consumer society
Buy-and-discard civilization
A consumer society is one in which the buying and use of goods drives economic activity and shapes cultural values.
In such societies, personal identity and social status often become linked to consumption patterns and material possessions rather than to production, occupation, or traditional roles.
The term typically carries critical undertones, suggesting that endless acquisition has displaced other sources of meaning.
Critics argue we've become a consumer society where shopping is the primary leisure activity.
- mass productionLarge-scale standardized fabrication
- buyObtain through payment
- purchaseGoods obtained for payment
- wealthAbundance of valuable resources
- middle classIntermediate socioeconomic group
consumerism · shop · shopping mall · capitalism · free market · status symbols · planned obsolescence · materialism · keeping up with the Joneses · commodification · spectacle · retail · impulse buying · Black Friday · lifestyle · market economy · commodity fetishism · marketplace
- French sociologyanomie, collective conscience, collective consciousness, habitus, cultural capital
consumer societysubsistence economy
System without market surplus
subsistence living · circular economy · agrarian society · gift economy · barter economy
consumer societysimple living
Intentional reduction of consumption
monastic community · countercultural movement · anti-materialism
consumer societythrowaway culture
Norm of discarding over repairing
repair culture · maker culture · simple living · anti-consumerism
consumer, society, consume, consumes, consumed, consuming, consumable, consumption, consumptive