Author: willscott2013

Me as a consumer

Anyone who purchases good and services is a consumer, it can be argued that there are good consumers and bad consumers. I believe a good consumer is one who purchase mostly needs and doesn’t focus their earnings on wants. A bad consumer is the exact opposite, one who would focus earnings on the latest electronic gadgets and would rather do that than invest their money or put it in a banking account. I can see myself as a good consumer. I would consider myself as a good consumer; however I do occasionally buy my wants. Most of my current earnings are put towards school. Most of my graduation money went towards buying a laptop for school and also to my books for my first and second semester. Having leftover money that went straight into my bank account where it now sits. There have been a few nights where I have gone out to eat where I had to use cash instead of RDA, but seeing how this is a rare occurrence I would not classify this as poor spending and I am still a good consumer.

Besides the purchases of books and a laptop I also bought Windows 8, well technically I did not buy it because I was able to get it for free for being a student at Washington State University but you could also argue I paid for it in tuition. The main reason I got Windows 8 was because it was said to be the operating system of the future and was going to change the way we see laptops. I first heard of Windows 8 in September when they first started airing commercials. In these commercials they had people dressed in business attire and looked very professional. Not only did they look great in their clothing they all were holding their laptops and tablets and look very happy.  Well seeing this I thought I would look very professional with this new operating system and I would be as happy with it as they all seemed to be. Well little did I know that what I expected to happen would be the exact opposite of what would be too come. After downloading Windows 8 my computer went to carp, I couldn’t connect to internet and other problems arose. Files were lost along with other important documents and expensive programs. Even all of this happened I still loved the interface; I later removed the operating system and re-downloaded Windows 7. Well I loved the look and interface of Windows 8 I got the windows phone. This phone is one of the greatest in my eyes and the only thing wrong with it is it does not have the market place like Apple or Android.

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In response to the Windows 8 ad I created my own. In this ad I show the reality of Windows 8; disappointment. In my ad I am throwing my laptop in the trash and am giving it the middle finger to show my frustration toward it. In the text I state how it is the worst operating system and how it belongs in the trash.

The next part of realizing what kind of consumer I am is to realize what I have and seeing if I could live without them. A few things I realized are expensive shoes. I own a pair of $80 shoes, and another pair of $70 shoes, if I was a little bit smarter I would have bought cheaper shoes. Another thing I realize I don’t need is my sound system. This item I chose to do my experiment on. For this experiment I was to look through my belongings and find an item that I have but do not need and to create a story of me giving it away. In this story I see my buddy listening to his headphones and I figure that he would much rather listen to his music and these huge speakers. In reality I just would not give him my speaker but would sell them to him. I could also to the same with my iPod, phone; maybe not get rid of my phone but defiantly change it to where I do not pay as much per month for it, and I could have gotten a cheaper laptop.

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Besides the things that I have bought that are expensive in my past I have bought things that are pointless to have. I have a game system with no TV to play it on, well it was a decent purchase when I lived at home and could use my parents TV. Although I have made quite a few dumb purchases I have also done some things that have made me a smart consumer. Instead of buying a car and then on top of that having to buy fuel that is not cheap at all, I bought a bike. I bike cost nothing to run and service to the bike I can do myself. Another smart purchase that some might call a dumb purchase was buying my suit. I bought this for the main reason i was applying for jobs and I might get an interview and I will have to look professional to increase my chases of obtaining this job. this might not be a dumb purchase but it might have been a little on the early side and I could have been fine with a simple business casual attire rather than business professional.

It’s not that I do not want to purchase my wants it is more the fact that I cannot afford them. If I were to have a job and a steady flow of income I would purchase some of my wants. Some of these wants are a TV, so I can play my Xbox, I would like to get a tattoo, however these are very expensive , next year I might need a car so that will not be cheap to afford nor filling the gas tank. With this job I could also put some in a bank account to save for future much larger purchases. Besides buying a few more wants and placing money into savings I would also like to invest. Starting now is a great way to have money in the future however my only set back is paying 25,000 for college making me flat broke.

 

Male vs. Women Consumers revision

Now being independent and living more on my own, I begin to notice what I consume and what I have consumed; speaking not as food consumption but rather as an individual who purchases goods and services so that I can benefit from them. However being a male I believe I am not as much of a consumer as women. In the words of Gloria Steinem “Most women’s magazines simply try to mold women into bigger and better consumers.”

I think magazines are more directed toward women because women need the newest “fad” and when you post a model in a dress and make her look amazing, I think women will be “oh if I buy that dress then I will a beautiful as her”, “however I am going to have to buy that purse, and a new pair of shoes, maybe even that hat,” and with a coupon that says fifty dollars of a purchase, that is when you spend over two hundred dollars, who could pass up that offer, me.

Now I can identify myself as a consumer like this “wow that shirt looks great, however I bought a shirt last year and it will be good until the day I die, however Halo 4 is coming out this month so I better but that.” I consume things that will not make me look better but things that will entertain me for the next month. Video games are my biggest consumption, and being over fifty dollars a game this needs to change because if I continue to buy the latest video game, I will eventually be living on the streets with my controller in hand, but with no TV to play it on.

Other things I can relate to myself as being a consumer is the consumption of services, because the definition of a consumer is one who purchase goods and services. Services here I use at WSU is the tutoring. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I go to the MLC and receive tutoring on my math homework. Although it is free I believe that I pay for it in tuition.


Windows 8…Good ads Bad Product

Windows 8 was released on October 30, 2012. There was high prospect for it and was highly anticipated to be an operating system revolution. My first and only phone was a windows phone and I think it is the greatest phone and I will own nothing but windows phones for the next few years. When Windows 8 was released I downloaded that next day and had it for about a day. I ruined my computer and lost all my files and had to redo everything. I was so excited for the release that I did not bother to see reviews and how it would react with pre-Windows 8 operating systems. Part of this excitement was due to the advertisements. The commercials made the new operating system look like it would change technology as we knew it. The first one I saw started with a countdown staring with 8 and showed clips of revolutionary moments in history. Other commercials contained catchy tunes and people who seemed so happy that they had received this new operating system. Well if those people were so excited and seemed so happy about it shouldn’t I? Well that’s what they were trying to get me to perceive in their commercials to make me buy their product. Well it worked, however after a day of use and restoring my computer back to windows 7 I left Windows 8 in the past. There commercial lied to me, they made me think I would be part of the changing world, I would be happy like the people in the commercials. They lied.


Male vs. Women Consumers

Now being independent and living more on my own, I begin to notice what I consume and what I have consumed; speaking not as food consumption but rather as an individual who purchases goods and services so that I can benefit from them. However being a male I believe I am not as much of a consumer as women. In the words of Gloria Steinem “Most women’s magazines simply try to mold women into bigger and better consumers.”

I think magazines are more directed toward women because women need the newest “fad” and when you post a model in a dress and make her look amazing, I think women will be “oh if I buy that dress then I will a beautiful as her”, “however I am going to have to buy that purse, and a new pair of shoes, maybe even that hat,” and with a coupon that says fifty dollars of a purchase, that is when you spend over two hundred dollars, who could pass up that offer, me.

Now I can identify myself as a consumer like this “wow that shirt looks great, however I bought a shirt last year and it will be good until the day I die, however Halo 4 is coming out this month so I better but that.” I consume things that will not make me look better but things that will entertain me for the next month. Video games are my biggest consumption, and being over fifty dollars a game this needs to change because if I continue to buy the latest video game, I will eventually be living on the streets with my controller in hand, but with no TV to play it on.


Communication 2013

From the beginning of life, communication has been an important aspect of how we live, and throughout time communication has evolve from grunts to now having over 100 complex languages and methods of communication. Communication in the 21st century can be described as using Facebook or text messaging as the main language of teenagers and maybe even young adult. What I mean by this is acronyms like lol, or gtg are more primarily used rather than spelling out laugh out loud, or go to go and this has become the more prominent way to write. Also instead of spelling you or are the more common way to type these are with the single letters, u and r. However texting and Facebook are not the only language that is used by teenagers but face to face communication. This is drastically different than the way our elders speak; being a teenage we use words like dope and sick to be synonyms of cool. Another communication tool that has become increasingly popular is twitter. Instead of texting or Facebooking all your friends and family what you are up too, you can now post it on the twitter feed, making communicating back and forth between everybody easier too, because they can just add to your post. This is affective in many ways, first it is faster than texting all your friends and second it also includes other people you would not have thought about adding to the conversation. The main purpose of changing the way we communicate is because it is faster to text someone rather than sending a letter or an email. Although texting someone to answer the door rather than just ringing the doorbell seems like nonsense, it is the way that more and more teenagers will communicate, and communication will continue to change as long as there is life.