With Christmas approaching, regardless of where you are reading this post from, regardless if you believe in Christmas at all, you must be feeling the shopping frenzy. From where I stand, it’s slightly overwhelming.
Makes me wonder: If people could get this mobilized over topics other than Christmas (or Football’s European Championships, for that matter) how much energy could we be driving into completely different social topics…
When you go into a shop and buy fair trade or when you refrain from purchasing a jacket because it’s made from animal’s fur, or a pair of snickers from a country known by it’s sweatshop practices, you are actually voting for a new economic direction. Because in this world, in our economy, your purchase can be your most powerful participation tool at reach. With each purchase you are voting for this world’s greatest powers - corporations - to rise or fall, to grow or vanish.
What if we massively abstained from buying stuff this Christmas?
Buy Nothing Day, for example, is an international day of protest against the excesses of our consumption-based culture. It was founded by Canadian artist Ted Dave, and is largely endorsed through Adbusters magazine. The first Buy Nothing Day was in 92, and from then on it grew to reach 65 participating countries. Adbusters states that it “isn’t just about changing your habits for one day” but “about starting a lasting lifestyle commitment to consuming less and producing less waste.”
Critics of the Buy Nothing Day believe this to be a passive and inefficient mean of protesting, based on inaction rather than productive and constructive action. A group in Montreal even came up with the more engeged concept of Steal Something Day.
Whether as a designer you ignore or oppose such initiatives, whether you steal or you buy, the fact is designers should acknowledge their position in this constant arousing towards endless consumption. We design the things, and we design the campaigns that improve the sales of the things.
But we’re not necessarily stuck there. We can design things that have longer lives, and generate no waste after that life is over. We can design systems that enable consumers to trade, upgrade, and share the things they already have. There’s plenty we can do.
For some inspiration, take a look at projects like Swaporama. The Buy Nothing Christmas website offers a list of alternatives to shopping for presents. Or this great list artist Kery Smith shares with us of 10 things to do instead of shopping.
There’s plenty we can do. We can design our way out of this consumption frenzy.
Merry xmas!
by Joana Bértholo
No Comments, Comment or Ping
Reply to “Buy Nothing Christmas?”