But Nothing

Realize.

Stop.   

Take a minute to think.

Think about what you do, to contribute to the issue of over consumption.   

Your role is bigger than you think, when you spend money, you are reducing the world’s resources.  Could you have done without that shirt?  Or how about that key chain?  What about that high tech hockey stick?  Stop and think about how you can make a difference, and how you can start a trend.  Perhaps you could turn it into a game, which one of your friends can go the longest without buying anything? 

Rethink.

Take that negative attitude and turn it upside down and inside out.  Buy your groceries a day before and fill up your phone cards in advance because you can do this.  You can go a day without buying anything and help our planet.  You LIVE here, your CHILDREN will live here.  You can make a difference.

Reduce.  

Statistics show that in 2007, 65,965,489 Americans shopped ‘til they dropped’ (“Buy Nothing Day 2008”, Jess Confer).  I can’t imagine what the statistics show for the entire planet regarding daily shoppers.  Buy Nothing Day is an internationally applied act that is intended to reduce our compulsive decisions to purchase goods, in hopes to conserve the earth’s precious resources.     

Reality.

We as human beings are addicted to spending money, I mean.... we earn it to spend it right?  Statistics show that the number of shoppers are increasing each year.  In Canada, internet shopping alone increased 61% from 2005 to 2007.  In Lawrence Lessig’s Free Culture, he compares Walt Disney’s fame from his creation of Mickey Mouse to modern technology.  He said Disney wasn’t sure if his plans for Mickey would work, which can be compared to the development of the internet (Free Culture, page 22).  Personally, I think this theory can be applied to anything.  Once something is introduced to our society, it will develop until it crashes.  Spending money will only happen until we cannot anymore, or until our resources run out.  Lets prevent that from happening and buy nothing on November 28th.  

Lessig, Lawrence. Free Culture. New York: Penguin Group, 2004. 21-23.

McKeown, Larry. "E-commerce: Shopping on the Internet." Statistics Canada, The Daily. 17 Nov. 2008. 22 Nov. 2008 <http://www.statcan.ca/daily/english/081117/d081117a.htm>.