SOCIETY IS HOSTAGE TO CONSUMPTION AND CONSUMERISM: PEOPLE START PURCHASING PRODUCTS BEYOND THE ESSENTIALS FOR SURVIVAL

Abstract

This article seeks to analyze the consumption and consumerism of individuals, characterized by the marks of capitalism being responsible for directing the life of society, with precedents caused by excess consumption and production of goods, consuming and purchasing unnecessary products for survival. In contemporary society there is an exacerbated consumerism of goods, products and services, Jean Baudrillard (2008) calls this society “Consumer Society”, according to the author there is a significant increase in the emergence of goods, products and services, the Consumer Society lives in a society that always worships and admires the new, thus favoring the emergence of new objects at an impressive speed, just as we live in a Consumer Society we also live in a “wasteful society”, thus highlighting the frequent need to obtain something new: “All societies have wasted, squandered, spent and always consumed beyond what is strictly necessary, for the simple reason that it is in the consumption of surplus and superfluity that both the individual and society feel not only exist, but live. (BAUDRILLARD, 2008, p.40) The best definition to think about today's society is that of a “Consumer Society”, however, we are not talking about natural consumption and necessary for survival, but that unnecessary consumption, created by advertising, indicated by symbols and endorsed by fashion and the standardization that capitalism proposes. The consumerist society is related to a new model of socialization, based on the loss of essential values ​​for real human beings, that is, the valorization of feelings and ideals that are important for life in a group, in a family, in short, in society. When we talk about consumption and consumerism, these are words used today and which translate individuals' day-to-day practices to satisfy their needs. Human needs, since the beginning of humanity, where the individual had to adapt to the environment to, above all, satisfy basic needs. Throughout the history of humanity we see events in the search for satisfaction of their needs.