What we are.

I was out for a brief walk by myself yesterday to purchase some milk. After acquiring said goods, I made an impulse stop at an Anime Otaku store which is right across the road. I wandered the isles, and regardless of the feeling I was being supervised by their staff (apparently I must look like a liberator of overpriced goods), I simply didn't feel the need to make a purchase.
I remember a time in my not too distant past when I was very much a consumer. I was the very model of impulse buyer. Whether it was DVD's, novelties, figurines, CD's, video games, etc., I would drop ridiculous amounts of money on, for lack of better term, 'useless shit.'
During a bit of a rough financial time at the beginning of the century, I came to a brief conclusion that all I needed to keep me happy in a materialistic sense is a computer (with solid internet connection), and music. This is important because when you fast forward to the present, this truth still holds true. I've gotten to the point in my life where I look at the murchandise that advertisers and mega-conglomerates insist that I need, all I see is crap that just ways me down. I do not help the economy grow.
I believe that for most, it's truly difficult to really understand exactly how much of a consmer and target market that they are. Something that is an even more interesting phenomenom is that people will spend real world dollars to buy virtual goods. A good example would be in Second Life™, a virtual world that aims to create what it's name suggests. In this world people take the form of avatars, and will buy land, clothes, novelties and other digital goods. Although there are ways to make money within this life simulator, there are many who will just buy "Linden Dollars" to make their purchases instead.
Another good example is what started off being a simple instant messenger in China called QQ. A similar deal applies here, where it's users will spend real money to buy the QQ currency in order to give their IM avatars clothing, backgrounds, as well as spend this currency to participate in games and other activities.
It's rather disturbing that we as a consumer culture are no longer happy enough to buy physical, tangable objects. Now, we have turned to worlds of make believe to spend money as well. Is there something seriously wrong with us?