This has been rolling around in my mind for past few days, after something that happened at church on Sunday. Pretty much, people applauded not getting why someone would spend 400 dollars on an ipad. And this irked me.
a) I might just get an iPad at some point. But I’m waiting for at least the second generation
b) I *saw* people with iPads at church on Easter.
c) The people most excited about this are folks of my age, my generation. And why should I go to a church that doesn’t fully welcome and understand my generation.
I’ve already talked about it with folks about it, and talked with them about how I felt as a result. First time I can recall every sending a complaint email to a church staff person 
But this has the larger issue of consumerism in my mind.
I realize I am not like most UUs when I say this, but I don’t see the big deal about consumerism. I’ve got no real problems with it, and in fact, embrace it. Like it or loathe it, we live in a consumerist society here in America. And in my generation, well, its how we grew up. Ads are targeted towards us, we’re the most valuable demographic in terms of advertising. It’s the world I know it’s the world I’m comfortable with. I care more about finding a connection to divine in my every day world. I am not a UU Ascetic. Most UUs I know aren’t, but wish they could be in some ways.
How will I connect most to the kids in my youth group, for example. Pretty much every kid would be quite fine if I just let them text on their cell phones, or play with iPods, for the entire class. I’d be a hero I buy an iPad and brought it with me to class one day. Every time I bring my macbook, kids swarm around it wanting to play with it, and get on facebook. Who am I tell them they are morally wrong for wanting one. If I tell these kids the best way to find a spiritual plug into the universe is to plug out of everything, it will fall on deaf ears (because they are already listening to their iPod.) But if I can show them how they can use what they have, and use that iPod, or take whatever they are doing in life and how they can plug into the divine in everyday life, that’s how I will make the difference.
A survey went around about an ethics curriculum for high schoolers and consumerism was listed. My feedback on consumerism is teaching that it is not always a bad thing. I doubt that will make the final edit for some reason.
I could take the route that without consumerism, there would be gigantic unemployment. And that our economy is based on people buying and selling things, and without it, we’d be back in the Great Depression? Is it consumerist to want to build up an art collection to hang on the wall?
Consumerism is wanting to buy new stuff, to replace the stuff we already have. Sometimes that stuff is just perfectly fine, but we want new stuff. And yes, of course I think there is a healthy limit to it, and going beyond that completely arbitrary limit is bad. But bad for me, not bad for everyone. Consumerism leads to the thought that nothing is ever good enough. But you know, this isn’t that bad of a thought to have. If you never think something is good enough, you will do what you can to change it. You will have the motivation to take another step in life. Maybe we need to redefine spirituality in consumerist terms. I’m not satisfied where I am spiritually, I need to find something better for me. Continual self-improvement is not a flaw. Striving for the best is not a flaw. Yes, I yearn for spiritual contentment, but if I’m not there yet, I want to keep getting better and closer to it.
Madeline Devine has it wrong. Consumerism does not lead to disassociation from community. In fact, it can lead to building community. “Oh, you have an iPad, let me see! Let’s talk! We’re similar to each other, have the same interests, and you understand me.”
I am not a Buddhist for a reason. Beyond the whole notion of rebirth which I don’t think I agree with, I don’t think spurning all worldly desires is the way to salvation, to enlightenment. I don’t know for sure what *is* the way, if I did I think I’d be quite a bit more popular than I am, but I do know that it’s neither in the accumulation or the disposal of possessions. I’m starting to wonder if the whole arguments for or against consumerism are even relevant to living a spiritual live. I can live a spiritual live in the woods, living by a pond. I can live a spiritual live looking at a pond on an iPod. To each their own.
But, you know, the more comfortable my seat is, the easier it is to meditate.
The ads tell you that if you buy THIS or THAT! you will be happy. That’s what needs to be fought.
Who knows, maybe my life will be happier if I bought what they were selling. Happy, no, happier, possibly. New products can fill a need in our life, and if our needs are met, then we can move on to thinking about happiness.
Heck, what if churches marketed like that. What if UUs marketed like that. Wonder what it would be like.
There is Maslov’s Hierarchy of Needs, and yes, it is pretty hard to be happy if you don’t have food, shelter, clothing. But an iPad? Come on. Or the latest model of gaming system? These are distractions, not happiness.
I have no problem with people spending their money as they like, though I will note that we currently have massive unemployment and there’s no lack of consumerism. (Also, I don’t suggest getting the Wifi only version of the iPad. If you’re going to spend $499 anyway, save $120 more and get the Wifi and 3g version for $629)
As for technology, I think it is great–except when you are trying to get poeple to interact with other people in person. I have a Wii, I like my Wii very much. But I have learned that I can either have a party where people talk to each other or I can invite people over to play Wii because all parties where the Wii comes out end up with people silently sitting there watching while a few people play.
I actually had a party this weekend and a (Baby Boomer) guy brought his iPad–like four people sat there in silence watching each other play with it for like an hour while everyone else talked and actually hung out. I found myself a little irked with the guy who brought his iPad because it was irritating to have such an interruption in the festivities. I would have rather those people actually talked to each other.
Anyway, I don’t see this issue as black and white. Of course I don’t think you have to tell your youth group to be totally unplugged, but if everybody is sitting in youth group checking facebook, then they aren’t getting much spiritual work or personal connection done. Part of the point of youth group and church is to do something that you CAN’T do at home.
CC
Just a quick tip – the parable that Buddah used to explain “rebirth” was of that time. There isn’t a general consensus that all Buddhists believe in reincarnation: http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/reincarnation.htm
I know I don’t.
I think we can all help each other to be smart, conscious consumers, people who buy new products because they really do improve our lives in some way, not just because advertising tells us to buy them.
I’m really grateful for all the ways that I can get input online before making a major purchase. Amazon’s rating system, of course, is usually my first stop. I read a lot of blogs about yogurt-making before I bought a yogurt-maker a few months ago. And sending out a query on Facebook has been helpful, too.
Thinking things through is a central part of being UU. Believe what you believe, but make sure it’s something you’ve thought about, examined thoroughly. An in the context of this conversation, buy whatever you want to buy, but think it through first.
As a side note, celebration time for my blog. Jacqueline, you are the proud owner of the 1,000th comment at my little blog. Thanks for the comments all.
Danielle – once again, who are we to judge what makes others happy.
CC – Yah, I was irked at the youth group facebooking stuff and I won’t let them use my laptop @ church. Some people do get left out of the tech discussion, true, but people are going to get left out of any sort of discussion when there’s a group larger than like, 5 people.
It’s ok to dismiss me as judgmental, but didn’t you want my opinion?
I think there’s an important difference between being a consumer (buying something because it will make my life and/or job easier) and being a consumerist (buying something just to buy it, because it’s the newest gadget.)
On point C, I would like to say: I am a young adult, and I want/buy tech tools and other things. But I don’t make large purchases impulsively and not because an ad told me to. Being a young adult doesn’t mean I didn’t think carefully about my purchase, and it doesn’t mean that I’m not something of an acetic in other areas of my life—yes, I bought a new laptop two months ago (my old computer failed and I couldn’t do my job without one) but I haven’t bought clothes at a place other than Goodwill in ten years. Just because something is new and expensive doesn’t mean it’s unnecessary or that I am a bad person for buying it.
And Danielle: I appreciate your point, I really do, but I’d say that my laptop (and my KitchenAid mixer, which is the only other large purchase I’ve ever made in my whole life) *do* make me happy. More specifically, they *enable* my happiness because they allow me to do things I find fulfilling (writing and baking.) Does that make sense?
In the Bible it explicitly states “blah, blah, blah”.
Capitalism has filled our lives with contradictions. We work at jobs we hate and make less than we create. We know that our labor is rationalized and we are being exploited; your boss is stealing from you. We are underpaid for the work we do, and when we get home we are overcharged for our basic needs: rent/mortgage, utilities, food, education, leisure, etc… The only thing capable of reconciling us to these contradictions is pleasure– Capitalism’s specialty. Your ipad is not making you happy. That is not happiness you are feeling when you go shopping; it’s relief. Consumerism is a panacea for an otherwise meaningless life in which, rather than the things you do, it’s the things you buy that define you as an individual. The idea is this: To be is to have. It’s a lie that has been fed to us by a consumer culture. My question is this: Which smartphone will best define you as an individual; which will make you happy? If consumerism is where you find pleasure, then there is something missing from your life that money can not buy.
Consumerism is the Devil.