Wk 5 Green

Ziyu Wang

It has been a whole month since the start of this challenge, but it really didn't feel that long. This is not only because I am a man of strong mental fortitude, but also because of my good habit of "buy what you need, not what you want". I did spend a lot of money this weekend, however. I had to purchase two essential items this week and it costed me about 600 dollar ish. First item is a USB-C to USB adapter from apple because for some god forsaken reason, whenever apple put out a new product that supposedly "upgrade" their technology, they always find a way to downgrade the convenience factor so people how to spend more money buying their product. I needed this adapter because these designers at Apple decided their new Mac did not need USB port even though almost all conventional plug-in items on the market uses it. Their argument is that USB-C is just a better alternative and a direct evolution of the USB but what is the point of this evolution if there's no relevant product that uses it? So now I gotta spend extra money on top of it just to use my original product to their fullest potential. They did this with the iPhone too when they decided that iPhone X did not need a ear phone jack. Real smart, Apple. Now people gotta spend 200 dollars on your AirPods just to use the their thousand dollar phone. The crazy things is that Apple is not the only company out there that does this. A lot of companies put out a product that lack some essential functions, and you must then purchase extras just to enjoy full usage. This is just another capitalism marketing strategy to juice as much profit as possible from the customers, and that needs to change. We must plan out our purchase so we don't run into this awkward situation that only hurt us and benefit the corporations. Not only that, these type of product advertisements also contributes to stereotyping and racism across cultures as seen in the article Race and Beauty: A Comparison of Asian and Western Models in Women's Magazine Advertisements which I will be presenting this week. I also had to spend 500+ dollars on plane tickets but I really got nothing to complain about other than that United only allow one bag on plane for basic economy yet American allows two. This is why no one likes you, United, other than the fact that you assaults your customers.

Reference:
Katherine Toland Frith. "Race and Beauty: A Comparison of Asian and Western Models in Women's Magazine Advertisements"

Marg Spina. "Smart Shopping: Buying on a Budget" https://www.finpipe.com/smart-shopping/