Of Conspicuous Consumption

" What plans for the long weekend?" A friend asked
"Nothing much, the usual -housework, rest and hopefully some reading too  ", I remarked
"Oh that's it, not going anywhere" she said
"No, not really", I said

Conversations like these are common these days.If you are in the age group of 25-35, you definitely have some friends who at some point of time have asked you this. Nowadays, it has become almost like a crime to not go out during the weekends. If you don't do it, it's almost like abnormal. I also remember a friend asking me given that both of us work and earn, how come we don't go abroad every year? Hotelling , weekend getaways ,regular  mall shopping, and holidays abroad seems like a norm to today's young working populace.

I was definitely not brought up in such a upbringing. For me, weekends meant change of work. My definition of relaxation till date is change of work and adequate sleep. Yet I feel the definition of change, enjoyment has undergone a great transformation in last 5-8 years. I was looking to understand what caused this.
 Then I came across a term called as "conspicuous consumption". Conspicuous consumption was a term coined by the economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen. Conspicuous consumption is the spending of money on acquiring goods and services so as to display economic power/ wealth/ status. Basically it is the kind of consumption used to signal status to others. With the advent of social media, signalling status to others is possible at the click of a button. No longer do you need to buy expensive goods to signal status. Experiences shared on social media can signal status too.

In his book "the theory of leisure class" , Veblen  summed it up aptly .. "The serviceability of consumption as a means of repute... is at its best in those portions of the community where the human contact of the individual is widest and the mobility of the population is greatest...In the struggle to outdo one another the city population push their normal standard of conspicuous consumption to a higher point, with the result that a relatively greater expenditure in this direction is required to indicate a given degree of pecuniary decency in the city "

I think this is what explains why everyone suddenly wants to look cool on Facebook. It is just status signalling in a medium where virtual human contact is maximum.Whether that is really status, or what is status is debatable. But probably status signalling by sharing cool things on facebook is super easy. And most of us being cognitive misers, chose the easy path!

( more on Veblen in next part)
- Dhanashree

Life in Facebookland

Sharing my article below on "Life in FacebookLand" which was published in IIM Bangalore alumni newsletter. It can also be viewed here : http://newsletter.iimbaa.org/alumni-story-life-in-facebook…/

Life in Facebookland!

In the year 2004, a new planet named Facebook was discovered by a guy named Mark Zuckerberg. Mark discovered this from his Harvard Dorm Room. Anybody from any corner of planet earth could be a member of Facebookland. All he/ she needed was an internet connection and an email id/ phone contact no.

So why would anyone want to co-exist both on the earth and on Facebook? Facebook allowed people from 2 corners of the earth to communicate with each other. All they needed was a Facebook post/message.

Everybody had an amazing life on Facebookland. A nice fancy wedding, a nice honeymoon, cute kids and exotic foreign holidays every year. Suddenly sadness in personal life seemed to have disappeared. I once met a friend of mine to congratulate her on her fancy wedding. She started crying inconsolably and told me she was getting divorced. This was within 6 months of marriage. No sadness status posted on Facebookland. A week later, I see happy pictures of her solo trip to Bangkok. What do I infer? In our one- on- one conversation she expressed extreme sadness, whereas in Facebookland she portrayed herself as extremely happy. Why this impression management? As I spoke to more and friends on Facebookland, I discovered a common thread. There was a compulsive need to appear happy and successful all the time on Facebookland. It seems like there is a daily competition on Facebookland to appear as happy, smart, world traveller and what not. Life realities do not have much place here. Whether you love each other or not, a cute romantic anniversary dinner pic is a must on Facebookland. The Great Wall of FacebookLand was meant to communicate with people not in your physical proximity. But now there seems a need for a birthday wish to your husband to be shared on the Great Wall of Facebookland.

Why would any rational being want to do all this? I think one reasoning for this is – right from childhood we all crave for attention. In Facebookland, our circle gives us that attention. But we also forget that our attention is getting sold to Facebookland. The more time we spend on Facebookland, the more likely we are to get influenced by it. It sort of becomes our environment and all of us get influenced heavily by our environment.

FacebookLand amplifies our feeling of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). No matter what you are doing, someone else is holidaying in Europe, someone else is watching a movie etc etc. This makes you feel inadequate. In such times it’s worth remembering the economics concept of opportunity cost. Why you chose to do something is because in your opinion – doing that things brings the largest benefit to you. There is also an opportunity cost of foregoing the second best alternative. But since you can do only one thing at a time, you will do the best possible thing.

On the positive side, Facebookland provides for easy sharing and exchange of ideas and opinions. You can now voice and support causes on Facebookland. Though, that’s not as same as on the ground work, it still helps.

Edward Bernays, the father of modern Propoganda has said “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organised habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in the democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of the country.” Facebookland, in today’s world is one of our invisible government. The wisdom lies in not running away from it but being aware of the biases and influences Facebookland has on us.

“Lewis said Alice in Wonderland

Mark said life in Facebookland

Where being at the airport was a check in

Restaurant eating meant selfies clicking

Wedding meant a photoshoot thing

Photos are the new in- things

Looking good is a must have thing

Appearances matter, reality doesn’t think

Everyone’s having an awesome life me-thinks

Facebookland is meant for the happykings

Yourdost says we do counselling

Line of people to seek help mind boggling

Wheres all the happiness in Facebookland disappearing

Deep inside the heart, a sadness is lingering

Appearances matter is the new calling

To who does it matter, Why does it matter

“Public Sab Jaanti hain dost”, stop this Facebookland banter”