Never in human history so much has been bought, shipped and thrown away as it is today. We buy things we never bought before. Things like ironic gifts, outfits for one evening or a tenth pair of white sneakers.
And we do this even though we are aware of the economic futility and ecological harmfulness associated with this behaviour.
What drives us to do this?
Carl Tillessen worked for years in the fashion industry and is one of the most well known trend analysts in Germany. In “Consumption” he takes us behind the scenes of an industry whose success is based primarily on manipulation and exploitation. Bit by bit, he dissects the perfidious mechanisms that keep us buying. We buy out of frustration. We buy for pleasure. We buy because we need the buzz of new stuff whilst at the same time we long for less stuff and more abandonment.
In a clear and informative way, Tillessen details the schizophrenia of our buying behaviour and in so doing raises our awareness towards our ac-tual needs. He also describes the conditions under which our smartphones and sneakers are created as this is just one of the prices paid of our hyper consumption lifestyles.
Shop till you drop began with globalization that has taken digitization to extremes.
Carl Tillessen details the causes and connections of our hyper consumption in an entertaining and informative manner.k