Title
Mindfulness and Consumer Culture
Files
Description
Teddi Hastreiter, COM 450: Communication and Society
Faculty Mentor: Professor Michael Niman, Communication
This paper examines the positive effects mindfulness has on balancing the negative and stressful effects of consumer culture. My work argues that it provides an alternative to the wants and desires associated with obsessions with products and acts of consumption, giving consumers the power to think for themselves and the agency that freedom creates. Predominantly privatistic, consumerism places the individual before the community. This paper analyzes the role consumerism plays in our society, and how mindfulness can make us aware of our purchasing behaviors and their consequences. Mindfulness not only promotes awareness towards one's actions, but shows us the realities of consumerism--good and bad. It enables us to open our eyes and become aware of the manipulative nature of branding and advertisements. In other words, mindful consumption gives us a choice: to buy or not to buy. No longer led simply by impulse, consumers are free to think about the products they consume, where these products come from, and why we are purchasing them. My methodology includes conducting a literature search regarding both mindfulness and consumerism, and using material examined in COM450 and other critical thinking classes to synthesize my analysis.
Publication Date
2020
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities
Recommended Citation
Hastreiter, Teddi, "Mindfulness and Consumer Culture" (2020). Communication and Humanities. 22nd Annual Student Research and Creativity Conference. SUNY Buffalo State.
https://digitalcommons.buffalostate.edu/srcc-sp20-commhum/17
