THESIS STATAMENT:
During the last decade, there has been a rapid growth of consumerism in the Correntinian society.
(Corrientes is a city)
The rise of consumerism is a characteristic of the twentieth century. People purchase goods and consume resources excessive to their needs. In the recent years, this phenomenon has been established among Correntinians who have been attracted to the tendency of believing that happiness is based on what you consume. As a consequence, Correntinians are not anymore eating merely to satisfy their hunger and they are not anymore wearing clothes as protection against the weather. They buy and buy because of a strong feeling of greedy. Taking in consideration all these features we must agree that during the last decade, there has been a rapid growth of consumerism in the Correntinian society.
It is demonstrated that people who live in Corrientes spend a lot of money on technology innovations. For example, in spite of the fact that we have a mobile phone with the basic functions of communications, we want to buy another one which has the latest technology and features. Consumers express that they cannot resist buying it, afterwards they do not use all options it offers. What is more, advertisers make us feel dissatisfied with our old PC so we go to Red Megatone shop or Garbarino shop and get a new model PC which works easier and faster.
Furthermore, there is a current trend towards fast-food restaurants and ready-to-cook food. Nowadays, people have loosed the custom of preparing food at home. Homemade pastas or delicious grandma’s cakes are not seen in Correntinian’s menus . As a result, there are an increasing number of people who purchase foods that are frozen in order to reduce the cooking time. Furthermore, eating out is now often accepted as a normal life. For instance, at weekends we can see the crowded Centenario Shooping Mall and people waiting in long queues to buy a big tasty burger and obviously the happy meal for kids.
In addition to this, Correntinian women spend a lot of many on clothes for themselves and sometimes for their children and partners. The media feed us with a constant stream of images about how we need to look and behave. However, women may not even need new clothes, they walk along Junin pedestrianize for long hours because they just want to buy something fashion. Sometimes, when they get home, they suddenly decide that actually they do not like what they have bought, thus they throw it into the back of their wardrobe, having never even worn it.
All of these examples show how consumerism has encouraged Correntinans to search for happiness through a continuous expansion of their material standard of living. . Corrientes has become a materialistic city where people believe that the more the shop, the more they will feel better. Most of the goods are not satisfying a basic need but are instead used to satisfy desires such as high status, beauty, luxury and amenities. In conclusion, we must be in agreement over during the last years there has been a high-speed development of consumerism in Corrientes city.
TOEFL listening lectures: A university lecture by a professor of Social History