Examples Of Excessive Consumerism

To better understand the category of consumers who excessively consumerism, one will need to identify the four characteristic of a binge or excessive consumer. First, one who falls into excessive consumerism demonstrates difficulty building past history and therefore, they struggle to evaluate their actions for their future in terms of cost and benefit analysis (Biling 373). When a person purchases an iPhone 4s then a iPhone 5 the following year, buying the iPhone yearly starts to become a habit. Once the iPhone 5s comes out, they purchase it. Shortly after he or she purchases the iPhone 5s, the consumer unexpectedly loses his or hers job. Despite not recognizing the fact that his or hers current situation changed by not having as much income, …show more content…
To demonstrate, Freud gave the situation of a parent purchasing goods for their child. When a parent buys a good for their kid, they do not only want to satisfy the child’s wants but their wants as well (Cluley and Dunne 259). This idea relates directly to the iPhone dilemma. When a parent goes to elementary school to pick their child up, they see other kids texting that are younger than the age of ten. Many adults, if any at all, did not own a phone nevertheless an iPhone 6 while they ran around a playground in 6th grade. Some parents, according to Freud don’t want their child knowing of their inhabitation (Cluley and Dunne 259). By purchasing an iPhone 6 for their child, this almost unconscious fear becomes distinguished. Freud believes that parents, “are able to entertain the notion that they are acting out of selfless love, and, therefore, add to their idealized image of themselves” (259). By giving an iPhone to their child, the parents’ personal satisfaction rises. They know that their kid will be told that he or she has great parents when they go to school to show their friends. This leads to parents believing that they satisfied a large role they have as parents through making sure the child stays up with the trend of today. This demonstrates that people are able to create idealized images of themselves through the accumulation of …show more content…
After research completed by Rosenthal in 2005, he concluded, ‘‘The problem is that our ever-increasing consumption is counteracted by ‘hedonic adaptation,’ in which we need ever-higher quantities to obtain the same boost in satisfaction. This sounds like addiction, and for many of us, it probably is’’ (Passini 370). A consumer who purchased an iPhone 4 would show a high amount of satisfaction, because he or she could now search their email for updates, browse ESPN to find the score of the Broncos game, and play a game of Angry Birds. After previously owning a Samsung T199 flip phone, the consumer could not do nearly as much as he or she could with their new iPhone 4. After a year, the consumer upgrades from the iPhone 4 to the iPhone 4s. Instead of gaining a bunch of the new features, the consumer mainly upgraded the screen resolution and the speed of the phone. This leads to a lesser satisfaction overall. To compensate for this, they may look to get an Otterbox case or another accessory to make the phone stand out more in the public eye. When the same consumer purchases an iPhone 5, he once again has momentary satisfaction. However, the consumer may need to get a new data plan from 1 gigabyte to 2 gigabyte of 4G data. This shows that as a consumer continues to get upgrades, they will lose satisfaction with each upgrade of phones. To add to this, people start