{"id":164,"date":"2017-01-04T18:56:14","date_gmt":"2017-01-04T18:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/?p=164"},"modified":"2017-01-23T11:15:40","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T11:15:40","slug":"escaping-consumerism-complex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/escaping-consumerism-complex\/","title":{"rendered":"Escaping the Consumerism Complex."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This might be a bit of a controversial post. But whats the new year without a little bit of controversy? It&#8217;s likely that you have heard the term consumerism tossed about somewhere at some point in your life. But what really is it? It&#8217;s easy enough to understand what a consumer is- as we all embody the role in our everyday lives. But the term consumerism requires a bit of metaphorical digging as it were- as it doesn&#8217;t just embody a role; but a construct.<\/p>\n<p>When I came up with the foundation for Generation Z- to be honest I didn&#8217;t really understand the magnitude of Influencer Marketing. Sure, I had an understanding of what an influencer was; I interacted with them daily across the majority of my social media feeds. But I had no idea of the scale behind influencer marketing; and in turn the ethical considerations which could arise from a single tweet or post online (I&#8217;m aware that this topic sounds a bit heavy but bear with me!)<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-164 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-full'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/escaping-consumerism-complex\/what-is-a-consumer\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1146\" height=\"462\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2017\/01\/what-is-a-consumer.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"consumer- (k\u0259n\u02c8sju\u02d0m\u0259)- noun a person who purchases goods and services for personal use. &quot;consumer demand&quot; synonyms: purchaser, buyer, customer, shopper.\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-165\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2017\/01\/what-is-a-consumer.jpg 1146w, https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2017\/01\/what-is-a-consumer-300x121.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2017\/01\/what-is-a-consumer-768x310.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2017\/01\/what-is-a-consumer-1024x413.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1146px) 100vw, 1146px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-165'>\n\t\t\t\tWe all take on the role of a consumer at some point; whether online or offline.\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/escaping-consumerism-complex\/consumerism-2\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1150\" height=\"497\" src=\"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2017\/01\/consumerism-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"a screengrab of the definition of consumerism.\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-170\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2017\/01\/consumerism-1.jpg 1150w, https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2017\/01\/consumerism-1-300x130.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2017\/01\/consumerism-1-768x332.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2017\/01\/consumerism-1-1024x443.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1150px) 100vw, 1150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-170'>\n\t\t\t\tAs consumers we are actively partaking in the act of consumerism- a culture of buying goods and services.\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><strong>So, what&#8217;s the problem?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>OK, so, with Influencer Marketing becoming an increasingly popular tool adopted by big brands, and with more and more people tuning to blogging as a career choice; the internet is rife with up and coming influencers. We have the power to create an entirely new perception of ourselves online- <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2016\/dec\/28\/lonely-shared-photo-social-media-reality-christmas?CMP=twt_gu\" target=\"_blank\">we disclose what we want to disclose<\/a>. We can make it appear that we live our lives in black and white- or that we are constantly jetting across the globe; eating out; partying. Whatever really. The Kardashian lifestyle is something we can imitate until we are blue in the face- or better yet until our picture gets more than 11 likes on Instagram and changed from user names to numbers (it&#8217;s funny how it can make some of us feel so insecure- right? right?!)<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_167\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-167\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-167\" src=\"http:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2017\/01\/kim-kardashian-paid-endoresment-300x221.jpg\" alt=\"A screengrab of a post by Kim Kardashian being paid to promote a product to her followers.\" width=\"300\" height=\"221\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2017\/01\/kim-kardashian-paid-endoresment-300x221.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2017\/01\/kim-kardashian-paid-endoresment.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-167\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Celebs and influencers are required to say when they are being paid to post a product promotion.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<p>But that&#8217;s the thing. With more and more social media platforms incorporating a mix of our nearest and dearest, celebs, AND influencers\/bloggers- the forums we use to share our personal anecdotes; our memories and moments, has become somewhat muddled. With advertisements\u00a0now branching onto these platforms; the question is- is there any escape from the world of marketing? It seems as though at every corner; there is something- a service or a product- telling us how it will make our lives better. How we must have it. And this was easier to comprehend when the promotion was coming directly from the brand; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/08\/30\/business\/media\/instagram-ads-marketing-kardashian.html?_r=0\" target=\"_blank\">or from a celebrity<\/a>; whose lives we often lust after.<\/p>\n<p>Now however, the people promoting these products are people who we can relate to slightly more- because they are often on a similar &#8216;ground&#8217; to us. Is this ethical then? It&#8217;s similar to having one of your friends be paid by a shop to rave about how good their product is. If it&#8217;s not off an honest recommendation- is it right? The question which this project has left me pondering is this. Not so much whether it is ethical to have advertisements on social media- but more is it ethical for us to be constantly immersed in the consumerist culture being promoted to us online at all times.<\/p>\n<p>Do you agree? Let me know using the hashtag #GenerationZ!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>image credit- @nytimes, @kimkardashian.<\/p>\n<p>featured image- @johnhenderson on flickr.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This might be a bit of a controversial post. But whats the new year without a little bit of controversy? It&#8217;s likely that you have heard the term consumerism tossed about somewhere at some point in your life. But what really is it? It&#8217;s easy enough to understand what a consumer is- as we all [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6,11,8,13,9,10,3],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":304,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164\/revisions\/304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.buprojects.uk\/2016-2017\/bethanyfisher\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}