Consumerist Culture : How Far is Too Far?
Will we even get a chance to get our hands on Dubai Chocolate, Labubus and Sonny Angels before the next big thing takes over our feed?
Okay I’ll admit - I spend quite a lot of time on social media. I’d like to say that I’m whimsical and only spend time flouncing around in the garden watering my vegetables and thinking deep philosophical thoughts but sadly I’m a 19 year old girl and have very much got sucked into the time trap of TikTok and other things alike. In my scrollings, the most recent things that have been flooding my feeds is Dubai Chocolate, Labubus and Sonny Angels (amongst Love Island edits but maybe that’s a different blog post for another day).
Now if Dubai Chocolate, Labubus and Sonny Angels don’t mean anything to you - don’t be alarmed, that probably reflects pretty positively on both your character and screen time usage. I’ll try my best though to explain so that you understand what I’m banging on about.
These three things are what I’d currently call the latest ‘fads’ on the internet (I’m aware I sound rather old saying that) and can be seen EVERYWHERE. The famous Dubai Chocolate, consisting of pistachio cream and a crispy kataifi pastry, has managed to inspire numerous copycat versions and similar flavor combinations in other desserts and products after going viral online last year. Labubus and Sonny Angels are more of the same plethora, both being collectible dolls (that slightly resemble something that I might see come out of my closet in my nightmares).
Now, I’m not out here to criticise the products as a whole, I’ve read countless articles slamming Labubus for being demonic and I don’t want to come out here with the same old same old. Rather, I just want to take more of a step back and look at crazes and fads as a concept. I see nothing wrong with buying things that we like or that we need but I just know for a fact as soon as the next new thing pulls up on our feeds, the landfills are gonna be piled with those scary smiling Labubu faces.
If we turn to different religious scriptures, we can see how much materialism and consumerism is advised against in most religious contexts :
In the Bible, it is written “For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.” (1 Timothy 6:7-8)
And similarly in the Quran we see "And give the relative his right, and [also] the poor and the traveler. And do not spend wastefully. Indeed, the wasteful are brothers of the devils, and ever has Satan been to his Lord ungrateful." (Quran 17:26-27)
Buddhism is another religion that strongly advises against consumerism for they believe consumerism promotes desire and dissatisfaction, the very source of suffering.
I think it’s very interesting how these people religions all hold similar views; simply that these things we are investing in are not bad themselves but rather what we do with them and how much of our happiness and joy is reliant on them.
Hope you’ve all had a good week - Iris xx