The American Consumer Culture

America has always had a history of being a society that focused on a consumer society. As Americans, we follow a consumerist culture that focuses on individual values and material goods. I believe that American consumer culture shapes what American do and how they act in society. American consumers are portrayed by how marketers want them to be perceived in society. As Americans continue the tradition of consumer culture, this also leads American’s to pass down these habits onto the newer generations, as evident today. Overall, my perception still stands, teens today are obsessed with material goods and because of this, have become narcissistic. Through the elements of mass media, marketing teen obsession, and social class and branding, we

As a result, marketers and advertisers rigorously target the teen consumer in any way they can. Teens have a staggering amount of buying power, in part because they have the ability to work and have influence over their parent’s money. Advertisers go as far as create movements in youth fashion, music, and food among other products. They call it “taking the brand to the street” and it includes using high-profile celebrities to endorse their products on T.V. or in their personal lives. Overall, the goal of marketing teen consumerism that most businesses follow can be seen as marketing the “cool” to teen’s, advertising body images, and packaging girlhood and boyhood. Teens are continually bombarded with limiting media stereotypes of what it is to be a girl or a boy in today’s world. They “packaged childhood” and sell it to them through ads and products; across all media, from T.V., music, movies, magazines, to video games and the internet. Be it body shape, skin condition, fashion, music, being cool, or just, having the right type of gadget, teenagers are very uncertain about who they are or where they fit in. Advertising works best when it creates an insecurity about something and such insecurities are easily found amongst teens. This is also where the social fact concept of the functionalist perspective can be seen in this theme. As American consumerism continues to market teen obsession, this creates an

American consumerism has created a mindset that spending helps to establish a person’s social position in society, the same can be said about teens. Marketers appeal to specific social classes of teens to market their goods. They try to appeal to their lack of social position because of their class and use celebrities, singers, or any form of media to open them up to consumerism ideals. A teens social class also establishes cliques in high schools, as researchers from Stanford have explored why cliques thrive in some high schools more than others. Schools that offer students more choice were more likely to be rank-ordered, cliquish and segregated by race, age, gender and social status. Teens in these high schools would form social groups to not only those of similar attitudes with likes and dislikes, but also to those who share the same materialistic values or ideals as they do. Teens are basically forced to conform to the same consumerist values as their group, have the same favorite bands or T.V. show, and having the favorite clothing brands and trends. Allen Kanner, a child psychologist, explains that the problem, “is that marketers manipulate that attraction, encouraging teens to use materialistic values to define who they are and aren't. In doing that, marketers distort the organic process of developing an identity by hooking self-value to brands." When