Psychology and Desires of Consumerism

Individuals in the American society desire certain luxuries in life, to fill in the missing component of love. Based on certain tactics of the media such as psychology , it is seen that those who lack status need to consume goods in order to have satisfaction in life. According to certain pieces of media such as the text “The All-Consuming Self” by Allen D. Kanner and Mary E. Gomes and the short video “The Story of Stuff” by Annie Leonard it is seen that the consumption of materialistic objects creates an ego of satisfaction.
In the article “The All-Consuming Self” by Allen D. Kanner and Mary E. Gomes it discusses how investors, marketing experts, and advertisers find it easier to make Americans individuals desire materialistic needs based on the mind stealing skill of psychology. In the article it states “The American economy, having reached the point where its technology was capable of satisfying basic material needs, now relied on the creation of new consumer demands-- on convincing people to buy goods for which they are unaware of any need until the ‘need’ is forcibly brought to their attention by the mass media.” ( Kanner 81). Kanner is suggesting that in order to keep the economy going the media and distributors of technology make the unaware citizens of America purchase products no matter the ranking of social class. Hence , the fact that individuals will always continue to buy products just to fill the lack of love.
The short video “The Story of Stuff” by Annie Leonard is a perfect example to illustrate the psychology and desires of consumerism. According to the film “Our enormously productive economy…Demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of gods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual staisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption… we need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.” Based off this quote stated by Victor Lebow, it is shown that individuals who lack ranking in society seek high positing; one the account we need certain aspects in life such as love to cover up our true class ranking.