This time of year, it’s hard not to think about the consumptive holiday fervor that many of us have just experienced. So, I did a little research. The word ‘consumption’ first appeared in the 14th century, and meant to waste, use up, devour or destroy. Its opposites – production or productive – appeared from Middle French in 1612 and meant to be creative or generative, but the idea of consumption being the opposite of production did not appear until 1745.
To further confuse things, tuberculosis is historically known as the disease called consumption; at the beginning of the 20th century, ‘consumption’ was still considered to be a disease. It was thought that people were sick if they thought about consuming goods. This hasn’t stopped companies from typically looking at their customers as ‘consumers.’
This classification is just as dangerous and potentially inaccurate as any stereotypical label. Do individuals, who just happen to buy products, want to be considered primarily as consumers? Do you spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week, overtly consuming? Or are you a person with passions and relationships who has a life beyond that label?
Today there is an increasingly diverse mixture of both cultural consumption and production that threatens the corporate dominance of culture. New forms of resistance to a homogenized culture are beginning to appear. People are showing an interest in not just choosing the products and brands that are relevant to them – but in helping to co-create those products.
These ‘prosumers’ – as Alvin Toffler called this emerging class in his 1980 book, The Third Wave – combine the roles of consumer and producer. Toffler spoke of consumers of the future being interested in participating in the creation of their own products. He was right.
Today people are opting to gain local knowledge rather than simply succumb to the available market information. They choose to work creatively on everything they purchase to make it their own. They are also cultural DJs, sampling and mixing, cutting and pasting inspirations to develop and define their own new cultures.
It’s time to think beyond the words “consumer” and “consumption.”
