Shifting the “Want to a Need” is the proudest badge that the marketing industry brags about.
You do not want chocolate, for example, you need it. You do not want to change your chattels, like a mobile phone or earphones, you need to. We find ourselves using this word unconsciously -“I need to go to the supermarket” – The mere trip to the big supermarket has the tempting thrill to overbuy; local grocers and shops cannot compete with the alluring call of the big chains. The only time we find ourselves shopping at our local grocer is when we are in a hurry and in real
need of some item ‘quickly’. But, shouldn’t that be the purpose of all our purchases, doesn’t that convey the true form of “needing” something? I gave the example of the supermarket so I can gradually expand on the larger wants and needs for they are a recurring pattern in almost everything and anything in and around our daily lives.
The vicious cycle of consumerism is a glorification of the insatiable human hunger for novelty and excessiveness. I want more, and I want it new. A new dress restores beauty in a woman’s self-apprehension, a new car breathes pride and inexplicable exult in a man’s state of mind.
The purpose that menial items once served has been transferred; functionality has become a secondary criterion and conditional only to the aesthetic and the ‘trending’.
