Abdurahmon’s Journey

Packaging is an increasing global concern among other types of environmental problems. However, as to whether customers or suppliers should be responsible for its reduction the debate remains undecided. Although shouldering this burden on producers and retailers might seem logical, I believe that it is consumers' ultimate responsibility.

There is no denying that having supermarkets and manufacturers responsible might seem as the right course of because if they reduce it, customers will follow. When people visit groceries and shops, finding foods as they, they are forced to purchase heavily packaged goods. If suppliers were to cover their produce less, environmentally-conscious people would definitely choose the alternatives. In addition, when making a purchase, consumers rarely give a thought to the amount of pacaging because they buy goods when needed and it is difficult to leave products on the shelves in urgent situation simply to remain environmentally-friendly. For example, many parents using diфpers, do not pay any attention to the amount of packaging because they need the products no matter how heavily they are wrapped.

However, I believe that a change would me more profound if customers would feel reluctant to buying plastic packaged products. This is mainly becuase, producers tend to supply products with better sales. If consumers opt out of heacy packaging and even start green movements and campaigns, boycotting heavily packaged goods, producers will feel need to react to the changing consumer needs. In addition, setting trends on social media and purchasing goods with little packaging, especially by famous people, can turn tides on the manufacturers and have a more profound effect while sustaining the economy. As a result, both consumers would benefit and become more conscious of their choice with alternatives available on the market and producers will not suffer from possible risky changes and investments.

To conclude, while suppliers and retail outlets may seem obligated to some, I believe that changing customer preferences and behaviour will have a more effective change on the amount of packaging on products.

The bar graph shows parental involvement rates in Australia for four types of activties - dressing, homework, playing games and preparing for beds - in the year 2013.

Overall, Australians had a culture of receiving more maternal help in getting dressed and studies, while more paternal assistance was shown in the cases of gaming and lying to bed. In addition, it was extremely rare for both parents to assist in these activities together. Comparisosn also show that mothers spent most of their time on dressing their children, while it was playing games in the case of fathers.

Focusing on the two activities where more Australian mothers helped their children, that is dressing up and doing homework, only in 5% of cases both parents spent their time on the former activity, which was twice lower than on the latter at 10%. In addition, when dressing was concerned, the biggest difference of 50% percentage points between parents' time involvement could be seen, accounting for around 70% and 20% with alleged superiority of the weaker gender. Meanwhile, in the case of home education, mothers allocated twice as much of their time as fathers, recording 60% and 30% respectively.

Regarding the two other activities to which fathers allocated more time, only approximately 6% of all time children played games was accompanied with both parents, which was twice lower in going to bed at 3%. Comparing the time allocation percentages between parents, the disparity was considerable for playing games, at 70% and 25% with paternal lead. In contrast, the difference was nowhere near as high in the case of preparing for bed at only 5%, with 50% and 45% of time being spent by fathers and mothers respectively.

Rapid developments in technology have affected learning to such a high degree that some presume it mostly transferred to television and books from real-world experience. Personally, I agree that most knowledge is being delivered through books and movies, and I think that young people are learning from real-life experience only to some limited extent.

There is no denying that immediate surroundings offer limited knowledge. In contrast, while reading books or watching movies, children can easily transcend geographical borders and learn about what is happening around the world. Many TV channels, such as Animal Planet, National Geographic and Discovery, teach young children plentifully about the animal world and wildlife in general, which cannot be simply achieved within one's physical environment. Similarly, while young generation can only learn about their own culture, heritage, history and language first-hand, whereas literature and television nurture a much broader perspective, widening their horizons.

Nevertheless, it is important to remember that real-life interactions also play an irreplaceable role in the learning process. These are especially vital in acquiring soft skills, such as working in a team, negotiating, discussing, and communicating. Unless children socially interact within their close community, there is little possibility they become decent members of society. In addition, in-person interactions themselves always indirectly teach children several crucial life lessons. These lessons might develop subconsciously within family setting when they develop certain habits just from copying surrounding people. For example, it is usual to encounter children tend to mimic their parents, grandparents or other relations with whom they spend most of their time.

To conclude, while I believe that the majority of general and scientific knowledge is being taught through books and movies, it is important to admit that social and interpersonal skills are still obtained through real-world interacting.

In the past, people were concerned with issues other than money, but today it has become one of the central topics in people's daily interactions. In my opinion, there are two primary reasons why this is happening and I believe this is a change for worse.

Focusing on several reasons for increasing discussions about one's finances, there is no denying that today one's financial state determines how well one lives. More importantly, today's society is increasingly concerned about success. This culture is especially widespread in many urban areas where success is instilled as life's primary goal from a very young age. This usually happens bacause of parental aspirations when parents want their children to pursue best-paid professions such as a doctor, a lawyer or an IT specialist. As a result, meeting parents' expectations and succeeding in life transfers into adulthood, catching people in vicious cycle of materialistic society. All of this can be attributed to active propaganda of consumer culture from 1990s onwards, and agitation of materialistic values and measuring one's state of success based on financial state. For example, many people enjoy bragging about how much money they earn or spend to show a luxurious lifestyle they can afford. This partially gives a sense of recongition within their close community.

As I see it, this is largely a negative development. One of the main reasons for this is a loss of traditional values. In the past, people would place more value on honesty, bravery and chivalry, all of which discouraged acting immorally and selfishly. However, nowadays an increasing number of people are ready to turn a blind eye to these values to achieve financial results. Good examples can be many business entities prioritising profits over their impacts on the environment in their practices. In other words, many companies are polluting and damaging nature to seek a high income. Similarly, some manufacturers and merchants find it acceptable to produce and sell inferior or damaged goods to customers to minimise their financial losses. What is even worse, many people experience anxiety, stress and depression unless they succeed. Unfortunately, this is all resulting in increasing suicide rates and a lack of happiness, especially among merited and educated individuals.

To conclude, I believe that money is an important tool for one's survival and prosperity in today's world, which explains its high-frequency among other topics in discussions. However, exaggeration of its importance and its representation of success are causing a great number of social, moral and psychological issues for people, making this development negative.