Consumer Culture

Introduction

Consumer culture has the ability to both aid and undermine the development of community. On the one hand, material goods aid in creating categorical differences, commemorating events, and establishing uniqueness, all of which are essential for producing and reproducing a sense of community. On the other hand, historically high levels of consumption are sometimes understood to be a threat to community because the more time and energy that is spent on shopping, the less that is left for noncommodified civic activities. For this reason, critics of consumer society associate rising levels of consumption with declines in civic association and religious activities. (Douglas, 16)

Consumer culture has undergone momentous change since the industrial revolution. It has increasingly been dominated by the consumption of commodities, or goods produced for market, and supported by the economic structures and institutions of industrial societies including mass production techniques, improved transportation and communication infrastructures, wage labor, and increased leisure time. Karl Marx used the term commodification to describe a gradual change from production for individual consumption to the production of commodities for exchange in a money economy. While material culture has always been a major area of cultural activity, only within the past 200 years has the forces of industrial production made the commodity the centerpiece of consumer culture. (Campbell, 12)

Discussion

Right hand diamond rings first came into attractiveness in the fall of 2003 and they've gotten better liked every year since. They were first promoted by the Diamond Promotion Service as a way for lone women to articulate their self-reliance and achievement in life. But right hand diamond rings have developed so much in attractiveness, and significance, that every woman likes one now. (John De Graaf, 100)

A right hand ring is a latest tendency declaration for unaligned vocation women that displays off their buying power. It wasn't until lately that a woman earned sufficient to be adept to support herself and pay for a couple of luxuries on the side. So when these spectacular assortments first came on the view, it made rather a declaration about a woman's earning power and place in life if she could pay for to purchase herself a diamond.

In the past, even if a woman had the cash, she wouldn't purchase herself a diamond, for any digit, because this precious pebble was presumed to be granted to you by the man who loved you. It was advised conceited for women to purchase their own diamonds. Or poorer yet, women who acquired their own diamonds were shamed and looked down upon because they didn't have a man to purchase that diamond for them. Well, not any more!

Now, a right hand ring not only pointers a woman's economic achievement, but it furthermore permits you understand she's assured sufficient in herself to understand that it's not the end of the world if she has to purchase her own. In detail, it's actually very glamorous and rather stylish. Even wed women are buying their own right hand rings to articulate their individuality and freedom. Wearing a ...