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A few years ago I was walking around my old hometown, Portland, Oregon. I walked past a basketball court full of teens wearing Ambercrombie shirts and Nike shoes. "Bro, why don't you get some of these cool clothes, rather than that boring and odd shirt you have on? one of them said to me. "No, thanks. I like what I have on. " I wasn't going to let them persuade me to waste my money on expensive popular clothing when I already liked what I was wearing. As you can see by my experience, many Americans, especially high school students, shop to "look cool" by wearing popular clothing. They emphasize wearing the right type of clothes.
For instance, an adolescent clothing addict named Delia Cleveland believed "clothes made the woman and everything else was secondary" (193). Teenagers buy the right clothes so they " ll be popular. In high schools today, many students are seen with an "Ambercrombie & Fitch" label or shirt bearing the name of the company. That's because they "repeatedly rank it near the top in terms of coolness. " (Cave 199).
By wearing the A&F clothes, people see them as "cool" and therefore respect them. However, it's not always about wearing a certain company's clothes to look cool; it can be about wearing the right color clothes or buying caps that show a logo of a sports team. Why do teenagers make such a big deal out of wearing the right kinds of clothes? A big reason is the fact that many of them go to rough high schools, so they have to wear the right type of clothes, because if they don't, they might get picked on.
I have had many friends in this situation. This can make them get used to wearing popular clothing, and then they really start doing it, possibly even to show off their clothes. Luckily I've never had to go to high school (I was homeschooled), so I haven't had to go through with looking cool by wearing popular clothing. IN my opinion, clothes are clothes, and it doesn't make any difference what they look like. But in America today, often that's not the case. Another reason people buy what they buy is because the media influences them greatly, with symbols and rule-breaking strategies.
On the television today I often see commercials influencing the viewer to buy a product, one way or the other. In many commerical's, I see messages flash across the screen, often related to one idea, "rule-breaking. "The central message here is very serious and strongly antisocial: We should all rebel against authority, social order, propriety, and rules of any kind" (Leo 230). I also see many commercials, and advertisements of products showing girls, so the male view may be intrigued to buy the product because he thinks girls like the one in the commerical will like him. For example, I know a person who saw an ad for a "macho" Dodge Ram truck.
He wasn't sure if he was going to buy a Ford F- 150 or Dodge Ram, but after seeing the Dodge Ram with a pretty girl inside, he decided to buy the Ram because he thought it was more macho and therefore women would like him more because of the truck's macho looks. I don't think the media's influence will change any time soon. For this reason people will continue to be influenced by the media to buy things. Americans may also buy things simply to show the symbol or logo of a certain brand. This is not the same as buying popular clothing; it's about simply wearing and showing your favorite brand's logo for attention and other people to see. IN the world today, people of all ages may check out a person's shirt or pair of pants to see what company produced it, regardless of how it looks.
An example to show this is the fact that a young girl named Naomi Klein would spend time looking at her classmates's butt for logos when she was in 4 th grade. She continued to find the "logo-dominance, " even when she was working folding clothes nearly ten years later: "Mothers would come in with their six year old daughters and ask to see only the shirts that said "Esprit" in the company's bold black lettering" (Klein 239). Why are kids so easily swayed to buy certain brands? There are a few reasons for this. Part of it is because of the media influence. For example, it seems all of the brands of clothing I see around Diablo Valley College today are features on commercials.
Another reason is because once again, they want to fit in with the "cool crowd, " this time by showing the logos other "cool" people show. I once asked a tall pretty 19 -year-old girl why she wearing a shirt that said in very big letters: "Adidas. " She said she was because everyone else was and she wanted to be like all of the popular people: showing the brand of her t-shirt. Since the country makes it easy to buy things, some people buy things just because of this: it's easy to buy things. People have credit cards; therefore, they can constantly charge purchases without worrying for a long time, since most credit cards allow a very large balance to be kept.
Delia Cleveland charged $ 600 for a quick fashion fix (194). Some College students get Financial Aid, and some of them use it up because it's right under their belt. And after a hard day's work some people get a huge paycheck, and with the money go right to the store and buy things. So often I see people in Target talking about their long work day and how they want to just do some shopping to wind the evening down. I try not to spend my money on things, I don't really need, but on occasion I find myself going into McDonalds and spending $ 5 on junk food that isn't even good for me. Why do I do this?
Why not? I have so much money! I CAN buy it because of all my Financial Aid! It won't hurt me to go spend some money at McDonalds! It's not like I'm wasting money on expensive clothes; it's only $ 5!
On the positive side, I don't spend money on things I don't need because I'm happy with what I have. I NEED to eat, so I go to McDonalds. I'm not saying that if you get your Financial Aid check you " re going to spend a lot of it on 7 - 11 and McDonalds. I'm saying that there is a big problem with college students spending money on things they don't need, in part due to the fact that it's easy to get the money to buy these things. I think the most important reason Americans buy things is the fact that many high school students buy close so they " ll be popular and in with the "cool crowd. " I believe this is a big problem. Not only do the students often waste money on things they really don't need; they also influence other students to do it by contributing to buying clothes to look cool.
Free research essays on topics related to: high school students, media influence, financial aid, buy things, credit cards
Research essay sample on High School Students Financial Aid
