The Changes Of Consumption Patterns In The Perspective Of Post-modern Society

The first thing for people to survive is consumption, but consumption for people is not only to survive. Consumption is an important part of production; it's the link, purpose and achievement of production. At the same time, people's consumption is also an important activity in daily life. In contemporary society, consumption gradually becomes a self-fulfilling constructive action. The implementation of constructive meaning of consumption goes through the people's special consumption patterns, and the consumption patterns are the results of general conditions. Contemporary society is a consumer-oriented society; consumption occupies a very important position in people's productive activities and daily activities. Therefore, the study on changes in consumption patterns of the contemporary society has great theoretical and practical significance.Above all, this paper studies the etymological meaning of consumption. The process of consumption-defined is actually the development of understanding of the consumption. Consumption is not only an economic phenomenon, but also is a complex and integrated economic, social, political, psychological and cultural phenomenon. Consumption is a widespread phenomenon since the existence of human society, it's is also an important social activity in daily life. The consumption in contemporary society is not only the physical activity for people to meet the basic requirements, but also becomes a constructive action on social identity. Consumption pattern is formed under certain social conditions,and it's a complex of consumers' attitudes and behaviors, by the necessary space sites and technical means, with some material accumulation and the cultural spirit. So in different historical periods, Consumption patterns have different characteristics. Consumption patterns are constrained mainly by the material basis of consumption, the culture of consumption, the space and technical means of consumption, and some other factors. Investigating the changes of the consumption patterns in contemporary society, firstly can complement and deepen the theory of consumer research; secondly can provide the explanations of the consumer's patterns of consumption; lastly can provide theoretical support for the macroeconomic policy-making.With the highlights of the status of consumption in the social life, much academic research has aroused the concerns in the different fields. Economics, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, psychology and other disciplines were carried out on consumption from all their points of view, and achieved great success. The study on culture and society of consumer has a special status. Marx's theory of consumer life is mainly embodied in his theory of production and consumption and lifestyle theory. Daniel Bell's theory of post-industrial society opened a post-modern society research path. Represented by Veblen, Simmel, Weber, Sombart and Jean Baudrillard's theory of Consumer Culture, Represented by the Club of Rome, Frankfurt School, green environmental protection's critical theory of consumer society, as well as the domestic academic research, these theoretical results for the study of changes in consumption patterns have laid a solid foundation, but also open up a wider research space.Different from the traditional agricultural society and the modern industrial society, post-modern society is a new stage of social development, there are different understandings of post-modern society, such as the affluent society, the post-industrial society, information society, and the late capitalist society. It is a widely accepted academic view to take post-modern society as a consumer society. The rising of post-modern society has a significant impact on the contemporary consumption culture and means. On the basis of rapid development of modern media technology, mass consumption culture gradually rises, revolutionary changes have also taken place in the spaces and technology means of consumption.It has become an indisputable fact that contemporary society has entered into the consumption society. Consumption has become the dominant factor in contemporary society's running. On one hand, consumption becomes the main driving force of the economic development; on the other hand, consumption permeates into every aspect of daily life, and becomes a constructive action of social interaction. Through the study of the operating mechanism of the consumer society, we can conclude that, there are two main aspects of the operation: one is from production-oriented to consumption-oriented logic, the other one is from use value-oriented to symbol value-oriented. The consumerism tradition is born in Europe, Mass consumerism was formed in the early twentieth century in America, after the Second World War, with the vast number of developing countries promoted the modernization process and the economic globalization, and consumerism began to spread at a global scale.Consumption patterns are the important components of lifestyle; lifestyle is constrained by the mode of production. In different historical periods, following the different levels of productivity's development, consumption patterns have different characteristics. Traditional agricultural society reflects the consumption pattern as a thrift-oriented consumption. Modern industrial society reflects the consumption patterns as accumulation-oriented consumption. Contemporary society consumption patterns show the trends of leisure, style and aesthetic. The diversification of consumption patterns in contemporary society is a very brilliant process.Under the influence of consumerism globalization, contemporary Chinese consumption patterns are also showing a lot of new features. Different from the traditional thrift and hard-working during the planned economy period, contemporary Chinese consumption patterns have the characters of diversified, policies to encourage, consumption-ahead, etc. Accompanied by changes in consumption patterns, as the constraints of policies and systems and the lack of scientific conception of consumption, it also brings increased differentiation between the rich and the poor class, the spread of luxury consumption, policies constraints and other issues.Changes in consumption patterns are the inevitable result of economic and social changes. Changes in consumption patterns on one hand brought about a variety of changes in people's livelihood, on the other hand, it also lead to a series of ecological and social issues. The analysis and criticism of the impacts are the basic premise of the construction of contemporary consumption's significance and value. Consumption in essence is a kind of economic and cultural links of social actions, consumer activity reflects the unity of the value of objects and the value of people, the self value and others value, the personal value and social value. Only guiding the various consumptions in a scientific and rational way, can be harmony between man and nature coexisted and the sustainable development of contemporary society.