conversations about consumer culture + conscious consumerism

This is a newsletter that explores all the nooks and crannies of consumer culture and invites readers on a journey to consume more consciously. 

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Over here, we’re constantly curious about our market-mediated relationship to time and life, the vast personal and social implications of consumer culture, and how we can harness the power of marketing to promote a more sustainable way of life.

Currently, I’m posting 1-2x/week. What you can expect:

Every Tuesday I post a short excerpt from my dissertation which explores the relationship between social acceleration, marketing, consumer culture.

The first series — “How Fast Became Normal” — can be found here:

1. Part 1: Exploring temporal rhetoric in consumer culture

2. Part 2: Social acceleration

3. Part 3: A brief history of time and consumer culture

4. Part 4: The cultural myth of “time is money”

5. Part 5: How to read advertisements for their hidden (and not so hidden) meanings

The second and current series — “Twenty Shades of Time is Money” — can be found here:

1. Fast is American

2. Fast is a competitive advantage

3. Fast is convenient - what suffers when we rid our lives of inconvenience?

4. Fast is desirable - and who determines what is desirable, anyway?

5. Nonstop growth and discontent

6. If you make enough money, you can escape time

7. Speed as deity

8. Knowledge comes, wisdom lingers

9. If only we had more energy…

10. Efficiency sickness

11. Time confetti

12. coming soon :)

Every other Thursday I post a short, low-edited thought about consumer culture and/or conscious consumerism. These are just conversation starters - scratching at the surface of a deeper thing yet to be fully discovered. Past topics have explored tiktok brand management; de-influencing; amazon’s brand trust (or lack thereof); and the rise of the cold plunge.

I’m truly interested in your thoughts, your perspective - when you read a post, would you be so kind to share a comment? (And if you think a friend would like it, share a post?)

Thanks for being here.

Sarah

ps - if frenzied short term video content is more your thing, I’m also on tiktok.