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Our material self is living in a material world. According to William James, our possessions are the extensions of ourselves. Our self also follows the hierarchy of material self as given by James (1980) whereas our body is the Innermost of the self. The clothes come next for we identify ourselves w...

Our material self is living in a material world. According to William James, our possessions are the extensions of ourselves. Our self also follows the hierarchy of material self as given by James (1980) whereas our body is the Innermost of the self. The clothes come next for we identify ourselves with what we wear and choose to attach with our bodies. Next, our immediate family is part of ourselves because whatever happens with our parents or other relatives, we are greatly affected. Lastly, our home is another part of our life. As Dorothy in the film The Wizard of Oz delivered, There is no place like home." This only relates to our idea of self in our daily consumption which can be affected by many factors whether by others or the social media's way of provocation. Wiest (2018) stated, "If we are not happy with what we have right now, nothing will ever be enough." In reality, this occurs in our life that when we consume something, it feels like it is still lacking something so we tend to buy some complimentary items. This phenomenon is called Diderot Effect named after a French philosopher, Denis Diderot. Usually, the endless cycle of consumption is affected by the manipulations of some advertisements that make use of signs and symbols like denotations and connotations. We are also affected by our behaviors in being a consumer and in deciding what to buy. Motivation, perception, learning, memory, personality, and attitude are what affect us in following the five stages of the "Buyer Decision Process" by Kotler as problem recognition (to buy one item as his own), information search (what is most recommended), evaluation of alternatives (identification of evaluation behaviors), purchase decision (setting mind or having a change of heart), and post-purchase behavior (the feeling of satisfaction or disappointment) (Munthiu, 2009). The Semiotics of Consumption 1. Signifier-the physical existence which can be a phrase, sound, or image. 2. Signified the mental concept or the abstraction attached to an object. Eaton (2013) mentioned in his paper that John Calvin seminded in that God provides us with bissing in se us through, but that consumption of we need to remember that we are pat passing through this matertal goods should be fulllling God's desire. Wale which only means that our for Karl Marx, consumption samonetary escape from inposed labor in a capitalist society which often results in alienation Alienation occurs when lor iinposed and non-voluntary in capitalist cultures, which is why most employees shut it like the plague when they are not on the clock. Another consumer principle is commodity flestiun, which rokem to bor porticular item ne given a high monetary valkin without consideration for the effort that went into their d them into lelishticed commodities devoid of their human essence