Story of Stuff

The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute long animated video that aims to make us aware of how mindless consumption is harming our planet. Narrated by Annie Leonard, it greatly simplifies what is a massive complicated system, into one that is easy for everyday people to understand. This simplification means that the video has been viewed over 7 million times, something that would have been unachievable if she were to attempt to explain all of the intricacies of production and consumption process. This is both a positive and a negative in terms of the video. As a positive, it really gets the message across that our current climate of consumption is not sustainable and needs to be changed to something that will last (theoretically) a lot longer. The explanation that a linear system cannot be run on finite resources is a great way of representing that eventually, we will run out of "stuff" to make all of the "stuff" that we wastefully use and then throw away. However, the concept of simplifying the entire process is not without its drawbacks. It introduces the possibility that certain facts will be omitted and others altered to help get a certain message across. Such tactics are why many people still view environmentalism with some skepticism because of the truth bending that is sometimes involved. What it also leaves out is that for thousands of years, humans have changed their systems as technology has evolved and enabled new processes to be created. Just because a solution hasn't already been thought up, it doesn't mean that at some point in the future we wont be able to tackle these problems with innovative answers. I sometimes thick that idealistic messages like this can undermine all of the hard work that people are already doing to be more responsible with the resources we have. Also, whilst i agree with many point in the video, painting corporations and governments in such a negative light makes people forget that many companies and governments are already actively trying to change the current situation.
The Story of Stuff is simply a tool that is being used to change the current way of thinking. Whilst it may be a little rough and have its problems, it is none the less helping us achieve something. With some refinement and time, its message could really make people not only pay attention, but actually want to help and change the world.