Why do we have so much stuff?
Why do we have so much stuff?
Jacquie Otagburuagu: I have an entire operation around shopping. I take it very, very seriously. Emma Friendship-Kilburn: I've got loads of items that I just never even wear. Beautiful, beautiful quality. I've had it for over a year. It hasn't even been taken off the hanger. Caption: Why do we have so much stuff? Caption: James Fitchett University of Leicester James Fitchett: When we look around the high street and stores we see lots and lots of stuff, but the most interesting thing about consumption and buying is what's going on in our minds. James Fitchett: The story of stuff begins in our imagination and in our fantasies. That's the space where we dream about all the things that we would really, really love to have and what a wonderful life we would have, if only we could have this stuff. Jacquie Otagburuagu: I always think, "Yep, this is it. This is the item. Caption: Jacquie Otagburuagu Documentary producer and shopper Jacquie Otagburuagu: This is what's going to make me happy." Hildegard Wieschofer-Climpson: What we consume is an expression of our identity, because our identity consists of a number of different facets. Caption: Hildegard Wieschofer-Climpson University of Derby Hildegard Wieschofer-Climpson: We have an actual self, who we actually are most of the time, but then we also have a social self. We buy products, clothes that express who we want to be at any point in time. Jacquie Otagburuagu: I have two moods. So, I have this mood. And I also have this mood. And they're both as vital to me as the other. Like, I feel like sometimes clothes help me take on a character. Emma Friendship-Kilburn: Buying something new makes me feel excited and like, full of adrenaline. Caption: Emma Friendship-Kilburn Shopping Enthusiast Hildegard Wieschofer-Climpson: Marketers are very, very good at speaking to the parasympathetic nervous system, the one that makes your heart just flutter, they can't do anything about it. Jacquie Otagburuagu: I buy clothes quite frequently. I tend to do a lot of my shopping online so I have orders come in at least once or twice a week. I actually have an order right now that I'm going to pick up. It's a new dress and I'm quite excited to wear it. Caption: But is all this good for us? Hildegard Wieschofer-Climpson: Excessive consumption is actually proven to make us feel if not bad, it doesn't make us feel good. Hildegard Wieschofer-Climpson: Recent research has shown that when we have too many things we are constantly dissatisfied. Jacquie Otagburuagu: Let's say I spend about half my lunch break looking at clothes, and then I look a bit in between work tasks. And then you add that to some time when I get home, and then the actual purchasing I would say maybe like three hours a day is spent looking at websites, looking at baskets, returning things, yeah, it takes up quite a lot of my time. Caption: How did we get here? Caption: Prof Frank Trentmann Author, Empire of Things Prof Frank Trentmann: Before the 16th, 17th Century many cultures thought of things as opposed to the self or the soul, and what we see in the modern period is a reversal. Prog Frank Trentmann: It's a cultural shift that things start to be seen as central to our identity. Caption: But have we now reached peak stuff? Hildegard Wieschofer-Climpson: There's something really interesting happening actually with consumers. People are actually beginning to get fed up with stuff. James Fitchett: We spoke to three generations of grandmothers, mothers and daughters. James Fitchett: For the grandmother generation, in that post-war era, there was a much greater emphasis placed upon being frugal. The mother's generation, they wanted to be modern and embrace technologies like the freezer and the microwave. James Fitchett: The daughters rejected a lot of that. They saw themselves as being experimental, buying different ethnic foods, trying different styles of cooking, buying organic produce, ethical products. James Fitchett: What we found was that these generations of women were all the same in wanting to be different, and the way in which they did that was through how they shopped and bought and used stuff. Jacquie Otagburuagu: With the topic around climate change and the impact the fashion industry has on the climate, I am trying to be more mindful of my shopping. Jacquie Otagburuagu: So I've recently made a rule to try and make sure that at least 50% of my wardrobe comes from vintage stores, and I really want to get to a point where I'm more mindful about it and it's less fast fashion and less vapid. James Fitchett: We've got so much stuff now, we don't really know what to do with it. We spend a lot of time trying to work out how to get rid of the stuff that we've got. James Fitchett: Now, rationally we might say, "Well maybe we should stop buying all of this stuff." But we don't do that. James Fitchett: What we do is retreat back into our imaginations and into our fantasies and so we start the cycle all over again. Jacquie Otagburuagu: I would say yes, I do have a mild problem when it comes to shopping. But I like to think that I could stop if I wanted to. Oh my god, that's exactly what an addict says, isn't it?