What does consumption mean to you? Some twenty year olds would rather spend money on an expensive dessert than on a healthy meal. Others splurge their money on their favorite pastimes. University students have to carefully plan how they spend their money, yet too often students waste their money on trivial things. The meaning of consumption has changed over the years. In the past time, youth controlled their desire to over spend and over consume. Now conspicuous consumption seems to be the trend. In this article we will examine the spending habits of several students.
Miss Kim who is a sophomore and studying science at the University of Ulsan told us that the price of a meal is too expensive when it is over 4,000 won. She is allowed 300,000 won per month for pocket money. She has little by little, saved some of this allowance as expenses for travel. So she always eats inexpensive meals and forgoes spending money on beauty products. However, she isn’t complaining, because she will be able to travel with the money she has saved. Saving for travel is like giving herself a present.
A similar case is Miss Park who is majoring in Global Management and is partial to watching baseball games. Her friends usually call her stingy because she is frugal and has reasonable spending habits. With her saved money, she pays for tickets and transportation to watch baseball games. She is so fond of watching baseball games, that she has no reservations about saving money for it.
We call these kind of people ‘For-Me people,’ meaning for my health, recreation, convenience and expenses. They spend their money on what they consider precious. They enjoy spending their money on these ‘Small Indulgence’. ‘Small Indulgence’ means these students invest their money in things that will bring real pleasure to their lives. It is the choice for making oneself happy at the present moment.
Korea’s society is aging and its population is not growing as it should. Korean household debt is getting larger; each household finds it harder to save money and this is bringing about instability in our culture. Yet, even though we are in the midst of these difficult economic times, people are still playing ‘Small Indulgence’. Too many Koreans want to show themselves off by exhibiting their luxuries items and lifestyle. In contrast, a trend is developing where there are also those who are not interested in the high prices tags, but just want to pursue a life of self-satisfaction.
‘Univ-Tomorrow Research Laboratory for the Twenties,’ researched this twenty year old’s consumption trend and reported that too many young people actually really enjoy wasting money on themselves. Their attitude consists of ‘I can spend up to 330,000 won for me’, ‘for my leisure, I can spend my salary of up to 3,390,000 won’, they enthusiastically say. Even though they actually earn a small salary, they don’t see any reason to decrease their spending. They want to feel happy in these difficult economic times. They want to feel good about themselves in their “humdrum lives.” And they do this through small indulgence. This phenomenon is in full motion these days. Twenty year olds use these consumption habits as a way to heal and love oneself living in this increasingly difficult world.
