Culture of consumption between social behavior and global culture

Culture of consumption between

social behavior and global culture

Once a virus or epidemic has been declared, communities and individuals are armed against the epidemic with a good willingness to fight it, through awareness campaigns, or through direct treatment to reduce the outbreak of the epidemic in order to eradicate it, this happens for clear epidemics, but for diseases and epidemics that do not have a specific definition, first classified as a disease as part of a culture, it is different, as it continues to creep and spread in different societies without finding any deterrent step. Stopped, by the individual and by society, and on top of those hidden modern epidemics comes consumption, which exhausts our energy and money, our desires and our health for free of charge of value.

According to a report published by Al Jazeera, the annual spending in the Gulf states on luxuries and non-important things is 20%, and this percentage is high worldwide, but spending on luxury items is not the only one associated with consumerism in these countries as other statistics indicate, but consumption also includes commodities, as Saudi society spends about 50 billion riyals annually on food, half of this amount goes to the trash, as half of the food is usually thrown away Because of consumer habits, in the coming lines we review the various opinions on this issue, try to see its effects on society, and try to read some opinions of specialists about the possibility of finding solutions to it.

Community habits:

In fact, the problem of consumption has become closely linked to the lifestyle, customs and traditions used by the family in the Gulf, Abdullah Bel sharaf, president of the Belsharf Food Group, comments that there are a number of factors, including economic and social, that have contributed to pushing members of Saudi society towards excessive or ill-considered consumption of many goods, and this has had a significant impact on the country's economy in general, and individual behaviors in particular, and emphasizes that if individual consumption is rationalized and adopted as a community behavior through Awareness campaigns will solve a large part of this problem.

What confirms the spread of this phenomenon is the spread of malls or huge commercial markets, which are considered a suitable outlet for many Gulf families, which find themselves surrounded by various types of goods, and despite the high prices many Gulf people are addicted to buying these goods although they do not need them already, and as a result of the high demand for consumption, the Gulf states consider destination for many commercial companies of all kinds, whether in the field of food manufacturing, medical or cosmetic.

The writer Nahed Bashteh comments that consumption entertainment is one of the biggest reasons why people buy, and confirms that this high demand for consumer goods will not be limited to the current society, but will extend to future generations that find themselves practicing these behaviors by example, as a result of their habit of becoming part of the behavior of society.

Global culture:

Consumption culture between social behavior and global culture - REPORTS - Gulf Women's Foundation.

Since the world order became dependent on global and free markets, consumerism has become part of a culture of reality, hence the advertising revolution becoming one of the most important means on which these companies rely to push people to buy things they don't really need.

Consumer Protection:

Despite the large campaigns carried out by governments and community institutions to reduce the effects of consumption in society through the enactment of various laws and the implementation of many awareness campaigns, it is still widespread among different age groups, and among different social classes, and in this context the writer Nahed Bashtah commented that government and private efforts to stop consumption will not benefit unless there is an intensive awareness campaign at the individual level, as the awareness of the citizen who buys the commodity without a decision, which testifies The seller cheats on him or others and does not resort to reporting it, and who does not know the responsibility that the money is not an individual responsibility and that he is responsible for it on the day of the account how to collect it? And what do I spend? It is more important, because the citizen is the trump card in a time of globalization.

Buying Mania:

Many experts link consumer behavior besides social influence, in addition to that it may become satisfactory behavior, as the large and continuous spending on kamalia things greatly affects the basic needs in people's lives, to find some people himself and has become obsessed with buying various collectibles, although he is fully convinced that he does not need them, explains Dr. Moza al-Maliki, a specialist in the psychological aspect : That the purchasing obsession or the obsession with purchasing in the adult conscious human is sometimes associated with the unconscious side, and this is related to psychological causes that may be the result of psychological disorders that compensate the human feeling of inferiority, and emphasizes that the biggest reason for the spread of this disease - especially among women - is that the physical boom witnessed by the Gulf states in the previous period is the cause, and warns of the need to address this problem as in the near future its impact will not be limited to a small number of people and will even have a greater impact on society.

Fashionista:

Consumption culture between social behavior and global culture - REPORTS - Gulf Women's Foundation.

This is one of the recent trends in the world of consumption, which means the existence of a generation living in the world of social media, where he presents his life and new possessions - every day - on his account in some social media sites to gain more fans, this phenomenon has spread significantly recently in gulf society, especially among young people, says Kuwaiti researcher Nasser Al-Magdahl, who specializes in media, that the phenomenon (Fashionista) represents a natural stage of the development of markets, producers need to innovate, and invest any new way to promote their products, The phenomenon of Instagram girls was a new opportunity for producers to enter markets and reach new segments of consumers, and emphasizes that this development is not a problem in itself, it is an innovative means of promotion and marketing,

But the real problem lies in the overlap in the commercial and personal life of " Fashionista" in the mind of the consumer or follower, followers believe that the lives of these people are normal and ideal, and their lives are unnatural and in need of reform, but the public sees, through social media, that all those around him live a wonderful life except others, and the explanation is that people, and Fashensta in particular, offer only the beautiful side of their daily lives, which represents a few seconds out of long hidden hours.

Keys and solutions:

In order to avoid this problem, the reasons that created this problem should be seriously considered, so that it can be addressed and avoided so that its negative impact on the individual and society does not continue, and in this context Dr. Sami Ibrahim Al-Suwailem presents proposals that may be the reason for stopping this problem, the most important of which is the need to develop the values of production and responsibility, since the industrial development that took place worldwide has achieved a lot of benefits for contemporary societies, but at the same time he has devoted the spirit of negativity and dependence to others, And man became more like a dependency on employers after he was the master of himself in the past and responsible for collecting his income and wealth.

Changing this social pattern requires reviving the values of self-reliance, building small enterprises, well-planned and saving for the future. With tremendous technical progress in communications and information, it has become easy for a person to run his or her own business and succeed in building income-generating work to an acceptable degree at no great cost, all it takes is high energy and self-reliance, with the necessary amount of financial and economic culture, which is unfortunately almost entirely absent from our public curricula.

He emphasizes the need to stand firm in the face of the manifestations of spending and the proud and destructive consumption of the national economy, and this requires concerted official and informal efforts in the development of moral and regulatory restrictions in the face of profanity and reprehensible boasts that greatly affect the structure and cohesion of society, for her part, the writer Nahed Bashtah emphasizes the need to increase economic awareness: it is clear to individuals the adverse effects of luxury consumption, not only by clarifying the disadvantages and disadvantages of luxury consumption, but also by demonstrating the advantages of investing wealth, due to the poor effects of luxury consumption. For the benefit of the individual and society, in addition to encouraging individuals to save and open effective channels to invest their savings, and directing part of the wealth to the production process, to serve the present and future of man.

Conclusion:

The causes and phenomena of consumption overlap in Arab societies in general, and in Gulf societies in particular, but the biggest reason is related to the lack of awareness, as the way people deal with money stems from a misconception, as a means of spending only, while there is more than one way to use money as a backbone of development in life, without which no society, no matter how rich it is, as long as it remains away from the production and achievement circle.

Sources:

♦ Al Jazeera Net.

♦ Arabic website.

♦ Riyadh.

♦ alukah.net