The Goods on Green Goods

Whoops… I was traveling all day yesterday, so didn’t get to post to my learning journal in time. I admit I’m having a little bit of trouble keeping up with this class, not because I don’t have the time, but because it seems that the syllabus changes when I’m not looking. I usually copy assignments and readings to an Excel file, so I can cross things out when I complete them. But somehow I’m just never able to keep this class straight.

Anyway, back to the entry about my beat. I decided on ethical consumerism. As much as I hate to admit it, I am a consumer. Sometimes I buy things new. Sometimes I shop at places like the Gap and Forever21. Sometimes I’m in the grocery store and I choose non-organic produce. I was curious about why I do these things when I know better, and the answer was fairly clear: price. And second to that, convenience.

If those two things weren’t a factor, I think everyone would be an ethical consumer. So I’m hoping to use my blog, The Goods on Green Goods, to examine what ethical consumption is and how it can be made to work for everyone.

At this point, my issues are mainly aesthetic. Someone in class last night asked about the benefits of having your own domain name versus one from Blogger, etc. It’s a legitimate question: Blogger is simple and easy to use, free, and visually pleasing in a very basic way. It meets all my needs. But there’s still a piece of me that realizes that this is mass customization and yearns for something better, more stylish. It’s a lot easier to create and control your personal brand when you don’t have to choose it from a selection of 20 preset templates. So while I don’t think I’m going to purchase my own domain just yet, it’s definitely a seed that’s been planted for later.

So far my posts have been a bit scattered, but I think defining my audience will help me focus and be more consistent. I envision my audience as consumers who want to do the right thing, but due to price or inaccessibility just can’t. I’m in this audience, so I realize that it will take a mind shift as well as additional information to make this change. For instance: I don’t need this much stuff.