Sunday, October 17, 2010

The Minimalist.

I can't remember which ad(s) ask us why we pay more but have you really put that question into consideration when making new purchases?

Today's mainstream teens and thriving yuppies can't help but to participate in the world of advertisements. We pay to advertise brand names when we buy shirts with logos on them (which is why I avoid logos), we buy new, advanced, and progressive technology (with $30 extra on top of our phone bills so we could have the internet at the palm of our hand, while our other hand is mindlessly pushing food into our mouths with a fork), all the while listening to your now-useless itouch which will be replaced within the next year by some new Apple product. Oh and drinking your over-priced fancy drink from Starbucks (sometimes I can't help it).

We should dissent. Instead of going to the mall, thrift and shop at second-hand clothing stores, wear your parents' old clothes from the 70s, and take your sister's ugly 90s platforms (or your brother's D.A.R.E shirt). Learn to communicate outside of texts or BBMs or Facebook. We should stop buying Sun Chips for their noisy compostable bags even though you don't want to eat them. And we should stop drinking out of water bottles even though they're extremely convenient.

Now that I think about it, the dissent has already begun. Now we're conforming to nonconformity. So who's with me in this endless cycle?

So sad...the small population of minimalists in this world are totally underrated.
Posted by at 7:01 PM

7 comments:

  1. haha how funny. I just did a lesson on brand names and how companies raise their brand value through advertisement and propaganda. Very basic stuff, but it was fun.

    But you know what I realized? I'd gladly pay extra for a DESIGN. Yes, it might make me superficial and non-minimalist (though I strove (strived? strove? strove.) to be a minimalist in the past), but I DO appreciate beauty.

    For instance, last month, I walked into a store to buy a $40 rice cooker, but I ended up spending six times that amount. Why would I spend 240 on a rice cooker? because it was beautiful. I'm telling you Elizabeth, it was the prettiest rice cooker I've ever seen in my entire, super long life and I fell in love with it instantly. Its black and stylish design almost makes my rice taste better. It actually doesn't, but it seems like it does. Did I tell you that it's black? because that's important. very important.

    ...so much for my being a minimalist.

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  3. With you on the shirts with logos on them
    Not a fan at all

    but I'm guilty of everything else you said

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  4. fred: i can't believe you bought a rice cooker for $240. i can't believe it. think about all the things you could have done with the $200. oh well, at least it's black.

    dan: it all depends on how efficiently people use what they do have. it really is joyful :)

    james: your thumbnail picture ALWAYS makes me laugh. why does it cut off your eyebrows/hair? hahahaha anyway, yes! i sadly participate in waste as well :|

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  6. I am so with you. Your popularity disgusts me. That is all. Luvz you. ttyl girlie~ CU on da flip side.

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  7. "...while our other hand is mindlessly pushing food into our mouths with a fork."

    who uses a fork these days?

    jk
    but i dont think i've bought something with a massive brand on it in ages. i havnt been shopping much.

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