Black Friday

     Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, and it unofficially marks the start of the busy holiday shopping season.  Both Americans and Canadians become very excited for this long day of shopping, where they are offered large discounts.  Often people line-up overnight outside their favourite stores and it can become very crazy.  There have been many disasters on Black Friday because many people become aggressive when they want to buy the discounted items, especially electronics.  For example there is a video on YouTube that shows the madness of Black Friday. In the video, many people were fighting over flat-screen televisions that were on sale, and at one point the police had to break up a fight over a television.  Fortunately, there is a Canadian organization to help fight back against Black Friday, it is called "Giving Tuesday".  This new Canadian movement takes place every year after "Cyber Monday” and it is about donating and volunteering to help others in need.  It joins charities, companies, and individuals together to give back to a cause that they feel strongly about.

     We all buy things that are unnecessary for every day, such as a new gaming device or the latest model of a smartphone.  Many people often buy things that they want rather than what we need, and we forget that some people can't even afford to buy the basic necessities to survive.  We often forget that we should be grateful for what we have.  Today, most people feel that they should buy the latest things that are in the market.  Many people nowadays, confuse their "wants" with their "needs".  Our society makes us feel like we have to the latest gadgets or designer clothes to fit in.  We buy the latest things to be a part of the trends and to be cool, which makes most people happy.  

     Commercials and advertisements play a big part in our "need" to buy things that are not required to survive.  Through many different ways of media, the retailers try to tempt us to buy their products by making their products seem appealing and cheap.  Our culture and media encourages us to buy things constantly because they are benefiting off us.  When we are buying the things that they are promoting, they make a profit of us, so that they can continue to stay in business.  I think that promoting to buy things constantly is a bad thing because if you keep buying things, you will eventually run out of money.  As well as promoting to buy things constantly will make more people become poor because they kept on buying the latest things and they ran out of money.  I think that this will make people think that they must have the latest things, when in reality you don't need the latest gadgets to be happy.