Nowadays, advertisements surround us from every direction. We are constantly encouraged to purchase items we would never have considered needing. A simple online search on our mobile devices triggers an avalanche of offers and eye-catching images that eventually persuade us to make unnecessary purchases, whether they be gadgets, clothing, or accessories.
The 'AntiConsumption' online community fights against consumerism, one post at a time. Its members share insightful content that inspires us to change our habits and reduce the accumulation of goods simply because they were suggested, rather than because we genuinely need them.
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Why Have I Never Seen Anything Like This?
What's Yours?
Yes! You Should Wear Stuff For Years
In order to gain a better understanding of the psychological aspects of the consumerism issue that people face, we have reached out to a clinical psychologist based in the UK, Michaela Thomas. The founder of The Thomas Connection shared with us some insight based directly on her clinical experience.
We wanted to know if Thomas has encountered cases of compulsive or addictive consumption behaviors in her research or practice. We found out that: “Yes, I have clients in my clinic who can compulsively overspend or purchase items they don't need. It's important to understand the root cause behind this behavior, as it changes the treatment. If it is an acquisition behavior as part of hoarding, where someone collects more and more things, and at the same time struggles to let go of things they already have, even if they seem to serve no purpose to others, then that consumption builds up into other problems, like cluttering, unhygienic homes, and arguments with loved ones.”
Instead Of Polluting The Planet With Confetti, Hole Punch Leaves Instead! 🌎🎉
Ha Ha Ha Ha Sports
Spooky Reusables
The psychologist told us about other, more complex instances: “If overspending is due to lack of financial planning, or wanting the dopamine kick of how good it feels to purchase something, that can be linked to ADHD, depression, mania, psychosis, or other dopamine-related issues. In ADHD, it can be really hard to resist sponsored content like Facebook ads or TV ads, telling you to get this thing NOW, in order to feel happier, or because otherwise there is a sense of FOMO, if you don't have this thing NOW.”
This Small Act Of Kindness Can Make Such A Huge Difference! Love To See It
Meirl
Asked what the psychological benefits of adopting a minimalist or simple living lifestyle are and how individuals can cultivate contentment and satisfaction with less, Michela Thomas explained: “Psychologically, it can feel a lot less overwhelming in your day-to-day with less visual clutter. It is easier to organize ourselves and find things day-to-day with fewer belongings. If we keep buying more and more, we can find ourselves less satisfied with the things we already have, or now get. Often there is a mismatch between the pursuing and the consuming of something we buy - that we focus so much on acquiring things that we don't have enough time sitting in the appreciation of what we've got. If we buy something less rarely and learn the art of mindfully savoring something after we have got it, we might feel more content and grateful for what we have. Having less is more, and doing less is also more.”
Bioplastics Made From Avocado Pits That Completely Biodegrade In 240 Days Created By Mexican Chemical Engineering Company 🥑
Weddings Can Get So Wasteful And Polluting, So It's Always Nice To See People Embracing Reuse. This Idea Of Requiring New Things On Your Special Day Is Outdated And Promotes Unnecessary Consumerism, So Anyway Yes, Let's Appreciate Second-Hand Wedding Gowns!
I Came Across This Years Ago And It De-Programmed Me From The Consumerist Mindset. From Matt Haig's Reasons To Stay Alive
Lastly, we were wondering how parents and educators can teach children and adolescents about responsible consumption and develop their critical thinking skills regarding advertising and consumer culture. The clinical psychologist told us: “It's helpful to engage children in the eco perspective of how fast fashion or mindless consumption impacts the environment, understanding the impact of using non-renewable resources. We can do that without creating eco-anxiety by showing in a neutral way that we try to reduce single-use plastic, or borrow books from the library instead of just buying new ones, or taking them to second-hand shops for toys and clothes. It then becomes part of their normal, just like we brush our teeth or look both ways before crossing the street - ingrained habits. In my child's school, they have an eco council where children can volunteer to take part and review the school's practices around sustainability, and come up with bright ideas. The children are our future, let them be part of designing it (in an age-appropriate way).”
I Believe It Fits Here
Golf courses are rubbish for then environment, little scope for biodiversity and lots of water run off .
Insane water use, too, and very often they're established in water scarce areas (SW USA, Spain, Gulf states...).
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Fun Fact: Most golf courses use untreated water for irrigation, however they do not tell this to members. Many golfers do not know this and sometimes refill their water bottles from sprinklers. As a teenager I worked at a golf course that drew its water down stream from a waste treatment plant. I did not warn the mean golfers about what they were drinking
What if - instead of trying to make all these people go back to the office, when they can clearly do remote work just fine, we turned all those empty office spaces into affordable housing and small communities, with grocery, coffee shops, gyms, etc. Let's make everyone happy! And reduce pollution.
How about we start with racetracks first. Atleast golfcourses have some positive effect on the ecosystem where as driving a gasguzzeling carbonspewing craptrap in a circle 100 times does nothing for no one.
Both are bad, but the amount of poison used on a golf course is exponentially worse than a racetrack. I was engaged to a Asst Superintendent of a golf course. Horrible people work there and do awful things.
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If my math is right (it is) your proposal is to jam 160,000 people into one square mile. For comparison, Tokyo manages to wedge in a paltry 6264 people in a square kilometre. This place is Hell.
160,000 people with zero parking and only two public transportation spots. Imagine if a fire started in the middle of the night. You couldn't evacuate fast enough and just created a giant cemetery for the 159,000 people who were left behind.
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How would you build sewer systems, water lines, roads, sidewalks, homes, and transit stops without tearing down all the trees?
True, unfortunately... My town is in the midst of a few big developments and it is a large swath of dirt before they start building. And then they go back and plant new trees, but never as many.
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I live just south of a small city, population 150,000, less than an hour west of Toronto. The average household income before taxes is just over 100,000. There are seven golf courses, located less than a 20 km drive from my house. Additionally, there are 93 golf courses within a 30 km drive. There are multiple homeless encampments in that 30 km radius of.
Or, maybe just leave it as a green space. Let the forest take over, and make it a public park.
I'd go along with that if you give up your phone. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean you get to take it away from others. Phones and everything that goes with that is worse for the environment than all the golf courses in the world.
Two gold courses in the city I used to live in are now housing estates, I've started seeing it more and more as one by where I live now is heading the same way
But it's my right as a middle aged American man to go hit a little ball around and hate it!
Throw in a grocery store or two and you are really getting there.
Sorry golf lovers but how is hitting a ball really a sport. You only have to get it to the hole it's long and boring has no teams other than spending the day quietly chasing a ball getting drunk after. Throwing a ball for a dog is more exercise and at least the dog brings the ball back you don't have to get in a mini car to drive to next hole it's not even exercise
I can walk to this from my house. Remember that when we lose green space we almost never get it back. Golf courses suck, but how about plant to reforest instead.
And yet, one person's vision for how everyone should live (it's the way he or she thinks everyone should live, and closely matches the way thatvone person WANTS to live, of course!), Is not really a good goal for a diverse community full of people who want to live in different ways. Some people like to golf, let the people who own the 160 acres do their thang, whatever that thing is, please.
But wouldn't you have to deal with overcrowding I think that's illegal
George Carlin had a bit about this...let's build affordable homes on golf courses!
Im fine if you want to have a golf course or even a dozen. But you dont get to waste the water on your ridiculous exclusive clubs. Find better grass or no deal.
Nothing pisses me off more than lush green golf courses in the drought sticken west.
Problem is we have the housing .. there are thousands of houses that sit empty ... building more houses is not the answer
But then where would rich douchebags go to play with their tiny balls?
Roughly 10K people per building with what amounts to miniscule space for 40K people to move around in. Then we can talk about how big/tall each building would have to be to hold roughly 10K people and the systems needed to keep each building and the area around them sanitary. This one wreaks of being from a good idea fairy that has no knowledge of what it would actually take to support 40K people in an area as small as a golf course.
Better yet. Move out of the city. Cities are where our souls go to die. I'm getting out as fast as I can.
But then the golfers would have no place to waste time and the club wouldn't be making a s**t ton of money for a few people.
There's a fight locally based on the old municipal golf course and whether it should be redeveloped for local housing. Seeing as there's no new homes for the 000's of children that want to live in the area they grew up in, it seems logical, but will they choose the part that is guaranteed to flood?!
I grew up around a private course and it is surrounded by houses. The area used to be where rich people lived 150 yrs ago before moving west. Now it's a waste of good space.
I live on a golf course. We have a nesting bald eagle pair, numerous ospreys, blue, little blue, and tri-colored herons, two different types of cormorants, wood storks (considered a threatened species), ibis, roseate spoonbill, egrets, breeding alligators and more that hang out just in the pond behind my house. The golf courses in my county are basically the only space that's not being torn up for development, houses that are like 2 feet apart with no yards, crammed so close together. All these creatures (we also have coyotes, armadillo, tons of owls, opossums, and raccoons) would lose habitat so someone can live closer to the water and have the mangroves cut down to unobstruct their view. This isn't a PGA course, just an executive. I'd rather live on this than be able to shake hands with my neighbor without leaving my living room.
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Golf courses may be green, but they are next to useless for wildlife. They are often lower in biodiversity than the housing areas near them. They use valuable clean water and massive amounts of chemicals to keep them looking the way they do. Dense housing developments near the centre of cities are not some evil thing, we desperately need suitable housing for workers, and anything that reduces commuting time also reduces the pollution from all those vehicles.
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F**k Better Learning Materials Or Whatever, Let's Build A Massive Shrine To A Couple Dozen Students That Do Something For A Few Months A Year
This applies to high school too. The football and basketball teams get the money for equipment when that money could be used to buy new books and supplies to teach kids.
These Bags Are Crocheted From Recycled Yarn. My Sister And I Make These Bags From Old, Unwanted Sweaters And Cardigans
Felt Like This Belonged Here
Gucci-Poochie Can't Go Potty
What An Idea!
Where Can I Buy A Card With This On It?
Regenerative Candles Creates New Candle As It Melts
Never Forget, The Electric Car Is Here To Save The Car Industry, Not The Planet
well and your very tweet is for your influence, not for the planet. Ppl in some countries tend to not see that there's something in between black and white when it comes to electric cars. And that there are many benefits of an electric car besides causing way less CO2 than conventional cars in their lifetimes (even if battery was produced with conventional power mix). Sure, car industry makes a good deal, too, what's bad about this? They employ many workers, too.
Bernie Showing Us All The Way!!
Things Used To Last For More Time
Oh, it's my old Kenmore! Yeah, that sucker broke in the early 90s. Think I've had my current one longer.
This Library Has Cake Pans You Can Check Out
We Need A Different Economy
There Was Once A Time When
My Local Pizza Place Uses A Ball Of Dough Instead Of Those Little Plastic Tables To Prevent The Pizza Box Lid From Touching The Pizza
Capitalism Drives Innovation! The Innovations:
As A Pcos Patient Who Often Feels Bad About How She Looks, I Need This Reminder A Lot
Capitalism is just a form of power and power will twist anything. They've twisted beauty for power. However, ugly and beautiful are real things. No one made a dime off the beauty of a sparkling mountain lake or the hideousness of a blobfish. Regardless of how attractive each is, both are still vital to this world and deserve to be appreciated and respected. We need to refuse to let power tell us otherwise. Same thing with people.
Eating These Corporations Is The Only Way To Truly Save The Earth
It Never Worked In The First Place. Ever Since The Pandemic Started, We Are All Collectively Realizing This
Street Sticker
“One-Time Use” Froyo Spoons That I’ve Been Using For 8 Years
Knew It Fit Here
They used to make things to last. Now they make them to wear out as soon as possible (and in the case of electronics, as soon as the warranty expires!)
On Black Friday 2008, 34 Yr Old Walmart Employee, Jdimytai Damour, Was Asked By His Employer To Use His 6’5 Body As A Barrier For A Crowd Of Over 2,000 People
He died that day after being trampled by the crowd. The shoppers did not concerned about his death, and even complained of waiting too long.
Trampled to death by the customer stampede. Noone was ever tried for this, but Walmart had to pay a fine of 7000$ for OSHA violations (that they spent more than 1 million dollars publicly contesting to state they had done nothing wrong). More: https://nathanveshecco.medium.com/jdimytai-damour-10-years-later-277706add1e6
Reminder That The Skincare Industry Is Predatory
Got Laid Off From My Job. I Have A Mug I Really Love But Has My Old Company’s Logo On It. Instead Of Throwing It Away, I Ordered A $3 Waterproof Vinyl Sticker To Put Over It. I Love The Mug Even More!
I did the same thing. Put gay pride stickers all over my covertly homophobic former company
McDonald's Has New Reusable Containers For Dine In Orders Now
You Can't Tell Me That Driving Through The Night Would Be A Better Option Than This
This Is Why I Despise “Collectibles”
Pretty Much Sums It Up
My Little '98 Camry Compared To 2 Modern Vehicles
This Entire Bin Full Of Brand New, Intentionally Destroyed Shoes, Destined For Landfill. All To Prevent Reselling And To Maintain An Artificially High Price
Kroger Potatoes All Individually Wrapped In Plastic. I Don’t Understand Why Potatoes Can’t Just Be Sold As-Is? Why Is The Plastic Necessary?
Anti-Medical System ❤️
Buy Nothing
Reduce consumption is a great idea but buy nothing is impossible. The thread on this cross-stitch required someone to grow cotton to make both the thread and the cloth. Someone else had to spin it into threads and then make it into cloth. A bunch of miners had to get the steel to make the needle for it. Someone had to grow food to feed all those people. That's a lot of people buying things just to survive and feed their families so one person can make an art piece on a wall. Art is what makes life worth living and a lot people depend on each other so an artist can afford both the materials and time to make it.
Am I The Only One Infuriated By Cooler Screens?? These Video Screens At Gas Stations Are Worse Than Just A Glass Door In Every Way
It's Worse Than You Can Imagine In Japan
This Aluminum Can Comes Wrapped In Plastic
Note: this post originally had 139 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
The irony of this list appearing on Bored Panda, a website that bombards you with ads trying to sell you junk you don't need.
Really? I hardly see any ads at all, just one box in the right-hand column and an occasional banner within the scroll.
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Funny how anti consumerism always ends up anti capitalism. Consumerism is a global problem. The comments on here are more ignorant than the ones on fox news.
Some people here are a bit confused about what capitalism is
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These lists keep getting posted, but to what end? It's just complaining and virtue signaling. This menu is expensive! This shirt has a logo! This person bought an expensive purse!
Psychologically speaking, our thoughts lead to our actions. If we want a functioning economy, we need to remind ourselves that our current economy is completely dysfunctional. I know seeing this s**t is demoralizing AF, but if it's really causing so much of a mental strain that you felt the need to make this complaint, perhaps you should spend your energy elsewhere
Load More Replies... Shouldn't this have been titled "sorry kids, your futures funked!"?
Its official. I'm taking bored panda out of my morning routine. I used to love waking up in the morning and seeing recommendations for comics and fun pictures or questions. Now everytime an article is recommended it puts me in a bad mindset with depressing posts. Farewell all my fellow Pandas. I am removing myself from the environment.
In a society that forces people to have cars, I'd rather have an electric than a gas car. It's not my fault I'm forced to participate in the system, if I could work from home and walk to a farmers market for groceries, I gladly would.
Great article and wonderful installlments! Gives me hope to know we're all equally concerned.
If there is a passing bandwagon a government will jump on it, not to make things better because they know it means more expense in the long term mean more money for them.
The irony of this list appearing on Bored Panda, a website that bombards you with ads trying to sell you junk you don't need.
Really? I hardly see any ads at all, just one box in the right-hand column and an occasional banner within the scroll.
Load More Replies... Funny how anti consumerism always ends up anti capitalism. Consumerism is a global problem. The comments on here are more ignorant than the ones on fox news.
Some people here are a bit confused about what capitalism is
Load More Replies... These lists keep getting posted, but to what end? It's just complaining and virtue signaling. This menu is expensive! This shirt has a logo! This person bought an expensive purse!
Psychologically speaking, our thoughts lead to our actions. If we want a functioning economy, we need to remind ourselves that our current economy is completely dysfunctional. I know seeing this s**t is demoralizing AF, but if it's really causing so much of a mental strain that you felt the need to make this complaint, perhaps you should spend your energy elsewhere
Load More Replies... Shouldn't this have been titled "sorry kids, your futures funked!"?
Its official. I'm taking bored panda out of my morning routine. I used to love waking up in the morning and seeing recommendations for comics and fun pictures or questions. Now everytime an article is recommended it puts me in a bad mindset with depressing posts. Farewell all my fellow Pandas. I am removing myself from the environment.
In a society that forces people to have cars, I'd rather have an electric than a gas car. It's not my fault I'm forced to participate in the system, if I could work from home and walk to a farmers market for groceries, I gladly would.
Great article and wonderful installlments! Gives me hope to know we're all equally concerned.
If there is a passing bandwagon a government will jump on it, not to make things better because they know it means more expense in the long term mean more money for them.
