Mankind in its pursuit for happiness has embraced consumption like never before. Capitalism has thrived on the false promise that more consumption can deliver more happiness. We have been a captive to this illusion for decades, and our craving for happiness is stronger than ever before, threatening the very health of this beautiful planet that has given us so much. Mother Nature has her own way of correcting this imbalance, as history has demonstrated. However, can we, who have been the beneficiaries of this largesse of Mother Nature, do something to correct the damage being inflicted before she strikes back with venegeance?
Considering that we are all so deeply addicted to materialistic comforts and consumption, which is the outcome of several decades of incremental consumption, fostered by the love for y-o-y growth in toplines and bottomlines of businesses which sell to us, it is very hard to overcome this problem overnight. The effort and time needed to transform from a dinosaur of consumption, that we are today, to may be, beings who are as frugal as a tortoise, will be phenomenal and illusory. Unless there is a miracle, one can be assured that it will take decades of persistent incremental effort to even convince mankind to limit their consumption to levels that satisfy their needs than their greed.
In my opinion, the transformation needs to happen at an individual level. I am sure each one of us is today exposed to the miseries of urban life like garbage heaps, water contamination, congestion on roads, etc. Being aware of even the root cause of these problems, does not by itself solve the problem unless we take a pledge to ask a few questions every time we set out to consume, and check if our answers justify the consumption as a necessity, rather than fascination. Some questions, which I would like to push everyone to ask are centered around our daily lives, for example:
- Will I harm the environment when I order lunch on a Swiggy or a Zomato?
- Can I walk down to the grocer than use my bike / car?
- Will I be deprived if I choose to ignore an End-of-Season Sale on Amazon or Flipkart?
- Is there a better way to read my favourite book without having to buy it?
- Can I avoid buying the can of Coke or the bucket of Popcorn, the next time I go to watch a movie?
- Can I celebrate a family event in a way that I can avoid wastage of food and generation of garbage?
This soul searching introspection, is what I propose, as the first of a series of initiatives that may be needed to kill Mindless Consumption. We need to ask ourselves these questions throughout the day and track our accomplishments, which basically are want-denials, at the end of every day, so that we are adequately motivated to pursue our efforts to the next day on an incremental basis. Once this becomes a habit that we have internalized, we should make an effort to introduce at least one more person to this movement, may be once, every month, if that is not too much to ask, considering that it is so easy to push someone to consume something, by just sharing our testimonials about it.
The prototype I would like to propose is a simple e-Diary Mobile App, which I choose to call as भूमित्र. This e-Diary Book will record the targets you set upon yourself at the beginning of the day and capture your accomplishments at the end of the day. It will remind you daily to define your goals and update your accomplishments, through its user friendly interface. It will evaluate your incremental contribution to the fitness of the planet and motivate you to acccomplish more by offering suggestions based on your lifestyle and what with similar lifestyles have done, as भूमित्र will be a virtual community of like-minded individuals who will connect with each other and exchange their experiences and ideas at making our Planet more healthy. The user can even upload photos as evidence of the initiatives he / she has taken, so as to raise the credibility factor attached to this entire exercise.
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| भूमित्र APP PROTOTYPE
The App is designed to enable an individual to track his goal, measure his accomplishments, exchange ideas with other like minded users and stay motivated to accomplish more. Recognition is by way of Badges. There are no monetary rewards as money would again tempt the user to consume more. It is designed to achieve social good, The Wikipedia model of sustenance is what it would aim at for survival and growth.
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My भूमित्र Story Board
MY ASSUMPTIONS AROUND MY IDEA
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Vinay, you have chosen a thoughtful challenge, well articulated and I specially liked the Questions you posted each of us to ask our selves which are simple but spread the idea of cautious consumption. your solution is good but I guess, it is based on assumption on everybody is conscious on environment and consumption. I could see very few people think on these lines and follow the targets set by themselves daily basis.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, consumption is okay as long as derivatives of the consumption is recyclable. If we can achieve the efficiencies in recycling process, we can control consumption in a way. If you narrow down your scope to control consumption of few specific things which are damaging environment like Carbon emission, Plastics, etc., would be more easy to target and achieve satisfiable results.
Thank you Srinivas
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