I began my explorations when I began evaluating why I even wanted to come back to graduate school. I gave my best miss america speech in my statement of purpose about wanting to explore how design could make this world a better place for an individual, a community and society as a whole. And I have held onto those roots, I would say, in exploration.
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When first doing thesis research I found myself drawn to the area of emotional design. I explored the way emotions play a role in our decision making process. I latched onto the idea of "happiness" and wanted to promote positive thinking. I searched for a way that design could encourage behaviors that would lead to positive emotions. In my research I found that while the world tends to be grasping for happiness in general they are running off in well intended directions that take them further and further away from actually achieving that goal. The economic crisis we are facing now is a direct effect of one of those ill adviced paths, consumerism and the pursuit of material things.
In the Fast Company article "The Happiness Factor", James Roberts, a Baylor University marketing professor says '"all that consumerism is a pursuit of something other than Happiness: "The research is overwhelmingly clear," he says. "The more materialistic you are the less happy you are. We get Happiness through the love of others and sense of community. But we've been told by Madison Avenue that Happiness can come through the mall."' (The Happiness Factor, Fast Company) In the same article Cynthia Crossen of The Wall Street Journal notes, the American "pursuit of Happiness" certainly is of a piece with America's "capitalist democracy, where ever-increasing consumption" drives economic growth. (The Happiness Factor, Fast Company)
Why is it that it seems we are caring more for our economy and less for the individual? Does the economy shape the perception and well-being of the individual or is it the other way around. Does the individual shape the well-being of the economy?
Effective meaningful sustainable change has to come from inside first. And the heart of our economy is the individual. The heart of the individual is shaped from a very young age. Perceptions are developed, expectations are formed without any conscious knowledge. And how is this done? Through the examples set by others, such as parents, yes, but also through advertising and it's messages. In Jean Kilbourne's You Can't Buy My Love, she reports "that the average American sees more than three thousand ads per day and spends more than three years of his or her life watching commercials. Their messages are inside our intimate relationships, our homes, our hearts and our heads." (Kilbourne 12) There is no way to escape the pervasiveness of material culture and consumerism. And we as designers... what are we doing? We are the ones creating the tools for persuasion. We are complacent to the effects this has on the well-being of the individual. We are in many ways the vehicle to unhappiness.
One of the most targeted age groups for Credit Card companies are college students. Because students are a prime marketing opportunity. “If they can be in that kid’s wallet, they are more likely to have a customer for a good long time,” explains Geri Detweiler of ultimatecredit.com. (Weisbaum) Fresh from the material and financial comforts of home, guarded from the financial decisions their parents have had to make and the hardships they may have had to endure, college students often times have no concept of how personal economics work.
In a Newsweek article from early 2009 it reports how susceptible young college students are to building debt through credit cards. "The Center for a New American Dream, a group focused on helping Americans spend wisely, found that more than half of American college students signed up for at least four credit cards by the time they graduated. These card-stacked wallets help explain why, according to U.S. PIRG, the average American senior now racks up more than $2,500 in credit-card debt by the time they receive their diploma." (Soller, Majoring In Debt / Newsweek)
In today's economy the need for regulation is evident and laws are being past to limit the ways in which credit card companies target college students. Credit card companies may unjustly target college students by luring them with gifts and trinkets without explaining the real risks involved there is something inside the student to acquire that must be addressed. In "Can't Buy My Love," Kilbourne reminds us that for young adults advertising continues to invade their lives and "ads constantly tell us that products can help us find our identity, can make us unique, can help us understand ourselves and each other better." (Kilbourne, 91) In this new environment these students are well versed in self-expression through social media. Society is taught that you are what you own and that it is through these possessions that we can portray our desired sense of self.
SOURCES:
Kilbourne, Jean. Can't Buy My Love How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel. New York: Free, 2000. Print.
Manners, Tim. "The Happiness Factor." Fast Company. 08 July 2008. Web. 23 Aug. 2009.
Soller, Kurt. "Majoring In Debt." Newsweek. 17 Feb. 2009. Web. 23 Sept. 2009.
Truth About Credit. Web. 23 Sept. 2009.
Weisbaum, Herb. "Credit cards: A dangerous convenience." MSNBC. msnbc.com, 11 Aug. 2006. Web. 23 Sept. 2009.
