The rowing machines we never exercise on - modern consumerism

The rowing machines we never exercise on

An essay about the modern consumer behavior

by Catrine Proksch

In our world, the average European household owns about 10,000 objects. In the United States there are already about 300,000 things that find a place in their own four walls. If only any place.

But are all these things piled up in our rooms really used as intense as they theoretically could be? How much of that left potential do we throw away?

A quick example: Almost every household owns a drill. Drills have an incredibly useful life durance of over 300 hours. But do we really spend 300 hours screwing screws into our walls? The answer is a simple no. It is only about 15 min a year that we devote to this object. But why does it still find a home in every household?

Where does this desire for possession originate and how much is possession worth anyway?

These are the questions I would like to explore in this essay. In order to research these questions I would also like to refer to the text "The language of Things" by the British writer and broadcaster Deyjan Sudjic that was published in 2008. He devotes most of his publications to the topics of design and architecture.

In 2006 he became director of the Design Museum in London and in 2012 received an honorary doctorate from the University of the Arts.

In particular in the introduction "A world drowning in objects", he presents his opinion on human consumerism in the modern world in an extremely well-founded way. Although the text was published fourteen years ago, the statements are still largely relevant today and have become even more pointed.

In his text, he rates the seemingly never-ending consumption of products of all kinds as a particularly large problem. An additional, even more serious point of criticism is the partial lack of interaction and use of these vast quantities of products that people purchase during their lifetime.

Life in our society, and it is really important to mention that this text is more about western society, is significantly shaped by economics and consumption. Even if we are not always aware of it and this assertion has a negative connotation at first. This is not completely out of place, but still describes the reality. On the whole, and very downgraded, the life cycle is about finding a halfway decent job at a certain point in life, which at best gives you pleasure and above all allows you to have the freedom to consume things. Things that supposedly make you happy.

Of course, I don't want to say that consumption is everything. But the longer you think about it, the more space and priority consumption gets in our lives. In the truest sense of the word.

People have always felt a certain need for possessions. From an evolutionary point of view, this makes a lot of sense, because hundreds of generations before ours, more possessions automatically lead to a more satisfying and longer life. And that is still true today, at least to a certain extent.

The biggest difference, however, is that the need for these possessions has changed. After all, it's obvious that another TV for the next room in our apartment is probably less essential than the number of food supplies back in the hunter-gatherer days.

In addition to the evolutionary background, there are still many reasons that need to be taken into consideration in order to understand human consumer behavior today.

After all, what can still convince us today to engage in mass consumption when our lives have long since ceased to depend on it?

The overall construct of our society is certainly important here. Constant consumption is a basic prerequisite for the functioning of a capitalist economy. And that is exactly what we live in.

According to Sudjic, this construct leads us into an infinite spiral with immense consequences. He describes it as follows: if every family, that has the opportunity to do so, buys a new TV, the manufacturer has only one choice after a while in order to continue consumption and thus maintain its profit. He has to launch a new model again, invent new categories, give people a new way to spend their money.

The result is that TVs are getting bigger and bigger, there are more and more unused (but still working!) cellphones in our drawers, and the functions of the new products are becoming more and more nonsensical.

For example, the author describes a modern refrigerator as a bloated wardrobe. Even if this comparison may sound exaggerated at first, he is right on the whole. Products are increasingly losing their original function and adorning themselves with more and more extras in order to convince people that a purchase is absolutely necessary.

People have the habit of acting extremely rashly and impulsively in some situations. This is also reflected in consumer behavior. Driven by advertising, discounts and the desire to belong to the „supposedly correct group of society“ we buy products and then realize after a few months that we hardly use them at all.

Some products seem to give us a very special feeling of satisfaction. After each purchase follows an extremely intense, if from short need satisfaction. Purchases give us the feeling of having achieved something.

In his text Sudjic describes the purchase of new kitchen appliances as an investment in the family rather than a new way of spending money.

This example shows what an incredible effect products have on us. Their symbolic functions trigger our emotions and make us dependent on a greed that we can hardly control.

Through this emotional dependence on products, it seems not far to have an obsessive behavior towards them. The example of the release of a new Apple product is very clearly illustrated in Sudjic´s text. There are people who are so obsessed with consumption that they pitch their tent in front of the Apple store to be the first to buy the product.

This is quite an exciting situation when you realize that some people fall into a complete state of emergency at such moments and prefer a tent over their own home in order to buy a cell phone. It should not be forgotten that the probability is not small that these people already own a fully functional Apple product. After all, the people who can afford a new cell phone for hundreds or even thousands of Euros are certainly not people who did not own one before.

It becomes quite clear that consumption is addictive. Consumption tempts people to feel inadequate if it is not continued constantly.

Another phenomenon becomes quite clear here. We don't buy what we need, but we buy what we want. There no longer has to be a reason for the purchase. There is always something newer, more interesting and allegedly better that prevents us from really using the things we already own.

The German scientist Hartmut Rosa claims that we humans often don't buy the object of use itself, we rather like the option of theoretically being able to use it. Like the rowing machine that most of us don't ever really exercise on. But at least it looks good in the room and gives an athletic appearance.

To sum up, it can be said that consumption does harbor dangers.

On the one hand, products are so important and possession is one of the highest priorities of all things in life, and yet tit all seems so incredibly short-lived.

Perhaps it is similar to a short, hot affair that appears to be so important at first and then is left behind after a short time.

Considering that - should we still think of consumption being that meaningful and important?

After all, we can't attribute this whole construct to a foreign power that forces us to engage in mass consumption. The construct was invented by people for people. Thus, it can only be changed by us humans. Consumption only works if there is enough demand.

We should all become aware of how much time, energy, materials, thoughts, ideas and above all, faces are behind every product on this planet. No product reaches us out of the blue and wants to be consumed. It is always associated with work.

The most important thing I have learned so far in my design studies is that no work step in connection with a product happens by itself. And this is something that should be valued in every product we buy in order to achieve conscious and long-lasting consumption.

Products should not be anonymous objects in our rooms that do nothing but decimate our space. The necessity of buying a product should always be reflected and questioned well.