The meaning of consumption for members of generations X, Y and Z

Abstract

This work aims to identify the meaning ascribed to consumption, understood as the central axis of society, besides covering the roots and outcomes of this phenomenon. To this end, focus was placed on the generational groups X, Y and Z. The constructionist perspective and the interpretative paradigm adopted have allowed viewing the phenomenon as a result of processes arisen from actions by the individuals, that is, human enterprise. As a method of data collection, individual interviews were made with three subjects of each generation, besides the employment of projective techniques of word association, sentence completion and elaboration of drawings. As its main findings, the research highlights the role of status, issues related to personal satisfaction, as well as financial aspects, by legitimizing competition and crystallizing the terms dispute and ambition, also conceiving them as inevitable for social or individual progression, for which consumption shows itself as an effective tool. Understanding it as being an institution implies believing that, in contemporary times, its meaning has been reified. The analysis of this fact and discussion of its consequences includes the contributions for sustainability, which seeks for a possible denaturalization of the term to indicate there may be new positions towards the phenomenon. Keywords: Consumption.Generation.Sustainability.Constructionism.