After going to the peer review for the 50 minutes and critiquing my paper I have been able to take some things away from that time. The first thing that I was able to take away is the fact that I used to not capitalize my “I”s but I have found an easy fix to that by using word to type all of my blogs first and from there just copy and paste it to the web site. That was only a minor issue though because of how easily it can be fixed so the real things I learned during peer review was more focused on the content of my paper. Overall I received fairly good reviews about it except the classmates that reviewed my paper said that I should be more specific about what type of consumer I truly am. This was a helpful suggestion because I could see where they were coming from since at the beginning I stated that I was an average consumer and towards the end I was talking about how I probably consumer higher quality items then the average person actually does. Because of the way I sort of organized my paper I will probably change the beginning and make it talk about how I’m actually an above average consumer to avoid confusion. The only thing that I am stuck on is what my rough draft really says about me because it was pretty clear with other people’s personality and the connection between that and them as a consumer. I hope that I will be able to find this connection so that I can write a higher quality paper about myself that is more accurate of who I truly am as a consumer.

When the word  “consumer”  arises in conversation I think about things that i use on a daily basis or at least more then a few times a month. The main things on my list of items that i consume is normally pretty generic and probably is very common among people today. The list consists of things like different foods, ranging from vegetables to meats and to manufactured food products. Also i am a large consumer of energy whether it be electricity, which majority of the population would also have, or even oil which is used all over the world in the form of gas for just about every mode of transportation. These are large broad topics so i believe that because i consume these then you would probably place me under the category of being an average consumer in the society that we live in today.

I do however believe that i personally consume too much as a single individual and i think that myself and many other people should seriously consider cutting back on the amount of things that we use on a daily basis. I did a small quiz not to long ago in one of my classes where i answered some questions about how i live regarding things i use. It told me that if everyone on Earth lived the way i did then we would need about 5 Earths to sustain that type of lifestyle. From this i have started to realize that i should cut down the resources i use so that others in the future can use the same things that i get to today.

Something that occurs in just about every household, and is very typical especially in the United States is buying an excess amount of objects that are not essential or needed. However most people do not realize all of these types of things that they buy and could easily let go and live without. For instance most people could go with out many of their electronics if they had to get rid of something. But if you were to ask me something that is the most over bought item or items that every one buys too many off, it would be no contest in saying that clothes are the most common item that could be given away. There are so many clothes that people do not wear on a common basis that they could give to someone who would wear them. This is probably one of the things that people are the worst at is buying things that they don’t need and it ends up replacing something more important that they should buy but end up not wanting to spend that much extra.

Once we had to start thinking about what kind of consumer we are, it really got me thinking about what type of consumer I truly am. Originally i thought that i wasn’t really a very large consumer and i normally only buy things i need and for a decent price as well. However, after truly analyzing the add that i looked at and the photo essay that i created on something i could live with out, i have decided that i am a consumer of brand name items. For instance Red Bull is quite expensive and it does not really have much essential parts to it for me personally. Also, with my E- Trade baby commercial blog it shows that i chose something that i see very often on tv so i end up picking something of that sort. I guess this is exactly what the company is trying to do is to have you like their advertisement  so that you will remember their product when you want to buy something in that category. There are also many other things that i own that are not essential in any way but they are something that i want and are generally more expensive then the average of that type of product. Examples of these things range from my Oakley snowboarding goggles that are about $110, some of my jeans that i get for $70 or so, I have multiple pairs of shoes and they really are not very cheap because they are nikes and jordans, but the more i look through my things i realize how much i enjoy buying brand name items. After doing an assignment like this i am now starting to tell myself that i should not be buying quite as many name brand things and stop buying multiple pairs of expensive objects.

After talking about all of these things in class i have realized how different yet similar everyone is regarding themselves as consumers. This might not make sense right away but we are all similar in the fact that we all over buy just about everything and would usually rather have all of the nice clothes or new games rather then buying whats cheapest or the most efficient for you individually. Even though we all over buy things we still tend to buy things that we don’t need in different ways and on different types of things where i might over buy something like shoes and such, someone else will buy things that are more like decorations or commodities where you would only use a few times before you forget about them. Something else that came to me during class was how buying things that are essential but also cost effective really is not overly difficult and could easily be done by anyone even if they do not have a very large budget like many college students. It first starts in finding a store that generally sells things either used or for a very cheap price and then it is going to those stores and only looking at and buying things that you need. This is a big part of it because it happens so often where someone will go walking through a store only to buy a toothbrush and cereal and end up leaving the store with a cartful of things that were not necessary and are extra things that generally are not essentials.All it will take are a few small steps and i think that many people should give it a shot sometime.

Something that occurs in just about every household, and is very typical especially in the United States is buying an excess amount of objects that are not essential or needed. However most people do not realize all of these types of things that they buy and could easily let go and live without. For instance most people could go with out many of their electronics if they had to get rid of something. But if you were to ask me something that is the most over bought item or items that every one buys too many off, it would be no contest in saying that clothes are the most common item that could be given away. There are so many clothes that people do not wear on a common basis that they could give to someone who would wear them.

However there are still other items that are not needed and are more of a commodity. For instance in my photo essay i showed how energy drinks such as Red Bull are not essential when living and are not necessarily good for you either, so there really is not a reason to have them besides the fact of enjoyment. But what i tried to show in my photo essay was how even though you might enjoy using an item of some sort might be fun and getting rid of it can be difficult, but in the long run it end up being beneficial to you and could be beneficial to someone else as well. I believe that most people should truly think about what they need and things that aren’t essential and could be more useful to someone else who needs something.

one of the most iconic commercials that is currently airing on television right now are the E Trade commercials where they have the small baby talking like an adult. Not only is he talking like an adult but he is also giving advice on buying and selling stocks to other individuals. This is so popular in today’s day because not only does it promote what the company is trying to sell but it also gets the attention of both males and females watching the advertisement. It is able to connect to female viewers because it involves a baby which makes the commercial appear cute which girls tend to be more attentive to when it comes to advertisements. The E Trade commercials also are popular with males because they use comedy in the ads to keep the males attentive to what they are saying because they want to hear the comedy part in the video. This was the part that i thought that E Trade did particularly well is tying in the humor as well as being informative and pithing their product, because I know that when these commercials would appear on the screen everybody in the room gets quiet so they can hear the punch line for the ad. This is well done because they have been able to continue to do multiple more commercials with the baby. It is still not explainable why we laugh at things like this where a baby is intellectual and talks like an everyday person but for whatever reason it is it is working for E Trade and their business.

 

When i first think of being a “consumer” i think about things that i use on a daily basis or at least more then a few times a month. The main things on my list of items that i consume is normally pretty generic and probably is very common among people today. The list consists of things like different foods, ranging from vegetables to meats and to manufactured food products. Also i am a large consumer of energy whether it be electricity, which majority of the population would also have, or even oil which is used all over the world in the form of gas for just about every mode of transportation. These are large broad topics so i believe that because i consume these then you would probably place me under the category of being an average consumer in the society that we live in today.

I do however believe that i personally consume too much as a single individual and i think that myself and many other people should seriously consider cutting back on the amount of things that we use on a daily basis. I did a small quiz not to long ago in one of my classes where i answered some questions about how i live regarding things i use. It told me that if everyone on Earth lived the way i did then we would need about 5 Earths to sustain that type of lifestyle. From this i have started to realize that i should cut down the resources i use so that others in the future can use the same things that i get to today.