Like many teenagers, I spent that decade trying to pin down my identity into something that could be interesting and mysterious but could be articulated in an icebreaker question on the first day of class. It was not easy. There was, however, a solution provided: identity as a consumer. I had a long list of interests and there were so many things to buy to demonstrate that interest: t-shirts, posters, books, jewelry, temporary tattoos, everything that could relate to an IP of some significance. Some days my room felt like Ariel’s grotto with all of the human trinkets. (I did have Disney merchandise, in case you were wondering.)

As I grew older, I felt out of balance. So much of myself was defined by the external – the things that I consumed, a weird, Marvel Cinematic Universe and Broadway version of those ‘you are what you eat’ posters from elementary school. In college, I expanded and refined how I understood myself. Crucially, I started to see myself as more than a consumer.

Though I would not have described myself that way at the time, it is something I see frequently in the world now. So many people take a consumer approach to every facet of their lives, and I believe this holds them back from properly engaging with the things that they care about. There is nothing wrong with being a consumer, but we as humans are so much more than just passive actors in the economy.

Take, for example, art. Most of us consume art in some fashion. Ideally, we engage with it, doing more than just a passive acknowledgement of the fact that a particular show or song exists. Yet it seems that many of us forget that art is not just a finished product, one that must be beholden to the consumer considerations of convenience, price, and marketing. Creation belongs to all of us. In the age of streaming, creation is both accessible and yet misunderstood and devalued. I believe this is one of the disconnects between artistic communities and those interested in generative AI. If you treat art as a product, then generative AI makes a lot of sense. It makes its version of creating easier, faster, more convenient, more accessible. Yet artists are often not creating products – they are creating art. Bringing a consumer mindset to the artistic sphere doesn’t always translate.

Relationships are another area of relevance. Having online shopping and dating be essentially the same format is strange and creates a strange equivalency in experience, even though one involves people and a reciprocal relationship and the other involves a credit card and Memorial Day sale. People position themselves as a product on their profile and bring a consumer mindset to the process, creating a strange emotional economy. In platonic, romantic, and professional roles, people create a brand for themselves, a sellable version they can carry around. And they expect that of others as well, with emphasis put on transaction in friendships (shoutout to those suffering under Venmo culture) and an insincere approach to networking. This complicates and defines the conversation around labor in all types of relationships, where on the one hand people do need to know how to set boundaries, and people should bring care and respect into their personal lives, and on the other hand are people saying that it is rude to ask a friend for help when you are moving. It seems that once something can be a paid service or product, that mentality cascades into non-financial scenarios.

I see this in civics as well. A successful democracy is made of citizens, not consumers. Citizens are active, engaged, and willing to participate in the short and long term without getting an instant pay-off or expecting to be catered to in the style of engagement. The importance of significant donations in political campaigns only reinforces this perception. There is value in creating a great marketing campaign for a particular political movement, but the end goal of those campaigns should be to get more people involved and working towards the movement’s goals, not just consuming reports and videos of the movement while sitting outside of it. The revolution will not be televised and so on.

I spend a lot of time in the sustainability space. One of the critiques of popular sustainability moments online is the focus on purchases as a solution, that if you buy this water bottle or that detergent, then you are sustainable. Rightly, many people get frustrated with this narrative. After all, overconsumption is a driver of issues like waste and climate change. Additionally, people are priced out of the movement when it depends entirely on which expensive couch is emphasized at the moment. Values alignment becomes a sign of elite status and exclusivity (the organic shoes of Taylor Swift’s “I Bet You Think About Me”). This will not bring the society wide shifts that we need to truly address the most important issues of our day.

Here is the thing: I do think that incorporating sustainability into consumer decision making matters. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t bother helping companies become more sustainable and articulate those changes to their customers. However, sustainability is holistic. It goes beyond consumerism. A person can be sustainable in their relationships, their art, their civic life, etc. Furthermore, consumerism is about individual purchases, when what we need is collective action. If the only place you see your power is your wallet, you are going to struggle. Maybe you can’t afford to pay for value aligned products. There may not even be a sustainable option on the market! Create change, don’t just buy it. You are not just a receiver. You can make art. You can participate in democracy. You can build your community. You can create strong, meaningful relationships with others. See yourself as a whole human, not just a consumer.