A Nation of Consumers

The first video I watched was “The Story of Change” and the first thing that is talked about is a book called “100 Ways to Save the Planet Without Ever Leaving Your House,” and bringing your own bags to the grocery or spreading the world of recycling or low toxic products was a way to enable shoppers to becoming more ‘consumer conscious.’ The Story of Change takes a look into how these aren’t really the key to changing things. It calls for consumers to become active citizens instead of just active consumers. This video is so impressive for it’s message and the media that is used through out it.

The video discusses how easy it is to come together in comparison to 50 years ago because of the internet. It kind of reminds me of my presentation on Slacktivism and how we’ve got the big idea and the commitment but we’re missing turning it into massive action. Making change takes all types of citizens, not just protesters.

The second video I watched was “The Story of Stuff.”  Representing the cooperation bigger than the government was really powerful, that was fully represented through the active infographic. 1/3 of the plants natural resources have been used in the past three decades. The U.S. has less than 4% of it’s it’s natural resources.. All the statistics of the U.S’s over use and going and taking the ‘third world’s’ resources were represented well by the infographics that wouldn’t have been otherwise.

This is something that I witnessed first hand in numerous countries in Eastern Europe. Bosnia had hundreds of factories scattered through out their forests where the sole purpose was to deforest their own country for the benefit of other countries for money. While this is creating jobs for these countries, they’re eventually going to run out of their own resources as well, and then what. Her example of the $4.99 radio was extremely powerful. Making the realization that she didn’t pay for the $4.99 radio, people in other countries paid for it with their health or futures solidified external costs being the main issue of production.

Overall, these videos are more powerful due to the graphics and motion information. It’s a lot of information but because of the illustrations it makes it more eye catching and keeps the views interested. Their heavy topics and a lot of information but because of the graphics the point is made more solid.