The Day I Bought Nothing | The Odyssey Online
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The Day I Bought Nothing

Celebrating something bigger than a 50% discount.

baylie hunsaker
Jan 02, 2017
Birmingham, Alabama
18
The Day I Bought Nothing
Pexels

The first Buy Nothing Day was in Canada in 1992. Buy Nothing Day is a day to spread awareness about the excessive consumerism running rampant in our world. It's not just about changing someone’s habits for one day but about showing someone how to live freely, without buying anything.

On November 25th, 2016 more than 60 countries participated in a worldwide Buy Nothing Day. The main idea for this event is for people to see what it is like to take a stand against corporate domination. On adbusters.org, they state that they would like to show people how it feels to live freely. They ask people this Christmas and from now on, if they are going to buy something, try a local or independent shop, or maybe even make something. This is revolutionary because so many people today are always trying to get stuff commercialized and the consumerism is atrocious. Making something or buying something from a local shop gives that little thing a little extra flair, and a whole day without buying anything should be fine. It shouldn’t hurt.

On the contrary, some people state how there are other ways for people to stop shopping. Shift Your Shopping is meant to attempt to redirect spending away from corporate chains and online giants toward locally owned. Shift your Shopping recognizes "Black Friday" frenzy and wants people to think about people giving gifts and not things. Although people think Shift Your Shopping is a good change, sometimes the lines can become blurred about what is and isn't commercialized.

Shift your Shopping is great for everyday buying, so you can buy local items. Buy Nothing Day shuts out the whole commercial world for one day. Buying gifts usually looks commercialized, big name brands like Barbie or Hot Wheels. They are not just things if it REALLY means something to someone. An example of this could be my brothers. They love WWE and would love WWE figurines for Christmas. They would be gifts to them and not things, even though they are commercialized. Gifts and items should be bought for their sentiment, not their price or popularity.

Well in the end, what do you, the readers, think? Would a Buy Nothing Day be good for Americans to do? Would we realize all the good that we already have, and see that we don't need anything else for one day? Or maybe we just need to start buying more things from small business instead. Buy Nothing Day or Shift Your Shopping? I want to here from you!

If you want to learn more about Buy Nothing Day click the link below:

http://www.adbusters.org/bnd/

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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