The Effect of The Drug War on Social media

This is the final paper I wrote for one of my classes last semester. I think the title is self-explanatory.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BwBpevuU735UMDQyYTEzZDItM2M3My00MDk2LTg0MmMtN2FlZWM1OWFhZDAz&hl=en_US

An Artist Statement

The Artisit Statment can be found in the following link:

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1ZJ5sJxi0GjdmEVGMUE4pkszARttbxsd1Zw9Ikwbiwm4

A Text Response to "What is Mine is Yours" (Final Version)

On September 2009 I access my different bank accounts to add up my credit card debt. It added to almost 5,000 dollars. I have gotten my first credit card back in 2006. By the end of 2007 all three credit cards under my name were maxed out. For two years they never had more than a couple hundred dollars available for use. For those two years I mostly made minimum monthly payments to avoid late fees. My debt was a combination of impulsive consumption and economic crisis. At the beginning when the crisis hit, it seem like credit cards were my savior: the perfect solution. For a while they were, but after a few months I kept drowning deeper and deeper in debt. I didn't know how to get out of it. In every single payment seemed I was just paying interests and fees, never the actual debt.

Once upon a time, our love affair with credit cards started. There is nothing wrong with credit cards; they are useful in emergencies, and to pay for items worth thousands of dollars that would take the same amount of time to pay them off via credit card as it would to save up cash to buy them. The problem starts with irresponsible spending. When buying something, the price has to be reasonable according to your income. People seem to tune out of reality when using their credit cards. Buying something with a credit card includes different costs than the price you pay at the store, such as interest. There is a good reason why banks won’t give you a loan unless you can prove you have the money to pay it back. Sometimes it may seem like a stupid and even cruel rule, but the truth is that it is the most logical one. Why would you want to get a loan if you know there are no chances of you paying it back? Why would you want to drag that weight over your shoulders? It just makes no logical sense, but then most of the world has no logical, common sense.

We all rely on plastic to afford what we want, even when we don’t need it. The advertising industry has succeeded it in converting an “I want,” to an “I need.” Credit cards are the solution to satisfy all those new things we want, and tell ourselves that we need them, in order to justify the debt that often is dragged out for years, and eventually takes over our lives.

The Super Bowl is a perfect example of these actions. During every television show, people usually use the restroom, get food or drinks, change channels, or basically anything that can be done in a two minute break. The Super Bowl is an exception; it is five hours of rare breaks from the television, or not even daring to change the channel. At the end of the night, the big winners are the commercials that made you laugh, made you feel inspired, made you say “that’s so cute,” or even say “I want that.” It is safe to say the advertising industry has successfully entered our minds and persuaded them to want the newest things no matter the cost. The sad part about it is that we think about these items and advertisements in our subconscious more than people care to analyze. It is so sad, that in fact, we lose sense of rationality sometimes, and focus on acquiring more and more crap that we don’t need.

Everyone wants the newest item in the market, no one likes a 20-year old car. Everyone wants the best possible lifestyle, no one wants a small house in a bad neighborhood. It is a good thing to be ambitious and want the best for ourselves, but often ambition turns into greed. There are many things that we need, want, desire, or deserve, but is it everything?  Is almost like we have allowed advertising consume our inner emotions making us value material things more than anything else in life.

In order to afford or think we can afford everything we purchase, our life’s have become our work. We need money for everything in life, but we always want more to buy crap we more than likely do not need or even worst won’t even use for its actual purpose. The question then is, does working all the time to satisfy what we often think we need and want will actually bring us happiness?

The book, “What’s mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption” by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers talks about how the Kellogg Company decided to cut the working day from 8 hours to 6 hour shifts. That meant cutting paychecks, but it balanced out when the company increased the hourly wage. At the end of the day it turned out to be a win-win situation for both the company and employees. Kellogg’s production increased because the workers felt that their job hadn’t taken over their lives, so they actually enjoyed their job and it pushed them to work harder. Let’s say the workers hourly wage hadn’t been increased when their hours were cut, would that have really affected what they can afford to have a good life? Would it really been tragic, that perhaps instead of being able to get a new television every year, it was going to be every two years? Could having the newest television set every year have provided the worker with enough happiness that his production level would have increased as well? Although I do not have proof, I’m about 99.9% sure the answer would be no. As relaxing as watching television can be, it doesn’t compare to having time to yourself to pursue a hobby or spend time with your family and friends.

As tempted as we may be to get everything we want and think we need, we also need to learn to say no. The real tragedy does not rest in not being able to afford everything out there on the market; the real tragedy is having ourselves consumed by what has become out-of-control consumption. It would be hypocritical of me to say that I do not like buying new things, or that I haven’t used my credit card irresponsibly, or that I wish I could have certain items or the newest version of something I already have. However, the truth is that I have learned my lesson.  I keep a tab on myself of how much I can owe and actually pay it back in a reasonable amount of time, not for years. Of course every now and then I fall out of track, but hopefully it will never go back to when I felt every new bank statement seemed exactly as the previous one. The truth is that there is no keeping up with technology or any product for that matter, there is no point in stressing out in trying to afford the newest of everything. I have become a smarter consumer by actually knowing what is it that I am getting for my money. Most importantly, and perhaps what has become harder for our society to see, is this: yes, money brings a certain amount of comfort and can give us a better life, so it is important to work towards that, but owning everything just because we can is meaningless and can destroy us.

A Sound Response to "What is Mine is Yours" (Version One)

A Video Response to "What is Mine is Yours" (Version One)