the most random post

i forgot why i started writing this so abt 2 wks after i started i'm just posting this. this is truly ramdom


just to start off with, how many people have joined an 'i hate apple group' and still own an ipod. well if there aren't that many i think this will kinda make me unique, but i'm certain that there are a lot of people like me who don't like the mac OS and the apple corporation but still own an ipod. similarly there are ppl who criticize the way a company functions, it's corporate image etc but still have products of that company. another example that i love to quote is, people who only buy locally produced products, indian clothes, food and nothin imported, but u go to their house when they serve you a drink the chances of it being an expensive scotch whiskey or a russian vodka are extreamly high. buy why do we do this? do we hate apple to keep a face or do we buy an ipod to say that we own one?

since we are known to be a consumerist society what i really want to know is who influences what we buy? in an ideal world i think the answer would be 'utility of the product influences what we buy' but i don't think that is is true anymore. most economists will tell you that utility is the want satisfying capability/capacity of a commodity, and a 'want' is defined as a psychological desire which makes life just a little more enjoyable, but which is not physiological necessary to life.

fast forward to the 21st century and the question we have to ask ourselves is if our wants have over shadowed our needs. and i think this is true but to different extents.

One cannot write anything about changing consumer behavior without addressing the influence of the internet. It's been around 40 years globally, and in India for 10-12 yrs (shot in the dark really). personally i don't think i've bought any electronic item (and i'm using the word very loosely here) without reading a detailed review. it's not a question of if the internet is influencing what we buy, coz i believe that i definitely does. i think the chances of us buying a product thats got fantastic reviews, or a product that comes 'recommended' by a website/reviewer that you trust. 

so in this consumeristic society can we really have a separate identity or do we just become or have we already become one gigantic consumeristic blob?