consuME

This post is all about consuME, emphasis on ME.

I will touch base on my personal experiences and activities with regards to consumption.

From the previous post, it is evident that consumption is all around us; consumption is with us from day to day!

As mentioned, I had only looked at consumption superficially where it involved eating and when I was purchasing goods and services.

I had neglected other forms of consumption such as the type of information and media content I was exposed to.

A typical daily activity I do is using social media which is often plastered with people living their best life. Everyone seems to be able to keep it together and achieving far better things as compared to me.

Instagram feeds are often filled with happy, beautiful images

Just like what Featherstone mentioned, the media has brought upon a “proliferation of stylised images of the body”. (1982, p. 18 )

Thus the key to social media I’ve realised is: Aesthetics.

We all want to present the most “marketable self” (Featherstone, 1982, p. 18) to everyone, why should we publicise and show off our weakness and vulnerabilities?  

In the words of Jarrett, the community we are surrounded by gives us a guideline to our “individual and collective existence”. (2006, p. 110)

There is a certain order and way we want to act as a member of the particular society. This is as it is deemed as something is inherently wrong with us if we display ourselves the opposite of the majority. In order to fit in and belong, we do so by “aligning (ourselves) with the values of the broader community”. (Jarrett, K, 2006, p. 119)

In social media’s instance, we get caught up in presenting only the highlights in our lives simply because everyone is doing so.

Personally, I am guilty of doing exactly that. After being fed with the glitzy glamorous lives of others from their social media feeds, I feel obliged to only upload the good in life too. Whenever my expectations that were derived from others do not meet up to my reality, I feel upset and immediately question if I’m doing something wrong, if I am the problem?

However, I failed to realise that perhaps, I am doing everything right.

It’s just that people tend omit the bad when uploading online.

This is the exact reason why I started this travel blog, to give the raw, true breakdown of how traveling is like. Serving the truth and bringing good recommendations. (Read more about why I started out this blog here!)

Lastly, when I am consuming something, I also give it it’s own meaning based on my prior consumption experiences.

For instance, my jjimjilbang experience from my Seoul trip was an interesting one.

Based on my consumption of classic korean dramas, I thought of it to be an interesting, familial-bonding activity. Jjimjilbangs were also typically shown as a quick, cheap place of accomodation, thus I expected to see people actually living / sleeping there.  

In reality, most people were there to shower, enjoy the hot saunas and they were out within a couple of hours. There were only a small number of tourists who actually stayed overnight.

This shows how as I gathered more information through consumption, meanings can change as well.

This is in line with what Thompson and Loveland says about consumption and identities, that it "does not cease with membership or with the acquisition of an identity" (2015, p. 237). As consumption continues, it will affect the previously procured identity, which in turn influences future consumption as well.

After my personal experience with jjimjilbangs, I now have a new found meaning and understanding of it, This will then lead in my future opinion and usage of other jjimjilbangs.

In conclusion, we cannot escape from consumption as it is all around us. It is essential in moving our society and economy forward as well as giving cultural meanings to things and experiences around. With the new gained insights from the academic study on consumption, I might as well embrace it and make use of it to my advantage.