Addicted consumption & Materialism

Most people may not think of themselves as materialistic, although many of us work very hard in order to attain our vision of a good life, which in turn mainly consists of material things. We can thank marketing itself as a system that provides a certain standard that people should live. This is done indirectly, through TV shows, movies, and magazines. Materialism is a direct reference to the value and importance people place onto certain possessions. 

Materialism tends to be the highest amongst kids between the ages of 12 and 13 years of age, perhaps this is a direct connection with the fact that this age group also tends to have the lowest self esteem. Materialists are more likely to value their stuff in relation to their status and how they appear to everyone else because of it, whereas those without such values tend to purchase more of the products that give them please while using the items. In essence, high materialists purchase more expensive goods. 

There have been many studies comparing the high materialists and the low materialists, through which they have come to find out that high materialists valued goods passed down to them with money value such as jewelry and real-estate where as low materialists valued their mothers wedding gown and photo albums. Furthermore, Materialistic people tend to connect things to who they are, their own identity, these people tend to be less happy and more afraid of death than low materialists. They value products more before they attain them than after, in search of happiness and when they don't find it, they compensate for it with more stuff.

To be materialistic means to measure our self-worth by our external assets and possessions rather than by intrinsic characteristics

Why Are Material Possessions Important?

• They reflect self-worth
• They reward societal contributions
• They lead to control
• They help us achieve secular immortality
• They are encouraged within certain religions
• They are a route to happiness

The Materialistic Personality
Three personality traits are common to materialistic people:

Envy

•   They are bothered when they see people who buy anything that they want.
• There are certain people they would like to trade places with.
• When friends have things they cannot afford, it bothers them.

Non-generousness

•   They don’t like to lend things even to good friends.
• They don’t like to have anyone in their home when they are not there.

Possessiveness

• They tend to hang on to things they should probably throw out.
• They get very upset if something is stolen from them, even if it has little monetary value.
• They worry about people taking their possessions.

 What is Addictive Consumption? 

-Addictive Consumption is a physiological or physiolical dependency on products or services. 

-This is how a lot of the companies profit from selling products that are adictive or even selling solutions for kicking a bad habit.

Addiction to Technology:

- the blackberry for example was a huge addiction for many, it was nicknamed the "crackberry" 

-many psychologists compare social media addiction to chemical dependency. 

-cyber bullying

-phantom vibration syndrome.

5 Addictive Brands Consumers Crave

1. Coca-Cola 

2. Google

3. Disney

4. Apple 

5. Starbucks

All of these brands tie into brand loyalty which makes its consumer always come back, most of whom are college students!