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Despite piles of evidence that the earth’s climate is rapidly changing, the United States government actively ignores the crisis. People around the world are becoming extremely anxious about our planet’s future. Sadly, this anxiety is often outweighed by the pressures of our consumerist society. Either way, anxiety, and other mental health issues are serious problems that are just now being dealt with. Having a relationship with nature is crucial to a healthy mental state, but as the modern world grows our connection with others and the earth diminishes. The relationship between humans and nature is dying because of growing technology in consumerist societies. As a result, the climate crisis is worsening without corresponding concern.
Consumerism forces people to focus on the value of their possessions, rather than the value of their relationships with others. In places like the U.S., people find pleasure in purchasing products. You can easily guess someone’s personality solely based on how they decorate their house, what car they have, or what kind of groceries they buy. Showing someone your appreciation is done by buying them a gift, not by simply telling that person you love them. Whether we like it or not, the things we buy matter. That is what makes a consumerist society. Writer Anjana Aravind explains how she believes consumerism can change, “Our way of thinking must be changed to focus more on the environmental and societal consequences of our actions rather than on instant pleasure.” (“Consumerism”). The reason this philosophy is so hard to incorporate into the United States is, along with consumerism, our society is also built on the idea of individualism. The idea that if something doesn’t benefit me directly, what’s the point? People find it hard to accept that climate change is a matter of ours and not mine. The prospect of completely shifting an entire worldview is huge. Until the livable environment goes completely downhill, most governments will choose economic power over environmental safety. Meanwhile, regular citizens are facing the brunt of the negative effects that consumerism brings. As evident in the tv show Modern Family, the things we own are placed at a higher value than people. The episode “Game Changer” illustrates this when Phil finally receives the iPad that he had been waiting for the entire episode. Throughout the episode, Phil is so happy knowing that he will get the iPad for his birthday, but as soon as he is told that they couldn’t find one, he falls deep into a depressive state. He suddenly doesn’t care that his family has all come to his house to celebrate, he doesn’t care that they got him other gifts, and he doesn’t care about anything other than getting the iPad. Until, at the end of the episode, when they surprise him with the iPad, he completely turns around and loves his family again. They all huddle around Phil, with the iPad in the center, and marvel at how amazing the iPad is. While this episode is clearly just about advertising the iPad, it gives a good insight into how we treat each other compared to how we treat our things. Often the quality of the gift we receive overshadows the gesture of giving the gift. In the end, the gift becomes more important than the person giving it. This ruins the chance of creating a meaningful relationship with anyone, when there is a product in the way. Along with consumerism, improving technology has also had a serious impact on our relationships with others. That is common knowledge at this point. But I would argue that with the rise of the internet, the relationship we have with ourselves has been impacted the most.
The rise of the internet has fostered a breeding ground for negative content; some of which can actually become dangerous. There are many communities online that promote dangerous activities. Most of these websites are carefully hidden, or blocked altogether. One of these communities that is widely known, but hardly addressed/talked about is the Pro-Anorexia community, “Those who identify as ‘pro-ana’ view anorexia as a lifestyle choice and, as such, development and maintenance of anorexia is encouraged” (“Friending Ana”, Harmon and Rudd). Anorexia nervosa is a widely known mental illness characterized by having a distorted body image, and an actively restricting diet. As explained by Harmon and Rudd, many anorexic patients do not even recognize anorexia as an illness, but rather as a way of living. This allows for some justification of the illness as a coping mechanism. From there, anorexia becomes something to strive for instead of a grotesque illness. This is why the Pro-Ana community is so easily accessible, those involved claim that they are not promoting a dangerous illness, so they get through the censorship nets on many websites. Recently, apps and websites like Instagram and Tumblr purged Pro-Ana search terms. When searching these terms a user will only find an eating disorder crisis hotline and a blocked page. While this is an improvement, just by doing the simple Google search, “pro-ana”, one of the first websites is theproanatips.com. A blog providing information on drastic weight loss, “thinspiration” (aesthetically pleasing pictures of dangerously thin bodies), and insane diets usually consisting of only fruits and fasting for days on end. Obviously, this is alarming when thinking of a young person stumbling upon a similar website and thinking that these dangerous habits are good for you. Anyone can access this website and see that they are promoting a lifestyle that could turn into a serious medical eating disorder. So how does the creator of the website justify the dangerous information they provide? On the website, there is an “about” section. Here is their disclaimer: “We provide methods which are highly effective and show excellent results… we do not support the eating disorder Anorexia in any form, and we think that it is a disease, that should be cured with immediate attention if someone is suffering from it.” Seemingly, a good message. But, remember, the website domain name literally says Pro Anorexia Tips. This contradiction completely voids their disclaimer. Websites like this one need to be, at the very least, monitored. Anyone can access this information. There are no regulations for Pro Anorexia search terms on Google, and social media websites have only begun to block it.
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