Konsumpcjonizm - zbiór wartości podrzędnych czy sposób na życie współczesnej młodzieży polskiej? Refleksje na marginesie badań
Consumptionism - A Set of Subordinate Yalues or an Approach to Life of Contemporary Polish Youth? Reflections in Passing of Research

Summary/Abstract: Consuptionism in contemporary civilisation is, according to some philosophers, sociologists, and social life observers, a dominant way of people's existence. It manifests itself not only in functional consumption, i.e. satisfing life needs, but exceeds far beyond them. According to Erich Fromm we may talk about the characterological possession i.e. the one which is the result of social conditions. It manifests itself in the disposition to multiplaying pleasures, which become equal with happiness. n the hierarchy of vaules snsual satisfaction among such people occupies the first pleace which is reflected also in the exploitative attitude toward nature which is treated as a means to satisfy whims. The system of values directed at possessing- or maybe rather a chaos of values- make people start to belive that egoism, greediness and egotism are the man's natural inclimations. All that we do in our lives, what we aim at starts to be subordinated to the efficiency rule on which most of contemporary societies are based. Since early childhood the system "moulds" us, shapes our needs and desires determining the scale of desirable goods and services. This moulding take place through the school, radio, television and press in such a way that the lifestyles propagates by them seem to us the only ones which might make us happier. A contemporary consumer tries to have much enough not to evoke the envy of others, but simultaneously enough not to lag behind them. Children and youth consume equally with the adult. The difference results sometimes only from the sered objects. The ideal examples of the consumption's "blending into" the everyday life appear the shopping centres- the pleaces of luxurious, explicit consumption which sometimes irritates consumers. At the same time they are the realms of advertising and marketing, which offer goods in the function of experiences and not goods-things. In the context of the above reflections the authoress analyses the results of research on Polish youth of the 90's, which refer to the velues and lifestyles preferred by young people. Next, she interprets the results of her own research carried out among secondary school students attending. The Catolic Humanist Hight-School. She also draws attention to the role of the qualitative methods applies in the research. Consumptionism has been defined here as a set of attitudes, aims, aspirations, values, behaviours and outlooks based on preferences concerning possessing amd gathering more and more goods of various kinds and expanding the scope of life luxury regardless of actual needs and opposite to other ways of life. The results of the research showed that consumptionism constitutes quite a complex and difficult question in the sphere of research concerning the life of Polish youth. It place in the hierarchy of values among young people is important and, at the same time, disturbing.

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