Todays Consumer Culture: Bought Self-worth and Artificial Happiness Es

Theres a lady whos sure all that glitters is flamboyantAnd shes buy a staircase to heaven.When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closeWith a word she can get what she came for.Ooh, ooh, and shes buying a stairway to heaven.From Stairway To Heaven, by Led ZeppelinShopping heart and souls didnt scantily happen. They are not the result of wise planners deciding that suburban people, having no kind life and stimulation, needed a place to go (Bombeck, 1985). The sum was originally c formerlyived of as a community center where people would cope with for shopping, cultural activity, and social interaction (Gruen & Smith, 2005). It is safe to say that the mall has achieved and surpassed those proto(prenominal) expectations. Unfortunately, in todays consumer culture, the mall is the center of the universe and and this has shaped consumers in a negative way. In contrast to the original concept of providing the consumer with greater choice, the mall actually limits the choices of the suburb shopper. The consumer is forced to go to the mall to full-fill shopping needs, but, once inside, also made to feel guilty if they do not agree any purchases. The mall promotes materialism and superficiality, a sense of bought self-worth and artificial happiness. lodgement shortages and increased mobility (car) allowed families to move away from the city and into the suburbs. These areas were designed to be self-contained, pre-packaged communities with schools, parks, homes, etc in spite of appearance close proximity of each other. Not far from jobs in the city, the suburbs provided the safe, enclose realm ideal for raising families. The only problem was the fact that intimately stores were downtown and too far for mothers (who did most of the shopping) to driv... ...y, advocates this cycle of earning money, spending money, and buying happiness. Overall, the malls promote a sense of superficiality, a need to acquire goods for social acceptance, and an em phasis on artificial happiness. Though they began with innocent intentions, the sinister effects of changing societal values has left us in a jeopardizing situation. Our shallow needs for consumer goods have weakened society and compromised our position as a close community. Works CitedGruen, V., and Smith, L. (2005), Shopping Towns, U.SA. The Planning of Shopping Centers. vernal York Van Nostrand Reinhold.May, Elaine Tyler. Homeward Bound American Families in the Cold state of war Era. Basic Books, 2008. Miller, Daniel. Capitalism An Ethnographic Approach. Berg, Oxford. 1997. Miller, Daniel. A Theory of Shopping. Polity Press, Oxford, 1998.