In a world where information is constantly at our fingertips, ethical consumerism has emerged as a powerful force, reshaping our shopping habits and influencing businesses worldwide. This movement revolves around the belief that our purchases can have a positive impact on society and the environment. But what exactly is ethical consumerism? 

Ethical consumerism, also known as ethical consumption, is a conscious approach to buying products that align with one’s morals. Ethical consumerism is concerned with a broad spectrum of considerations, including sustainability, labor practices, animal welfare and social and environmental impacts. At its core, ethical consumerism aims to hold businesses accountable for their practices and encourages consumers to make informed choices that reflect their values.

The first key in ethical consumerism is knowing the ethical values that matter most to you. These values could include sustainability, fair labor practices, animal welfare or supporting local businesses. Identifying your priorities will guide your consumer choices. Next, you should research the products and industries you engage with regularly. Learn about the ethical and environmental issues associated with them. While being conscious about the purchases you make may be more difficult, it will be worth it to see a positive impact in your community and society.

The ethical consumerism movement has been promoted by social media. Social media has revolutionized the way we access and share information. Platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook have given individuals a space to express their opinions, share stories and amplify their voices. This has created an environment where information travels at lightning speed and consumers can easily scrutinize a company’s ethical track record.

Social media has been absolutely instrumental in exposing unethical business practices. Through viral campaigns and hashtags, consumers have shed light on issues such as sweatshop labor, environmental pollution and animal cruelty. The speed at which these stories spread has put pressure on companies to address their shortcomings and adopt more responsible practices. In response to this pressure, companies have been adapting more environmentally friendly and sustainable policies. Last year, Adidas manufactured 17 million pairs of shoes made out of recycled plastic. A study of 850 companies worldwide, found that more than 80 percent planned to increase their investments in sustainability.

While ethical consumerism has undeniably made significant strides in raising awareness and driving change, its effectiveness in controlling businesses remains a subject of debate.

One argument is that ethical consumerism primarily targets the symptoms rather than the root causes of unethical practices in business. Critics argue that by focusing on individual choices, it places the responsibility on consumers to bring about change, while corporations should be the ones held accountable for systemic issues. While individual consumer choices can influence corporate behavior to some extent, it does not tackle the systemic issues that drive unethical practices. These systemic problems include income inequality, exploitative labor practices and the relentless pursuit of profit above all else. Ethical consumerism alone does not have the capacity to effectively address these deeply ingrained issues. 

Instead, we should be engaging in ethical consumerism and recognizing its limitations. To enhance its impact and effectively target the root causes of unethical practices, consumers should adopt a more strategic and holistic approach. You can do this by engaging with like-minded consumers and organizations that share information and strategies. A great place to start could be the Global Directory of Ethical Consumption Organisations. It contains several organizations across the world that are working towards a better and more sustainable future. Collective action can be more effective in bringing about change than individual efforts alone. You can also advocate for stronger government regulations that address root issues in business practices. Push for policies that promote fair wages, environmental protection and corporate accountability.

While its effectiveness in constraining businesses is subject to debate, there is no denying that ethical consumerism has already driven positive change in many industries. Ethical consumer movements have effectively promoted dolphin-friendly tuna and animal cruelty free products through successful campaigns. Ultimately, it reminds us that our purchasing power carries the potential to create a more ethical and sustainable future.

It is easy to feel quite isolated during social isolation. I find myself often reminiscing about the wonderful times I had with my friends at Jewell and wishing that I could interact with them as I did before. While social distancing makes it so that the kind of communication that I am used to with my peers is impossible, there are nonetheless ways to adapt to these times and still maintain our web of relationships. 

Text messages 

A tried and true favorite of teenagers everywhere, texting is the way most of us communicate with our friends on a daily basis. Given the social distancing measures that have been put in place, it seems that texting is slated to become even more popular. Though this website is pre-COVID-19, there are nonetheless some fun texting statistics to be found. One can only imagine the marked increase in texting and other cellular services during the times of the pandemic, especially considering that several agencies, including local governments, have taken to using text messages as a way of communicating with their customer base.

Text messages are a good way of quickly checking in with our friends, classmates and family. I would recommend, if you haven’t already done so, creating text message groups with your classmates in order to ensure that everyone understands the course material. It may be impossible for us to meet in person and have discussions, but that does not mean that we cannot use text messages as a way of making sure everyone is learning. Furthermore, having text message group chats with the people we care about – not just our classmates – is a good way of creating an avenue of fun, trivial communication. Perhaps in your practice of social distancing by, say, reading a novel, you come across a particular quote that you think that your family might enjoy. Letting people know that you care about them and are thinking about them becomes as easy as sending a quick little text. 

Phone calls

Despite the importance of texting as a way of communication, we often text people that we regularly encounter in our daily routines. Now that those routines have been sorely interrupted, we may find that we are no longer content with merely texting our loved ones. It can become easy to dissociate the person you are communicating with from the little text bubbles that magically appear on your screen. Is there really a person behind the appearance of the bouncing ellipses of a soon-to-be sent text message? Who is typing? To remind yourself that the people you are receiving text messages do, in fact, exist, it may be good to set up a good, long phone chat. 

Now normally I am quite firmly against phone calls. When people call me unexpectedly, it is equivalent to someone showing up at my house and knocking on the door uninvited. If I answer the call, or the door, I am opening myself up to a form of communication, which, once initiated, cannot be interrupted save rudely or awkwardly, and thus I may find myself trapped by social niceties in some dull conversation or another. If something is so dreadfully urgent that it cannot be communicated to me in a text message, then why would a phone call be a better way of doing so? Usually I answer phone calls if and only if I have been forewarned as to when the call will occur and what the specific conversation will be about. But even then, I would much rather prefer an in-person meeting. 

Given that in-person meetings are sadly not recommended, it would seem that phone calls are now the way to go. I would suggest sending a text message to the person which you plan to call beforehand so as to not frighten them by a sudden appearance of your name on their phone screen. However, if you know that the person that you intend to call likes to live on the edge, then, by all means, call sporadically. It may be that spontaneously calling someone is a way of showing that person that you think about them unprompted, that you are wishing them well during these times and nd more, importantly, that you miss the sound of their voice and your interactions together. 

Emails 

Though the United States has pledged itself to maintaining normal mailing operations during this pandemic, it is undeniable that mailing services are under serious pressure by the increased demand for online goods, the lack of airplane traffic and by the increased sanitation standards coupled with a lack of resources to uphold said standards. As a result, I am hesitant to suggest that we should engage in any sort of pen pal behavior. Packages and letters are delayed, and postal service workers routinely test positive for COVID-19. While it is unlikely that one will catch COVID-19 from a letter or package, particularly if one is intelligent and handles packages with due care – like washing hands – the fact of the matter is that postal services, particularly postal workers, are overwhelmed as it is.

I would suggest that perhaps the best way to scratch our romantic urge for letter-esque communication would be to stick to flowery emails. E-mail communication is a lot less of the back and forth texting ping-pong which we college students are so acquainted with. Because the nature of e-mail is such that we have a greater stretch of time to deliberate on our responses, e-mail can be a longer and richer form of communication than a text. It is important to note, however, that sometimes sending e-mails can be a slightly delayed process. Particularly now that most of us find ourselves back home with all of our family members, and that we are all simultaneously trying to access the Internet, it is unsurprising that our connection seems atrophied at times. Perhaps, apart from having a faster internet connection given that everyone else in our household may be asleep, sending someone an email may be more mysterious and Byronic if we choose some midnight hour to do so. 

 Video calls 

I’ve had very mixed success with my video calls to my friends, and so I’m putting this as the last recommendation on my list. As I’ve said before, most of us have gone back to our homes as part of social distancing. Therefore, we find that we must compete with all the inhabitants of our home for internet connection. As a result, though the initial joy of seeing my friends on video is great, the feeling is quickly smothered by a growing agitation with the constant buffering, freezing, cutting off and call-dropping. Nonetheless, if we avoid high traffic times, it may be possible for us to engage in video calls with the people we care about. There are multiple applications which can serve our video-chanting purposes:

Zoom

Most of us are probably quite familiar with this application, given that we have to use it for class purposes. Zoom is a pretty decent application. If you are having a Zoom conversation with less than three participants, then there are no time limits to your video conversation. But if there are more than three participants, and your account is a basic one, then the Zoom conversation cannot exceed 40 minutes. Zoom also has a chat option, and the application also displays when your friends are available for a meeting and when they are otherwise occupied. 

Discord 

Discord is a free application that is quite popular amidst gamers because of the fact that you can create voice servers to communicate with your buddies while simultaneously playing games. However, it is also possible to use Discord as a way of communicating with a friend through video chat. Discord only supports communication through video chat with one person at a time, so it may be better to use Discord’s text and voice server options as a way of frequent communication with your friends and save the video-chatting for some other platform. 

FaceTime

FaceTime is pretty much a classic amidst iOS users, given that the app comes pre-installed on everyone’s iPhone and iPad. The problem, of course, is that FaceTime does not work with Android users. Given that William Jewell College has given all its students iPads, this may not be a problem, but some of us may not have access to our iPads at all times. 

Skype 

I find that Skype has become a rather dated way of communicating with people through video chat, but this is probably the most common solution to communicating with friends who have different operating systems. Skype is available across multiple platforms. I find that the Skype software is rather annoying to deal with and would much prefer another form of video chatting. Furthermore, Skype does not offer end-to-end encryption, which secures your data and prevents it from being monitored by outside agencies. See this website for a discussion on Skype’s privacy policy and for a few other video-chat alternatives.