What is 'lifestyle and consumer culture' Discuss, using relevant Essay

What is 'lifestyle and consumer culture' Discuss, using relevant examples or case studies to support your agrument - Essay Example In the context of postmodernism the consumer culture is the reflection of individuality in terms of self expression and self-consciousness. It denotes the individual choices with regards to clothes, speech, eating and drinking preferences, home, car, leisure pastime, choices of holiday destination and so on. Consumer culture is the indicator of individual sense of taste and style and as a whole depicts the preference of the society. In the postmodern era the consumer culture indicates decrease in restrictions or rules and increase of choices (Featherstone 1991). The consumer culture has significantly influenced the lifestyle of every human being and the products and their promotions have also found to target almost every aspect of the lifestyle of persons of different age groups. Australia as a country has also been found to follow the western consumerist culture in terms of fashion, films, new technology and other consumer products to satisfy the daily needs and with booming economy and increased power of buying the Australian consumers have turned into binge buyers. But owing to its location and small but cosmopolitan population the socio-economic trend in the country is not exactly similar to other developed western countries (Henry 2006). The consumer culture in the Australian society tries to assimilate all the varying cultures and lifestyles derived from different ethnic groups and immigrants and try to serve them all but with a focus on urban lifestyle. Promotion of different consumer products through different media has a measurable influence on the consumer culture and lifestyle of the country. The lifestyle of the people also is quite influential for the promotion of the consumer products. There are different aspects of consumerism affecting the lifestyle of people. The products of daily use as well as the luxury items and leisure activities are the symbols of consumer culture of any country. The postmodern