Consumption
In our current society there, consumption is the basis for interaction. This consumption can be broken down into 3 basic forms, which depending on the perspective, carry various levels of agency and power.
These can be broken down into orientations towards agency and usage.
1) The Rational Actor: Here the individual utilizes the purchasing of goods and survives for their practical and instrumental uses. The individual is a rational being, calculating the best outcome from their actions and purchases. When I buy a computer, I am doing this because it offers the best value for the service I require of it.
2) The Communicator: The individual utilizes consumption as a means for symbolic communication about class, status, group membership. Thorstein Veblen uses the concept of ‘Conspicuous Consumption’ to explain how individuals use luxury good to display economic power and social status. Here that same computer, it draws upon all the connotations that come along with the particular brand of the product.
3) The Manipulated: Here the culture industry manufactures a homogenous and predictable mass culture which is consumed uncritically by the masses. Where you might think that your customizability of your purchases highlight how you are a unique individual, you are in fact just buying into the rhetoric of the marketers. This is pseudo-individualization at its best. Now the computer, instead of highlighting my individuality, only demonstrates the illusion of choice when it comes to buying a computer. The differences between brands is minimal, and overall, unimportant.
Following these three forms of consumption, where do you think you fit? As a rational actor who only buys what they need and uses it foe that express purpose? Or are you using your purchases to explain something about yourself? Claiming group membership or highlighting your individuality.
Storey, J. (2012). Postmodernism. In Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction (6nd
ed.). Essex, England: Pearson Education.