Consuming Passions

When shopping for whatever it may be-clothes, music, accessories, and many more- there are certain trends that everyone is in to for their own reasons. Everyone has their own styles that they prefer compared to others. For me, I tend to lean towards things that are more comfortable, girly, and creative. For clothes, I discovered that comfort is more important to me than style is, however, I still try to make sure that I'm not completely off the trend; I don't want to look totally hideous. Usually, I'm caught wearing shorts and a T-shirt, or jeans and a sweatshirt. I also like to pair it with sneakers or flip flops since those tend to be more comfortable to me. Occasionally though, I like to mix it up by wearing my cowboy boots. With music, I noticed that I prefer to listen to country, pop, alternative rock, or hip hop, with moments of listening to some rap songs. I realized that I only listen to rappers such as Eminem or Professor Green, a British version of Eminem. This section of genre is very limited because I only like to listen to meaningful lyrics that are deep rather than sex, money and drugs which tend to be majority of rap songs now a days. Other than that, I'm not one to complain about types of music. I also enjoy buying necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and nail polish because I find them to be cute and shows the girly side of me. Lastly, I probably spend most of my time shopping for school/office supplies such as pencils and pens, markers, stickers, etc. I realized that because of my love for creativity, I need to keep up with the newest pencil or special color pens. Everyone has their own interests, and school/office supplies happen to be mine.

When it comes to the type of stores I go to, I'm not very picky. I usually try to find something from wherever I go since there isn't really a specific brand I go for. However, I mostly shop at stores like Walmart, Target, Claire's, and Michaels due to the relative cheapness of the items there. I believe that if you can find the same item or one similar to it at a thrift store or lower priced store compared to the brand stores, then it's more sensible for me to go buy the cheaper ones. I wouldn't like to say that I'm cheap because I do buy brand names occasionally when I really want it. But I don't see why I should spend more for something I can get for less, especially during tough times. These are the stores that I go to when shopping and I find them to be a good way to get cute things for a lower price.

I believe that the main drive for me to make these certain consumer choices are because of my personality. As an arts and craft type of person, I will obviously be more interested in art supplies or things that I can use for other creative advantages. Rather than spending hours shopping for the latest trends on boots or shirts to stay in the fashion sense of the world, I spend hours in stores like Office Depot or Staples to find the cutest and coolest items. Because of this, I spend more time outside of school making or designing things instead of putting together a fashionable outfit or finding new make up styles. So because of my personality, it is not at all surprising that I spend more time creating things than shopping for other items that aren't of any importance to me.

After the reading about America's need to purchase a lot of things, I think that it's true. Most Americans tend to buy quite a bit of stuff, sometimes more than they really need. It's easy to go to a store and see something that appeals to you, so your immediate reaction is to buy it simply because you like it. However, most of the time the item is not as important as you first thought it would be, and truth is it wasn't necessary to buy it. I tend to do this often. It's just in my instinct, along with majority of the nation, to buy what I like or want and not really need. I imagine it as everyone having this and that, which makes me feel like I need this or that so I fit in. When going out, it's just an automatic reaction to buy things that might not be of any importance, but seems valuable at the time.

After explaining what I tend to buy more often, where I shop for these items, and what makes me buy certain things, as well as reading about the points in the book, I have come to a conclusion that I do buy more than I need, especially when it comes to creative supplies. I analyzed the things I do and now understand that I like to get things whenever I feel like I "need" them, even though I don't. In my mind at the moment, I think to myself that this certain item is amazing and something I need to get right away out of impulse. However, after receiving the item and being all excited about it, I then see that it was not necessary. Although I use the things that I buy often, I notice that I have plenty of them and can't use all items at once. I should only get a couple, if not one, of an item rather than several of them just because of the style.