Wednesday, January 27, 2010

the consumer diaries: niecey's version

the Chin article is really on my mind right now.  mostly because she just opened up some interesting ways to view consumerism in my own life.  for example:


event-shopping:  this morning when i walked out of my house, it was snowing.  again.  i felt a sense of wonder (i'm not used to living in an area where it snows ALL the time) and a sense of dread (ice, cold, defrost cars, dogs that understandably don't want to pee in the snow).  and the first thing i thought was "i should go shopping. if its got to snow again, i should receive some tangible reward."  this train of thought makes no sense.





marketing my academic research:  i'm presenting my research here on campus during the ics lecture series.  one of the requirements it to 1) cut down my title to make it more attractive and 2) make it 'snazzier'.  wow.  i have no idea how to change a title to trick someone in to wanting to come to it.  i'm not that witty or clever.  i'm a sociologist--any attempt at being clever is going to be nerdy.  i know it and i must avoid the embarrassment.






buying community:  i'm doing the biggest loser contest at my gym (bloom health & fitness).  one of my first thoughts was "we need a tshirt for our team!  tshirts create community and cohesion".  i'm usually very aware of my tshirt addiction.  i'm a joiner and joiners love paraphernalia for their causes.  my dept chair showed me some childrens books about this siamese cat with a personality disorder and now i've ordered not only copies for myself, but of course a sticker book and a stuffed Skippyjon to set on a shelf next to my stuffed cow wearing a Dallas Cowboys tshirt. but to actually think that the tshirt alone was enough to bind four women together towards a common cause?  hmmm.  i'm of my rocker on that one.
[however, i did come up for a catchy quip for that one; "weight and see".  get it?  weight (wait) and see!  lol.]



i need a 12 step program...or do i?  is this normal???  idk.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Consumer Audit

After watching the "Story of Stuff" video and having some preliminary discussion (before being rudely interrupted by a fire drill--darn the bureaucracy & its efficient-inefficiency), it may be a good idea to just look at consumerism on a microlevel before we start going into our next set of readings.


Complete the "Consumer Audit" sheet posted on Blackboard by listing the rationale and details for anything you buy or throw away this Saturday and Sunday.  Then give a short response to the following questions here on the Blog!  If you want, you can add an image or something too.


Were there any patterns that you noticed in your purchasing and waste habits?  Did intentionally monitoring yourself make a difference in your habits?  Did anything you threw away actually hold meaning at one time?

?

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The Story of Stuff


We are opening our Sociology of Consumerism course this semester by having a little eye opener on what "stuff" is--and what it means to us.  Today we did some introductory stuff and the normal 1st day of class BS.  However, on Friday and next Monday we will be watching the movie "The Story of Stuff" and just talking about the concepts discussed.  I felt like it would be good to look at this basic view before we got into all of the theory stuff later on.  And especially before we started the "Disenchanted" Ritzer book.



The Story of Stuff Blog