Browsing by Subject "turha kulutus"

Boundaries between necessary and unnecessary consumption have blurred because of the large supply of goods in markets. More and more goods are becoming necessary. 2000s youngsters have born in the middle of the world of goods, and presumably, reflecting on necessaries isn't natural for them. The research problem is based on these above-mentioned thoughts. The aim of this study is to find out Helsinki-based youths' views on necessary and unnecessary consumption, and meanings related to consumption. The approach of this study was mainly qualitative, and it was implemented with narrative methods. The data was collected in a form of narratives, which were written by 15-18 years old youngsters. 20 high school students and 17 vocational school students participated in the research. Youngsters wrote narratives of necessary and unnecessary consumption in a context of their own lives. The focus in analyzing narratives was to make a synthesis of youngster's essays by combining narrative and narratives analyses. A notable finding of the study was that dividing consumption to necessary and unnecessary was too narrow. Therefore, a third consumption category was needed, and it was named voluntary consumption. Research results show that youngsters understand well which goods are necessary for subsistence. However, in essays there were a huge amount of necessities which weren't related to basic needs. In addition, only a few goods were named as unnecessary. Unlike in traditional Finnish consumption ethos, youngsters didn't consider unnecessary consumption as depraved consumption. Voluntary consumption was meaningful to youngsters and it was related to leisure time, pursuing well-being and self-actualization. According to the data, searching for pleasures was essential in youngster's lives. However, youngsters didn't appear as materialists in narratives. According to the survey, attitudes to necessary consumption seems to change with age.