Do you feel the "need" to connect to a cause? An idea? A brand?
It seems that in the past couple years, there has been a huge increase in social awareness for various issues. I've also noticed that people of my generation (born around '85 to '90 or so) have become extremely passionate towards social issues. Whether it's climate change, social and gender equality, or human rights, young people are speaking out and taking action.
Brands can most definitely benefit from this level of passion as people are endorsing the companies that are doing good things for the planet and its people.
As a result, do you ever feel pressured into joining a cause? Or supporting a brand by buying certain products only from them? Do you feel like if you don't then your silence, your inaction, your lack of support via dollars spent makes you "less" in some way?
Short answer: no.
I already consider the common good with the actions I take and decisions I make. Sure, that includes preferring environmentally friendly and fair trade products, and avoiding companies that are known to be unethical. But, what you spend money on is just a small part of the good you can do. What you choose to work on, how you treat others, etc., all of it matters.
In fact, I'd say that the rest of your actions matter more. Giving money to good causes while you behave like a horribly selfish the rest of the time does NOT make you good (and that goes for companies/brands too).
There's a lot of pressure to contribute to various causes nowadays for sure. I tweeted about this a while back:
That's just my personal philosophy though. It's hard to fault people for trying to spread the things they're passionate about, especially when those things are thoughtful causes.
I definitely agree with the tweet. I've found it's best when we all respect our missions and not rank them in terms of social or environmental importance.