Materialism... It's a Conspiracy, Man

Even though the hippies had become a very hot topic in the media throughout the 1960’s, in terms of demographics, they only held a small percentage. The hippies, who were the youth of the time,developed their own distinct group because they felt alienated from a society that was dominated by materialism and repression. The hippies saw these things as ills of society and they rebelled largely by living outside the accepted and expected norms of mainstream culture.

Chong playing a hippie character

Despite the hippies view on materialism during this time, capitalism and consumerism were both still very dominant in households across North America. The American Dream was alive and well due to the United States’ position at the apex of global power which had led to an abundance of optimism towards their country, economy and consumer goods. This created a very positive outlook onto materialism in America that was favored by the majority of people.

In today’s society of the United States, materialism and consumerism are still very prominent in the minds of the majority. However, consumers nowadays have evolved since the 1960’s as they have gained purchasing power, which has allowed them to influence marketers and advertisers. In the 60’s, because consumers had very little purchasing power, marketers and advertisers had a lot of influence on the general public, especially children, that it shaped many people’s view on material objects.

 

Internet Usage over time

The advancement of technology over the past 50 years has also influenced society’s view on materialism. Over the past couple of years, technology has become cheaper, which is accountable for the increase of consumption of technology in the world today. With this, people have become dependent on technology and have adapted to the technology around them. They even go out and buy or upgrade to the newest technology on the market even if it isn’t very different from the older version that they presumably already own.

The difference between the view of the 1960’s and today on materialism is that in the 1960’s, a distinct minority of people caught the attention of the media and got their views of anti-materialism through to people across the world. In today’s society, there isn’t a distinct group of people that have anti-materialism views that has caught the attention of the media. Despite this difference, the majority of people are still materialists in the United States, just like it was in the 60’s, however it does seem that materialism has become stronger and more evident in today’s society with the expansion of technology over the past couple decades.