The First Blog

         The moment I heard that we were going to be blogging as an assignment for this class, I was excited. I've been an active blogger for many years now; blogging is my source of distress and a place where I  can release all my emotions. Even though we were going to be blogging for about a month, there was a catch: "Students will participate in the anti-consumer culture, pro-green movement, compact, and be aware of the issues taken up by this compact challenge." In other words, we were to abstain from buying anything new for 30 days.

        It's been four days and I'm doing great. I'm actually not quite sure how well I'm going to perform with this challenge. It could either go both ways: do exceptionally well or cave in somehow. I grew up not spending a lot. My mum was very cautious of how she spent her money; she would mostly spend her money on necessities such as food and anything that had to do with our house. Rarely would she spend it on clothes or any luxury items. This characteristic of hers rubbed off on me.  Ever since I began working, I've been very careful of how I spend my money. However, there is a part of me that likes to spend a lot. A majority of my money would go towards clothes or beauty products, but I would almost always purchase them on sale. 

       This "Be Green" challenge has got me thinking about my spending habits. I do spend a lot. I do spend on things I don't need. I do spend my money on things and only use them once or twice. Ava L. McCall stated in her article, "Speaking through Cloth: Teaching Hmong History and Culture through Textile Art" by Ava L. McCall, that "the women's textile art tradition offered an important means of earning income. Xee Moua remembered learning to sew a paj ntaub when she was nine years old in a camp. "We started to sew because we got paid for what we were doing. So we had to make some income for our family, and that was the only way to do it." I remember when I was nine, I would ask my mum for a few dollars to buy snacks at school or I would nagg her to buy clothes for me. I would get upset and throw a tantrum if I didn't have things my way. Our generation is priveledged enough to not have to worry about helping our parents with finances. The state of our society today is much different than it was back then. The rise of technology has played a big influence in our heavy consumption of goods. Nine year olds today have iphones and ipads. They're surrounded by all this technology and growing up to be heavy consumers. In the article, "How technology is taking hold of our children's lives", Rowan Pelling states that "It’s commonplace now to see tots who can’t talk, but can navigate an iPhone with ease, or infants who scowl when they touch a computer screen that doesn’t respond with the immediate elasticity of an iPad." This is very true among the younger generation today. I would go to dim sum restaurants with my family and I would see children playing on ipads and then I look at their parents and most of them would be on their iphones. For those that aren't on their phones, they don't even mind that their children are playing on their ipad. If it were my parents, they would tell me to get off my phone. Everyone wants to be "up to date" with technology so they purchase all of these new technology products. Also, with the easy access to the internet, people are able to purchase clothing, technology, books and anything else and have it delivered right to their doorstep. 

 - Nicky Lei

Sources:

•  Pelling, Rowan. "How Technology Is Taking Hold of Our Children's Lives." The Telegraph. N.p., 22 May 2012. Web. .
• McCall, Ava L. "Speaking through Cloth: Teaching Hmong History and Culture through Textile Art." The Social Studies (1999): 230. Print.