Modern Western capitalist society, and consequently teenagers, who make up a quarter of this society, live according to needs generated by the consumption/production/consumption chain. Products need to be consumed, thus stimulating greater production.

We always want to have the newest, most modern, the one with the most technology and resources, which everyone has. In today’s adolescence, the cell phone is a glaring example. Rubem Alves, a writer from Minas Gerais, quotes in one of his chronicles about adolescence “Having cut the umbilical cord that connected them to their parents, they replaced it with another umbilical cord, the telephone cord by which they remain permanently connected to each other.”

In the poem Eu, Etiqueta [I, Etiquette ], by Carlos Drummond de Andrade – a great Brazilian poet, known throughout much of the world -, the issue of the individual being easy prey to consumption is well portrayed .

“A name is stuck on my pants

that is not my baptismal name or my registry name,

a strange name.

My jacket brings a reminder of a drink

I have never put in my mouth in this life,

on my T-shirt, the brand of cigarette

I do not smoke, and have not smoked to this day.

My socks speak of products

I have never tried but are communicated to my feet.

My sneakers are a colorful proclamation

of something untasted

by this long-time taster.

My scarf, my watch, my keychain,

my tie and belt and brush and comb,

my glass, my cup,

my bath towel and soap,

my this, my that.

From the top of my head to the tip of my shoes,

they are messages,

speaking letters,

visual screams,

orders of use, abuse, recurrences,

custom, habit, urgency,

indispensability,

and they make me an itinerant advertisement-man,

a slave to the advertised material.

I am, I am in fashion.

It is sweet to be in fashion, even if fashion

is to deny my identity,

to exchange it for a thousand, hoarding

all the registered trademarks,

all the logos of the market.

With what innocence I resign from being

me who before was and knew myself

to be so different from others, so much myself,

a thinking, feeling and solitary being

with other diverse beings and conscious

of their human, invincible condition.

Now I am an advertisement,

sometimes vulgar, sometimes bizarre.”

A survey conducted by the Retail Management Program of the School of Economics at the University of São Paulo (USP), covering different social classes, in the first half of 2002, shows that impulsive consumption is not exclusive to women. In fact, family shopping and lack of planning lead 37% of consumers to buy more when they go to supermarkets. The reasons for this excessive buying, called impulsive consumption, reflect the lack of planning of the consumer who goes shopping without a list of products or accompanied by other people, such as a spouse and children, which ends up turning a simple trip to the supermarket into a family outing.

It is interesting to hear the reports of mothers who go shopping and say they spend more when accompanied by their children (66% of women). If accompanied by their husband, they spend 18% more than planned. Regarding men, 55% report spending more when accompanied by their children, and 36% when accompanied by their wives.

It is worth remembering that only 20% of those surveyed, mostly women, prepare a list of products before shopping. Lack of planning leads to the purchase of unnecessary products.

Among the superfluous items consumed are batteries, film, snacks, cosmetics, cleaning products and hygiene products.

The survey also shows that just under 20% of women believe they spend more than necessary. The average spending per minute in the supermarket is R$2.00 for women and R$1.98 for men. The purchasing power of the consumer also influences impulsive consumption – 70% of those with high incomes and 49% of those with middle incomes.

The survey also found that young people end up being encouraged to consume a lot and are more compulsive when it comes to buying, since they are less resistant to risk, that is, they do not mind buying a product that they will eventually not use or need. Many of the items purchased are used for very little time and, sometimes, young people do not even get to enjoy the pleasure that the item could provide them.

There is an exaggerated consumption of everything: money, image, clothes, perfumes, adornments, designer labels, love, sex, consumer goods and legal and illegal substances. The planet we live on is in crisis: on the one hand, exaggerated consumerism and technological advances that surprise us every day; on the other, hunger, poverty and inequality. A world where having is more important than being. In this consumerist world, teenagers have been chosen as the easiest target of this aimless escalation, and today they are called the children of consumerism .

The market, the media and the retail sector have seen the teenager’s profile as an endless fertile ground for the launch of new foods, new flavors, new drinks, fashion, clothes and brands, all of which are always driven by the new, the modern, the more resourceful, the transient, the challenging and the feeling of belonging to a different group or even a tribe.

Young people are often the ones who choose the products that will be used in their homes, from the simplest to the most sophisticated. Despite the global economic crisis, it is a fact that middle-class teenagers in Brazil have never had so much money in their hands. They are targets of banks (credit cards and new accounts), shopping malls , snack bars, travel agencies and others (cell phone stores, energy and sports products). It is a teenage world, with voracious and fast-paced consumerism, and, encouraged by society, teenagers overdo it.

However, it is important to remember that teenagers are not born that way; they are the fruit, the result of an increasingly consumerist society. The capitalist system has invested in young people, prioritizing them. We know that marketing

and advertising discourse that encourages excessive consumption is based on the cult of aesthetics, impacting and influencing the lifestyle of our young people. The media dictates standards, making people’s lives increasingly artificial. Superfluity seems to rule our daily lives. It is as if superfluity were part of survival. Today we live in a time of exaggerated cult of the body and aesthetics. Plastic surgeries have tripled in the country, there is a growing increase in the number of gym-goers and there have never been so many cosmetics and weight-loss products sold, despite the economic crisis. It is imperative to be handsome, muscular, thin and healthy – the great consumption of image. Narcissism reigns, regardless of age. Teenagers, young adults and the elderly seek a perfect image, not measuring the consequences to achieve their goals. They become servile creatures of this world of image power. Everyone wants the best gym, the best sportswear or formal wear, the most expensive imported perfume, designer labels, the best car and to show off their best body. A muscular body through the consumption of substances (in this case, anabolic steroids and a series of energy drinks), a fat-free body (at the cost of futile surgical procedures that pose health risks), smooth skin, no pimples, no stretch marks, no wrinkles and even no hair. This is the so-called era of aesthetics, often with procedures that are completely unethical. Thanks to this excessive concern with image, emotional problems, anorexia, bulimia, obesity, anxiety, depression and the improper and abusive use of various substances begin to appear.

It is as if capitalism chose children and teenagers as its preferred customers. The consumer industry has its products aimed at teenagers – the parents and the country of tomorrow. From a very young age, children are surrounded by clothes, shoes, toys, electronic devices, cell phones and situations that encourage consumption. Teenagers crowd shopping malls , gyms in a frantic search for the perfect body, and restaurants, consuming so-called fast food .

There is pleasure in this consumption, but it is also difficult for parents to say no for fear of frustrating their children. In fact, we live in the age of filiarchy (today our children demand and parents cannot say no ): parents lose authority over their children when they have nothing to offer.

Consumerism is also evident in schools when parents receive a list of school supplies at the beginning of the school year: a wide variety of pencils, diaries, erasers of all shapes, colors and scents, and disposable books that cannot be used by other children or other children. There is always a new, fashionable backpack, a different lunch box, also designed by some artist or TV idol. As if all of this were essential for learning!

Schools today do not only have the role of educating children – they also educate families. Today, it is common for parents to participate in the democratic management of educational institutions. They participate, give their opinions, make decisions, make demands and protest, if necessary. Education in this millennium will have two responsibilities: to continue to transmit knowledge with the increasing help of technological resources and to guide people on the negative influence of waves of superfluous and not very useful information, guiding students towards individual and collective development projects.

Based on a comprehensive education proposal, it is important to evaluate the student as a whole being, in his/her entirety, stimulating his/her spontaneous and creative potential. It is essential to be able to, together with the students, manage conflicts that may arise, to be respectful and to meet the demands of differences. There must be mutual understanding and encouragement to fight for peace. In short, to form active subjects in the process, with greater autonomy, discernment and personal responsibility.

Compulsion and alienation often take over the individual. There are several forms of compulsion, and we also know that they can occur predominantly in adolescence, around 15 years of age (two thirds of clients). In the capitalist system, these young people are the most affected, as they are encouraged to consume and become easy prey. There is a great supply, and the young person, not recognizing their real needs, ends up considering that it is important to have , no matter what .

Over time, young people with this consumerist behavior end up compromising their social, emotional, professional and economic relationships. Compulsion is a disease and should be treated with psychotherapy and self-help groups.

As parents, educators and health professionals focused on comprehensive care for adolescents, we must remember that it is necessary to rescue values ​​, show young people their inner abilities and promote the recovery of prudence to raise awareness and convince them to maintain their overall health and their potential for growth and physical development; guide them and show them that living is much more than having, consuming and acquiring goods. Living is being, feeling, seeking, understanding and measuring what characterizes us as human beings.

It is necessary to think, question, have critical awareness and reflect on how to live at each moment. Only then will we be able to enjoy freedom as an awareness of limits. By being free, we will be able to lead our lives.

Finally, a poem by Drummond for our reflection:

“In the national language or in any language

(any, mainly).

And in this I take pleasure, I take glory

from my annulment.

I am not – mind you – a hired advertisement.

I am the one who is lovingly paid

to advertise, to sell

in bars, parties, beaches, pergolas, swimming pools,

and in full view I display this

global label on the body that gives up

being a garment and sandal of

such a lively, independent essence

that no fashion or bribery can compromise it.

Where have I thrown away

my taste and ability to choose,

my idiosyncrasies so personal,

so mine that they were reflected in the face

and each gesture, each look,

each crease in the clothes

summed up an aesthetic?

Today I am sewn, I am woven,

I am engraved in a universal way.

I leave the printing shop, not the house,

they take me out of the shop window, they put me back,

a pulsating object but an object

that offers itself as a sign of other

static, priced objects.

For showing off like this, so proudly,

of not being me, but an industrial article,

I ask that my name be rectified.

The title of Man,

my new name is thing.

I am the thing, thingly.”