К ПРОБЛЕМЕ ЦЕННОСТЕЙ ОБЩЕСТВА ПОТРЕБЛЕНИЯ

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К ПРОБЛЕМЕ ЦЕННОСТЕЙ ОБЩЕСТВА ПОТРЕБЛЕНИЯ

Journal Title: Гуманітарний часопис - Year 2016, Vol 1, Issue 1

Abstract

Jadan Victorija CONCERNING THE PROBLEM OF VALUES OF CONSUMER SOCIETY Modern society is often called "consumer society." It appeared in 1970 after the release of the eponymous book by Jean Baudrillard. Currently, the study of a consumer society has become one of the priority directions in philosophy, sociology, psychology and economics. The definition of "consumer society" emerged in relation to economic development. As a result of globalization, the society pattern has spread to the countries of different cultural backgrounds and different levels of economic development and in different social strata. Consequently, the system of values of the consumer society has become universal. Therefore, the object of the article is to consider core values of the consumer society. The emergence of the consumer society was caused by the development of European industrial civilization. Economic development required consumption growth and creation of a consumer with a new system of values. Earlier the system of values was formed by ideological or religious institutions. The new system of values is formed by advertising and the media. The consumer society states such values as innovation, individualism, originality, uniqueness and freedom. Nowadays people rarely create something new, but they actively use new things, services, ideas and impressions. Popular culture teaches us to see value only in new things. However, traditional and habitual things lose their relevance to human consumers. The man must be in constant motion from the old to the new, but the pursuit of novelty does not lead to a qualitative renewal. Thus, the satisfaction of one need provokes the appearance of another. Individualism appears to be of great importance in a modern consumer society, but it appears only at the level of individual desires and possibilities to realize them. Therefore, individuality and unique identities are products of mass production, and a person consumes the differences that are offered to him by the manufacturer. Liberty is another value declared by the consumer society. Freedom for a modern man is reduced to the satisfaction of desires. Man consumes freedom as a product. However, the person can only be free as a consumer, and because of consumable concepts the person is not aware of his/ her limitedness. One of the significant values of the consumer society was pleasure. During the twentieth century pleasure was understood as a possession of something. In a consumer society any activity is considered through the context of fun, and the main and guaranteed source of pleasure was the process of consumption. Pleasure focuses on profit and refers to the sensual sphere of human life, besides it tends to influence the subconsciousness. Thus, a type of a person with a new system of values was formed in a consumer society. The leading role of the system belongs to values such as novelty, individuality, freedom and enjoyment. These values are not new by themselves, but their content is new. When examined in detail, this new content turns out to be illusion that hides the lack of content novelty and creativity, the alienation of man from creating his identity, distorted understanding of the principle of freedom. Representatives of the intellectual and political elite agree that the values formed by a consumer society have led to people focused on themselves, their feelings and their well-being. So far all studies of the consumer society have been focused only on the detection of the changes, and no recommendations have been given to overcome the current situation.

Authors and Affiliations

Вікторія Жадан

Keywords

Ключевые слова: потребление кайнэрастия удовольствие свобода индивидуализм и новация. Keywords: consumption kaynerastiya pleasure freedom individualism and innovation.

EP ID EP564980
DOI -
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