemicals and other harmful ingredients in it, which is unknown to the consumer.

I have fallen for this marketing ploy many times, I was not aware until last week that this was the harsh reality of the cosmetics industry. It is concerning that the ingredients in the products that most people use are not regulated by the government because the industry is immensely lucrative in its current state. In a perfect world, potentially dangerous products would not be marketed and sold to us, but that is not the case. This practice spans across multiple industries.

There is a common misconception that bottled water is the purest water available for purchase. Brands such as Fiji and Aquafina have images of pristine forests and mountains on the bottle, but in general, people do not usually take the time to consider where the water is actually sourced from. In most places in the United States, tap water is cleaner to drink than bottled water.

In one instance, a school in Queensland, New Zealand, does not have access to their local water anymore due to a local bottling plant has used up all of the water sources in the town. The Tambourine Mountain state school now has to have bottled water shipped in to have drinking water for its residents. It has had a devastating effect on its residents, as the water the government has bought them is the same water that was extracted out of their wells.

Water should not be marketed for $2.00 a bottle when it can be distributed at higher quality for less than a cent per glass. Ideally, the advertisement and unethical sources of bottled water companies would be more widely known by the public. In the era of consumerism, the need to buy even water at a 2000% markup needs to change. I hope that in the future I can recognize the unnecessary purchases I may make and to avoid them and that more people in the United States can do the same.