What does a picnic mean? Why do young people like picnics?

In Beijing in June, the sun approached the Tropic of Cancer, allowing the summer sun to dry the air. On the hot lawn, you can still find three or five groups of young people gathered around plaid with different colors-they gathered in the shade of the park or by the river in the suburbs to form a scattered and inseparable team formation. I looked at them and felt that every mat had not only food and decoration, but also a style and a feeling.

No one knows how the picnic became a fire in 2020. Although from a sociological point of view, picnics, as an interest activity, may have a history of tens of thousands of years since people's daily dining places turned indoors, we must admit that the popularity of picnics this year is indeed somewhat unusual. The threat of virus makes people wear masks and keep social distance, but this does not stop people from rushing to nature with friends, pads and flowers.

For a time, the picnic fever quickly swept the circle of friends of young people, making "Did you have a picnic" a fashionable greeting. At the same time, this trend has also created real consumption, making the "picnic economy" unexpectedly a lucky winner in difficult times. # Why do young people like picnics #

If someone says that behind this picnic craze is a conspiracy of Taobao shops to stimulate consumption, I'm afraid everyone will only regard it as an absurd joke except conspiracy theorists with different brains and circuits. However, it is undeniable that the biggest impact of this picnic craze on society is the accompanying consumption-people who want to go out for a picnic must first have a usable picnic cloth that may not be reused; Dining baskets, knives, forks and flowers used to provide style for photos are also close to the "just need" of picnic activities; If you want to further "upgrade", there are a series of "optional equipment" to choose from, such as polaroid, foreign books and newspapers, and crystal cups; Compared with these expenses, picnic food can only accompany the last seat. Obviously, picnics, even if they do have an idyllic atmosphere far away from modern society, can't escape the bondage of consumption after all.

Picnic is such a thing that carries a lot of beautiful imagination, which makes me seem to lose my romance at once. To this end, I must also explain that the intention of these words is by no means to dispel the romance pursued by young people, who want to decorate their lives with picnics. It is true that we satisfy ourselves by buying symbols, but who can say that these symbols people buy in consumption are fake?

In fact, I have never stood on a high cliff and looked at the fire on the other side, condescending to criticize my friends who are eager to have a picnic, because I, like everyone else, am a mortal and will stand in front of the supermarket shelves and hesitate to choose a more beautiful picnic cloth. However, when I plan a picnic and spend money on it, I choose to stay awake to the consumerist culture of "finding meaning with consumption" and refuse to be complacent in ignorance. In my understanding, this is a kind of "golden mean", which allows me to exchange my comfortable consumption for meaning in my daily life, and also allows me to keep a cautious reflection, so that I can jump out from time to time and look for another experience besides consumption.

I once ran to the forest park with a beautiful set of tableware and placemats, found a small place to stay on the lawn almost occupied by others, and took a selfie with the object with the thickest beauty filter; I used to climb the wild mountain behind Xiangshan lightly, sitting breathlessly on the big stone at the top of the mountain, eating my own sauce meat and peeling the oranges I bought casually. When I first got my salary, I was willing to spend a little money in a sober state to enjoy the atmosphere bought by consumption and leave photos that can be used to send friends. And when I really want to be empty, I can also go to a remote place as far as possible and have a "primitive picnic" with "wild" and "meals" as the mainstay.

Having said that, the truth I really want to say is of course not only related to picnics. Picnic is actually just a microcosm and representative-looking around, the style, posture, taste and interest we are pursuing are actually the same as picnics. No matter how metaphysical it sounds, it must be related to consumption in the end. In this regard, some people will think that the world has never been like this, and such an exchange is normal. Others will regard this as an infringement of other values by money and make a profound criticism. Consumption is the cornerstone of global market economy, and consumerism culture is the link between material consumption and people's spiritual world. Therefore, only by seeing clearly how the logic of consumerism affects our spiritual pursuit can we give our own attitude and judgment on this basis.