The Story of Stuff

In thinking about the sixth level of empowerment that social media enables discussed by Mainwaring, I began to relate it to a video I once watched called The Story of Stuff. One of the main points that the video maker makes is that our current brand of consumerism seeks to become embedded in every single aspect of our lives. We need to exploit every opportunity to generate revenue.

When I first watched the clip, I thought about passion parties or "sex parties." In some ways I think that these are great because they empower women as sexual beings--doubt the parties would've been as accepted 20 years ago. The parties are also good places to buy cool stuff without the awkward interaction with the creepy guy at the adult fantasy shop. They can be fun social events too, or so I'm sold. At the same time though, do we really need to turn every damn thing into an opportunity to buy and sell stuff? What's with the growing trend to commoditize every last thing? In the future, will it be odd to have people over to your house without offering them something to buy? Eek!