Anti-consumption Becomes a Trend

Today's consumer lives in a world with a vast army of products and ceaseless enticements to consumer. Rapid technological development has enabled both a continuously growing selection of products and new means to ensure that consumers are reminded to buy. However, the contemporary expansion of mass production and marketing has slowly given rise to a backlash, the "anti-consumption" movement. Impersonal mass production and increasingly obtrusive marketing have fostered opposition to consumption. Consumption fatigue and preference for a simple life first appeared among high-income earners in advanced markets. Now, however, they are spreading to the consumers in emerging markets. This trend is also evident in Korea. Highly-educated, high-income earners are becoming tired of mass-production and excessive marketing, increasingly purchasing only what is needed. Fatigue anti-consumption is one variety of refusal of consumption due to personal motives. This kind of anti-consumption comes from the proliferating functions and overload of information that comes with today's products and services, causing consumers to feel fatigued and stressed.