The concept of the movie is to illustrate the effects of consumerism on our environment, economy, and society by detailing the process through which raw materials are converted to consumer products, which eventually become waste. In producing this video, the Story of Stuff Project sought to open consumers’ eyes to some inconvenient truths about our endless cycle of demand.
The video describes the one-way “arrow of consumption”, the process whereby raw materials are extracted, largely from underdeveloped countries, processed into consumer products in pollution-producing factories, sent to big-box retailers where they are sold to consumers for incredibly low prices, used for a period of time until the product breaks or is made obsolete, and finally disposed in a landfill or incinerated. While this progression might be intuitive for most consumers to understand, a major goal of the video is to highlight concerning details about this process, such as the widespread pollution of poor industrialized countries or the impact of consumerism on our happiness.
A main idea offered in the video is that consumerism, which is bad for us and for the environment, is pushed onto us by selfish faceless corporations. They even go so far as to personify corporations as a fat man in a top hat with a big dollar sign on his belly. She claims that as corporations grow in size (and profit) they are able to exert more power on the government and over time become less and less inhibited by regulations. To me, this appears as a criticism of capitalism even thought the word ‘capitalism’ was never used in the video. I agree that a major flaw with capitalism is the over-emphaisis of profit over the welfare of our people and the environment. The short and vague solution to this problem offered in the video is to implement new manufacturing technologies such as local, renewable, and zero-waste goods. She is suggesting that we use our economic influence to purchase these sustainable alternatives, in other words to put pressure on the market through increased demand. In essence, she is suggesting that capitalism is both the problem and the solution, an apparent contradiction. I agree with this idea to some extent, even though it is contradictory. In my opinion, capitalism is the only feasible economic system for the United States, but that does not mean that we must allow corporate greed to devastate the environment.
In the film, Annie expresses how she has been using a “fat white computer monitor” for the past five years and that her coworker just bought a new flat screen monitor which matches her other desk items. While not explicitly stated, she implies that buying a new computer monitor isn’t a socially conscious decision because it unnecessarily creates e-waste for the purpose of making a fashionable choice. This is supposed to be an example of how planned obsolescence creates unnecessary demand and therefore unnecessary waste. There is some validity to this viewpoint. For example, Apple releases a new iPhone every year which is only marginally better than the previous year’s model, but that doesnt stop millions of people from upgrading perfectly good phones. However, this opinion that upgrading technology products as infrequently as possible is also problematic. For example, as new technology is released it becomes more energy efficient. Really, Annie should consider the fact that her old “fat” computer monitor is consuming significantly more energy than her coworker’s new flat screen monitor meaning that eventually her coworker’s choice is the more environmentally-friendly one. This is one of the many examples of the extreme one-sidedness of the video, to a fault.
The video is essentially a warning about how our unsustainable lifestyles are in the process of jeopardizing the planet, which has an effect on our prosperity. The people affect the planet by feeding into the “arrow of consumption”. Marketers instill unhappiness in the people and people seek to feel better by purchasing more goods, a strategy which leaves them only feeling more unfulfilled. A smaller group of people seek to generate profits by producing these goods as cheaply as possible. Both groups of people perpetuate the damaging effects the consumer economy has on the planet. Our environment is destroyed in an effort to create more goods and generate profit and all Americans participate and perpetuate this system. The result is the ever-accelerating destruction of our planet; pollution is at an all time high as well as the variety and quantity of toxic chemicals contaminating our bodies. Therefore, I agree with Annie that by participating in our system of unsustainable consumption that people have already casued measurable damage to the planet and will continue to do until our consumption patterns are modified.
The fact that stuck out to me the most from this video was that people today see more advertisements in one year than people in the 1950’s saw in their whole lives. This means that in addition to manufacturing unsustainable goods, companies also manufacture desire on a large scale. After all, they need to ensure that the goods they produce are consumed to generate a profit. This has major implications for how we consume because ads are constantly filling us with the idea that we cannot be happy unless we consume more. This creates a vicious cycle of desire whereby we keep buying goods to fill the emptiness inside us, which results in buying even more goods when doing so fails to fill the emptiness.
To me, promoting awareness of this idea is the largest benefit that sharing this video with others could have. I think that people are generally aware of the fact that third-world countries are exploited to obtain resources, manufacturing facilities produce significant amounts of pollution, big-box stores mistreat workers to keep costs low, and that when we are done with products that they rot in landfills forever. However, the idea that our system of consumption only perpetuates our own unhappiness is not as widely-known, in my opinion. If consumers become aware of their own vicious cycles of desire, they stand a chance at preventing it from happening. People will start to choose to buy products out of legitimate need instead of feelings created by manipulation. By consuming less, consumers will have more money to spend on high-quality, sustainable goods. If consumers knew that buying another TV or pair of shoes is not going to make them feel happier, it would slow their appetite for more thereby slowing the destruction of our environment. Therefore, the biggest impact that this film could have on its potential viewers is to make them aware of the use of advertising to create perpetual desire and to know that fulfilling these desires by purchasing products does not work. When consumers become aware of the system in place to keep them buying more, they can begin to make the necessary behavioral changes.