Message In A Bottle | The Disposable Water Bottle
Throughout the quarter, we have repeatedly examined the issue of how “to be human is to interact with stuff” (Shanks, 9/24/12). Simply, our relationship with our stuff affects our humanity in the long term. The seemingly simple interactions with the objects in our lives are in fact a manifestation of the culture that brought about those very objects.
As our society becomes increasingly consumer-oriented, “making, consuming, and curating objects becomes [an even greater] component of humanity” (Shanks, 9/24/12).
We chose to explore and evaluate the plastic water bottle as the eleventh thing. In today’s world, bottled water are as ubiquitous as they are controversial, becoming a prototypical object that has come to signify a diverse range of central issues both in our society and within each individual. Along the lines of the course’s goal to approach the history and design of an object from broad and cross-disciplinary fields, we explored bottled water from two key perspectives -- marketing and consumer psychology -- to their greater social implications and environmental impacts.
How do social needs and desires precipitate market goods?
Our first question pertains to the true nature of finding needs in our culture and designing products as solutions. Advertising has created a market-driven demand for plastic water bottles and as a result, consumers can choose between tap and bottled water. As consumers, we have become accustomed to new products solving the needs that were previously non-existent. In our society, water is an easily accessible resource, yet buyers still debate convenience versus rationality.
How does our consumption of products reflect our social and cultural priorities?
Our second question addresses the social implications of our new emphasis on convenience, resulting in an increased vanity and dissatisfaction with the cheap, plastic objects being created. Finally, the scope of the plastic water bottle’s impact extends past society and encompasses a domain much larger than ourselves -- the environment. As such, we examine the pressing issue of the negative environmental impact caused by the usage of plastic water bottles, a heatedly debated topic that continues to draw more attention on a global scale.