On the endless quest for self-discovery, modern society continues to feed the humanistic desire for social acceptance. Thanks to the cruel and merciless world of adolescence, we grow up in a world where our self-worth is based upon the material possessions that we acquire. From the schoolyard to our office cubicles, we spend our lives desperately trying to prove our existence through the cheap, mass-produced, disposable and completely worthless things we own.

The dire need for social status and self-defining, even through the degrading mechanics of materialism, has many people spending even more on the unnecessary. You bought that flashy new iPad and you instantaneously broadcast your materially-satisfied elation to your social network of “friends”. Your self-worth is now solidified through the click of a “like button”. You rely on material items to represent your own existence and in doing so, you are entangled in a corporate and capitalistic web. You are no longer a person, you are a slave to the system. So, sip down that last drop of your double-tall, sugar-free, non-fat Caramel Macchiato with no-whip and admit it. You are struggling for acceptance through your stuff.

Through enticing and potent corporate-cult fluff, we replace our personal qualities with our trivial gadgets and over-priced coffee drinks. “Which cellphone best expresses my individuality?” Or, “How does my Starbucks drink reflect my personality?” Through classic cult characteristics, corporate giants know this and have manufactured their own vocabulary to entice us even more. Fabricated expressions and pretentiously cute names slapped on trendy, mass-produced items is their linchpin.

So, do we own things or do things own us? The “IKEA Nesting Instinct” as described in Chuck Palahniuk’s novel and film adaptation “Fight Club”, is an accurate term used to define the emasculation of humanity and how we have become slaves to a consumer-based society. “Fight Club” focuses on the nameless, insomniac narrator and his eye-opening relationship with Tyler Durden, a soap salesman with tactless candor. Through his aggressive journey of self-discovery, the narrator realizes that all the worthless crap he has acquired does not define him as a person. Only through the deliberate destruction of his material possessions and extrinsic facade, he could discover his true self.

Once you have stripped-down and realized that you were sucked into the sleazy cesspool of debauchery known as the corporate world, it’s so easy to spot others who are still ensnared. It’s as if a child has scribbled all over these people with a black permanent marker. Recognizing a product-hungry, consumer-based society is not a matter of being cynical or elitist, not at all. I believe we all get sucked in at one time or another, it’s simply a matter of realizing it and setting ourselves free.