David Foster Wallace on Hyper-Consumerism


So imagine, if you will, that your soul has a credit limit. And that every ping of dopamine from the one-click purchase drains it a little more. Because what we’ve done—and it’s important to notice this—is engineer a society where wanting is more important than having. And so we’re all hooked on the next thing, the next drop, the next upgrade, like rats in a psych lab pressing a lever for cocaine pellets.

David Foster Wallace said hyper-consumerism isn’t a symptom. It’s the system. It flattens every moment into an opportunity to sell, every person into a brand, every feeling into something that can be monetized.

The real terror is that deep down, we kind of know this. But knowing doesn’t save us. We know the Big Mac doesn’t look like the ad. We know the shoes don’t fix our self-worth. But we click. And swipe. And scroll. Because silence is unbearable, and the void is the only thing the algorithm can’t monetize.


Comments

  1. David Tyler Rand-McKayJune 20, 2025 at 11:52 AM

    Here’s the really scary part about consumer culture: it’s not that we don’t know we’re being manipulated. It’s that we do, and we keep playing along. We know the products won’t save us. We know the new phone won’t fill the soul hole. But we want it anyway. Because silence is scarier than capitalism. And the algorithm knows that.

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