Consumption Journal
Consumption Journal
This blog post is a 7-day record of my consumption habits.
Day 1- Tuesday
I always start my day off with a stop at Tim Horton's for a large tea. Stopping at Tim Horton's is one of my guilty pleasures as I know the impacts of the waste created by using a disposable cup rather than a reusable one. However, in my defence, I attempted to use a reusable cup. Still, the restaurant poured my tea from the disposable cup into my reusable cup and then threw the disposable cup into the garbage. I tell myself I tried once, and this somehow provides me relief, and I convince myself that I am doing my part or trying to.
Now at my school, there is noting to purchase. I always pack my lunch in disposable containers, so I thought there would be little to record during the school day. I was wrong! I consume a lot during the school day, and it becomes so second nature that I am not even aware I am doing it most of the time. A colleague put some chocolates in the staff room, and of course, I took a few. Another teacher brought leftover samosas, and I added one to my lunch. I realized that this happens every couple of days when I consume things I had not planned on eating.
After school, I had to stop by the grocery store to purchase a bottle of BBQ sauce. Now, this seems like no big deal, but yesterday I had to stop by the grocery on the way home to pick up a few other items. Not only am I purchasing more things I am also using more gas to make multiple trips. In our western society, most of us can easily get what we want and we do not even think twice, usually, before jumping into the car to make another trip to the grocery store. I also know today's trip will likely not be my last to the grocery store this week.
Once I got home, I cooked dinner, did the dishes, prepared lunch, and sat down on the couch with my phone in hand. I began the endless social media browsing as the tv roared in the background. I quickly realized how easily advertisements influence me. On Instagram, I followed the North Face advertisement for a winter jacket. I then remembered I had one sitting in the closet, so moved onto the next thing. Next was an Old Navy advertisement where I added a flannel shirt and pants into the cart. However, I talked myself out of buying it. Then I saw a friend's post from a restaurant, so I made a reservation at the same restaurant for Friday night. In the twenty minutes I browsed, I passed countless advertisements, some I interacted with, and some I just ignored. It was amazing to notice how all these advertisements were tailored to things I would be interested in. It reminded me of the Norris 2011 reading, "when consumption…colonizes every sector…we call that liberty" (p. 16). I did not feel like I was experiencing liberty, more of an evasion of privacy, as this business could tailor what I saw so that I consumed more of their product.
Overall, the first day of tracking consumption patterns and habits was enjoyable. I learnt that I am consuming more than I realize as I often do not think of the things I get for free as part of my consumption habits.
Day 2 - Wednesday
For my first day tracking my consumption habits, I primarily focused on food items, I realized. However, that is a big part of my consumption pattern. I wondered what I missed by having a narrow focus. I first realized that I take a long shower each morning. I have never timed it. I am slowly waking up while I stand under the warm water and I would guess it is about ten-minute shower. Seven days a week of ten-minute showers is a lot of water.
As I drove to school, I stopped by Tim Hortons, and the drive-thru line went very slowly. I idled in my car for at least ten-minutes as I slowly moved through the line. This happens once a week when the line is long or moves slowly. Today was the first day I realized that I am polluting and wasting gas I sit in my car rather than going inside to get it.
Once at school, I looked at my daily plan and remembered that I needed to photocopy an assignment for my students. My school limits the amount of paper we can use in a month, which helped us become aware of our paper consumption. Many staff members were surprised at the amount they copied. It made me aware of the consumption that exists within a school and how much waste is generated. My school runs a milk program where small milk cartons are sold, drank, and thrown into the garbage. This does not directly relate to my habits or patterns, but I wondered if we needed to sell milk.
My partner's workplace is hosting a pumpkin carving contest, and she was tasked with picking up the pumpkins. As I watched her sort through all the pumpkins so she could find the best ones, I wondered about the waste that is generated by pumpkin carving every year and the water that would be used to grow these pumpkins each year, as well as the land that is used to grow pumpkins that could be used to grow food that people eat. The Roorda (2012) reading talked about exporting food and how the nutrients from the soil are not returned as the food is shipped across the world. Majority of pumpkins are sent to the landfill. The school division I work for runs a compost program and, in October, collect pumpkins to divert them from the landfill.
Thanks to my workplace, I can easily collect organic scraps from my home and bring them to my workplace to be composted. I was only aware of how much food I waste once I started to collect compost. Often at the stores, they sell bags of fruit or potatoes for a better price than individual fruit. I usually buy big bags, but because there are only two people in my house, a lot of the food goes bad and ended up in the compost bin. This has made me more conscious of what I put in my cart and take a better inventory of what I have so I can plan my meals around it.
Day 3 - Thursday
I set my alarm early this morning so I could take a slower morning. As I was browsing social media, I came across an advertisement for a Jeep. The weather is getting colder, and I do a lot of ice fishing in the winter, so having a vehicle that can get me on the ice is very enticing. I go through this process about hundred times a year where I see a Jeep advertisement and begin the never-ending Google searches to find more information about the Jeep. Every time I come to the same conclusion; I cannot afford it right now. If I were in a better financial position, I would probably purchase one. Even though I have been able to ice fish for the last two years without this Jeep, I am convinced I need one. The pending snowfall also helps push me towards purchasing one, as I can convince myself that I need 4 x 4 to make it through the city. My car was only stuck in the snow twice, and I quickly got out. However, the message is that I need one! At last, I decided that today was not the day to purchase, and twenty minutes were wasted checking the inventory of the local dealerships. This whole experience made me think of the quote in the Mulligan (2014) chapter "consumers are led to believe that their life is incomplete without the latest and 'best' consumer goods" (p. 39). The funny thing is that even with all this background knowledge of consumerism, I will still end up purchasing a Jeep in a couple of years. Marketing has convinced me that I need one and it will make my life better.
Today, I made it home without stopping at the grocery store… however the smell of Burger King came into my car as I passed the restaurant. I have been mindfully trying to stay away from fast food places not only for health reasons but due to the amount of garbage that is generated when you purchase a meal, all that packaging! After Burger King, I pass McDonald's, and I see them advertising that their Monopoly is back on. As a kid, I loved to collect stamps and put them onto a game board. I would always get my parents to get McDonald's and could easily convince them since Monopoly only happens for a few weeks. Instead, I ignore all the fast-food places I pass and come home to eat the food I prepared yesterday.
As I was eating dinner, I wondered about where the food I was eating came from. Where did the turkey come from for meatballs, and are the potatoes from a local farm? All these questions kept popping into my head, and I realized that I needed to figure out where most of my food came from aside from the grocery store. I also wondered why I was eating what I was eating? The illusions of choice that Mulligan (2014) talks about makes me wonder about what the actual difference is in the products I purchased. Thinking back to this morning when I made a breakfast sandwich. When I went grocery shopping on the weekend, I went to get English muffins and needed whole wheat ones. They had three different brands with three different prices. When comparing the nutritional information, they were all very similar. Another aspect that I connected with is brand power, which Mulligan (2014) references. Each one of the whole wheat muffins was attached to a major brand. One of them is a health food brand that attracts consumers, saying it helps people address nutritional concerns. The strange part was that the health food brand and the generic brand contained the same ingredients and nutritional values. I am starting to be more mindful of the illusion of choice and marketing that is trying to impact what I purchase.
Day 4 - Friday
Today I again stopped at Tim Horton's. The guilt of the single-use container and idling while I wait in the drive-thru is growing stronger by the day. I told myself that next week I would run in, get my tea and ask if they are filling reusable containers. As I finished my order, they asked if I wanted to add a maple dream donut. I was about to say "yes," and then I realized that I did not intend to buy a donut this morning, but due to their clever upselling, I was about it. I started to wonder how often I would fall for that trap or if I had fallen for that trap in the past.
Today was payday! As soon as I remembered it was payday I thought of this quote "people believe they can consume their way to a better life (p. 35)" Mulligan (2014). I am constantly wanting to make purchases in hopes of making my life better. On payday, I pay more attention to the advertisements that I come across and look for a reason to spend money. I have been on a health journey for the last few months, and the number of times I find something that I should buy to help me lose weight is impressive. Today, I came across a workout bench that allowed you to do multiple workouts on it. I was amazed this was the missing piece of my weight loss journey. If I had this, I would be at my goal weight. I soon realized that no amount of equipment was going to make a difference. Struggling with my weight has been challenging, and companies know that I am vulnerable and will target advertisements so that I feel their product would help me. I would be ashamed to tell you the number of gimmicks I have bought to help with this process.
Today is Friday, and Fridays usually mean that we are going to eat out somewhere. We typically eat out at a restaurant once a week but sometimes twice. It would be easy to cook and cheaper, but I buy into this idea of needing to get out and have a meal out. If I look back to when I was just 18, I was eating out almost every day. So, my consumption has reduced since then. However, there are so many restaurant options it makes it hard to resist the temptation. Plus, the social factor that goes along with it. I ended up at a local restaurant that has multiple locations. I felt better about supporting a local establishment.
My partner and I went to a play tonight. We had dinner before and a drink at the concert hall. While we were waiting for the show to start, we started to talk about how often social situations require buying something and spending money. Rarely do you hang out with people and not consume anything or bring something to do. We looked back at last few weekends and realized that we had bought a lot of stuff due to our social interactions. We had a hard time finding the time when we did not purchase something when hanging out with people. Consumer culture has made us believe that we need to be spending money to have fun.
While we were at the play, I noticed the souvenir stand. I was almost convinced to get one, but then I realized that anytime I purchased a t-shirt or other item after a couple of weeks, it would end up in the back of the dresser. There are opportunities for consumption everywhere.
Finally, the weekend is here! I took the opportunity to sleep in today. My niece was in a volleyball tournament today, which took place at a school that is about a fifteen-minute walk. I jumped into my car and drove over, and ended up parking five minutes away. My partner asked why we did not just walk since it was so close. That is when I realized that I consume a lot of gas, well, not me, but my vehicle. We drive a lot and end up filling the gas tank about one and half times each week. The only time I worried about my gas consumption was in the summer when gas went over two dollars a litre. I purchased an electric bike last summer to help reduce the gas and make my life better, but as Mulligan (2014) says we buy into these life-changing purchases, and they often do not make a difference in our quality of life. I have used my electric bike under ten times in the year I have owned it.
After the volleyball tournament, we went for a bike ride at a local, provincial park. We packed up the car, and before we were about to leave, I ran back into the house to pack some snacks. Usually, I would have stopped for something on the way out and then picked up a snack on the drive home. If it were not for this consumption journal, I would not have thought twice about stopping and buying more. I have a house full of food and yet still felt the need to go out and purchase food.
I do not know if these habits I have created around the need to purchase things at certain times are habits I enjoy or if I have fallen victim to consumerism telling me what I need to have while doing certain activities. Later in the evening, we watched a movie, and I bet you can already know what snacks I felt I needed for the movie. Popcorn and pop were precisely what I consumed during the movie. There are many times when I connect situations to purchasing something. Movies are the common ones. Most people would agree they fall into the habit of ordering popcorn at a movie. Other practices are drinking soda when eating out at a restaurant and needing to stop at Tim Hortons in the morning. When I do not do these things, I tend not to enjoy the movie, dinner, or workday as much. I have bought into those consumer habbits.
As we drove back into the city, we started to talk about purchasing a new home, right now we are renting. We want to buy a home in an established neighbourhood that has a community feel where people are out in the community. Around Winnipeg, there are a lot of new developments where the house is about the same price as an established neighbourhood. The home would be new and under warranty, so there are many pros to buying a home here; however, there are many cons! No public transportation, no grocery stores, no active transit paths, and no community. After reading about cocooning in the Mulligans (2014) reading, I have changed what I want to see in the community. I want to drive through potential neighbourhoods and see people! When people are connected to a community, they are more likely to relate to how their lives impact the local and global communities. In the end, a lot of what Mulligan says about cocooning and individualism reinforced my beliefs about purchasing a home in a community with the community feel and people outside.
Grocery Shopping Day!
When we do our grocery shopping, we usually purchase most of the items from the perimeter of the store, trying to stay away from the centre aisles where most of the heavily processed food is located. When we enter the centre aisles, we do so to get spices or canned beans. With the cost of everything going up, it has made the grocery trip quite expensive. What I find interesting is that the produce and meat go up, yet a lot of the processed food has not gone up as drastically as the produce and meat. I could make dinner with no meat or vegetables for $2, but the moment I want to add anything fresh, the price of dinner goes up. Now the $2 dinner is simply Kraft Dinner but still, it shows how expensive it is to have healthy balanced meals. Luckily my partner and I can adjust our budget to afford this increased cost.
One area of the grocery store I always fear entering is the meat section. The prices of meat seem to go up on every shopping trip. This is an area I would eventually want to avoid entering. I have read a lot about the impact meat production and consumption have on the environment. I would eventually like to stay away from meat, but I know that this would be a complicated process for me. There has even been a surge of meat alternatives that have recently entered the market so people can still have burgers and feel like they are eating meat. It is impressive how quickly corporations are at adapting to trends that consumers make. Indeed, consumers are heavily impacted by corporations, but at times, consumers can move corporations as well. The influx of plant-based alternatives is one area in which consumer purchase buyer has brought new brands into the grocery store.
I am a sucker for Christmas. You put Santa or a polar bear on a bottle of Coke, and I will purchase it. I saw a Nutella container that looks like a Christmas sweater, and I wanted to buy it, and I do not even eat Nutella. Tomorrow is Halloween, and I noticed in the grocery store all Halloween décor was fifty percent off and were starting to put up the Christmas items. During Christmas, I consume more, I purchase more food, and I purchase decorations, I purchase gifts, I purchase a lot. I can easily be convinced to purchase anything Christmas-related. I mentioned Coke earlier because my consumption of soft drinks increases drastically as soon as they wrap the can in Christmas elements. I am a sucker for nostalgic items that remind me of my childhood. I feel like marketing companies know people will find comfort in things from their childhood and look for ways to bring them back to sell more products.
Day 7 - Monday
Halloween
I do not make a big deal of Halloween. I take my nieces and nephews out for candy and bring a treat to my classroom. However, after doing the readings, I was amazed at the level of consumerism that exists around holidays. For some, Halloween is huge, and they purchase a lot of things. Even just the candy that my nieces and nephews had was a lot. A lot of the candy they do not even end up eating. I have the impulse to buy things around Christmas as I love that holiday. I teach grade 5, and as soon as the bell rang, students came in with bags of candy for the class. The garbage had to be emptied twice! It was amazing to see how much waste is created around these holidays. Corporations have done an excellent job of selling us what we need to truly celebrate Halloween. Even though I am not a big Halloween person, I still purchased some candies and bought a costume to wear. So, I entirely bought into the idea of Halloween even though I did not enjoy it.
On the way home, I stopped for some take-out as I had to stay at school to coach a volleyball game and ran out of time to cook dinner. Qdoba sent me an email on the weekend saying that on Halloween, they would be running a promotion where you buy one and get another for half off. Well, as soon as I got this email, I made up my mind that I was going to be getting food and how nice of them to offer a discount. Indeed, it was great marketing because they knew most people were going to be busy on that night, and if they sent out the offer early enough, it would plant the seed in people's minds, and they would come to Qdoba to eat. The plan worked! I fell for it and got food.
By the end of the night, I was clearing my email inbox. I suddenly realized that I get a lot of emails daily from different stores or restaurants wanting to take my money. Most I leave unread, but a few I end up reading. Occasionally, I am influenced by an email and purchase their product or service. I counted that I received 20 emails on Halloween. I wondered what the impact is on the environment sending emails. With flyers in your mailbox, you can guess the cost and environmental implications. With emails, people often do not think of the energy required to send emails and run servers that host the emails. I often wonder if technology has caused up to consume more resources. I put my phone away to pull my laptop out to write my final journal entry. The emails I got today did not impact the consumption for today, but maybe they planted the seed for tomorrow's purchase.
Final Thoughts
I knew what I wanted to change when I started this journaling experience. Most people, I think, already have a general idea of what they consume and whether it is necessary. I do a good job of limiting my consumption, but also there are ways to improve.
Some things I plan to change moving forward:
1) I will still stop at Tim Horton's, but I will bring my reusable cup, park my car, and go inside. Through this, I limit the trash I produce and reduce the idling I am doing in my car while the engine is running.
2) Reduce the trips to the grocery store! I want to limit my driving, and one way is to be better prepared when I go grocery shopping to purchase all I need for the week. This would eliminate my constant need to stop somewhere on the way home from work.
3) Unplug! Advertisements target me and know exactly what I am thinking. Taking a break from social media will allow me to see if social media is impacting my consumption habits. Also, I will unsubscribe from all those emails I get daily.
4) Active Transport - I will look for ways to bring active transport into my routine and utilize public transportation. A goal would be car-free, but like my aspiration to be a vegetarian, that is a long way away.
References
Autor: Niko Roorda. (2021). Fundamentals of sustainable development. Routledge.
Mulligan, M. (2018). Introduction to sustainability : environmental, social and personal perspectives. London Earthscan.
Norris, T. (2011). Consuming schools : commercialism and the end of politics. University Of Toronto Press.
Comments
Post a Comment