Consume: to use up (resource), to completely destroy, to eat, drink or ingest – Oxford American College Dictionary
A few days ago, David from the My Two Dollars blog wrote a post entitled “I am Not a Consumer; I am a Person“. In the post, he stated how much he hates when he is called a consumer.
I almost cheered out loud after reading his post (actually, I think I did). This has been one of my pet peeves for many years and annoys me to no end. I have asked myself more than once: At what point did we stop becoming citizens and instead become “consumers”, or as the dictionary defines it “one who eats, drinks, or ingests.” Personally, I have always found the term consumer to be insulting. What the term basically says, is that all I am to you is one who eats, drinks and ingests..and destroys. Well, I feel that I am much more than that!
As David states in his post “Shopping does not define who I am, nor do I enjoy being labeled as something other than what I actually am.” This hits it right on the head – calling us a consumer is saying that our main worth (or only worth?) is our ability to spend money on material goods. Maybe that’s why I find this term to be so stinging.
Our media attempts to teach us that the only respectable focus for one’s life energy is the accumulation of goods –and perhaps to even ingrain this sort of thinking even further within us, we have been given the label “consumer”, as if kindly point out to us that this is our purpose in life.
While it is true that we need to purchase items such as food, gasoline, and clothing, calling us a consumers because we do so is degrading and insulting. We make purchases to stay alive, to stay warm, to take care of our family but this act by no means defines who we are. David points out that buying necessities “does not make me a consumer but rather a human contributor to society”. When thinking about “what you are” or “who you are”, things like brother, friend, volunteer, lover, writer, parent, blogger, volunteer, etc. come to mind. Consumer never makes the list.
I’m with David on this one. I will answer to a lot of things. Consumer is not one of them.
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