Consumption: A Gateway to Self-Identity Page 3



I have recently seen that infomercials (the commercials thirty minute long ugly cousin) can be influential towards consumers also. Recently, late one night and slightly under the influence I was captivated by the George Forman "Lean Mean Grilling Machine" infomercial, picked up the phone and ordered it. I can't say that it was a good decision, but at the time I was mesmerized by how much the crowd liked it and the fact that I got a free food slicer with it. Although I have barely used it since, it seemed like a practical decision at the time. It was easy to use, easy to clean, and had good results…it seemed like a practical utility. This was all very appealing, but I never even stopped to think if I would actually use it. In the wake of my ignorant purchase, I realized that I bought a product that I didn't need or even want. I have realized that people are eager to have what they "think" that they can use to their benefit, but what people think they need, they don't always actually need. For instance, people need clothes for warmth and comfort, but does that mean that they actually need a whole wardrobe of different color and style clothes. One could probably get by on owning about five plain shirts and about five pairs of pants, but this never happens because people want more variety. People try to define themselves through consumption; therefore, people's consumption patterns might be as unique as the way that they walk or talk. Clothes, in particular, can say a lot about someone; most people won't just wear anything, they are conscious about what they wear. There are very few products on the market that are sold for simply utility value. Most utility products have now mixed with selling an image; after all, even toilet paper is sold in different colors, textures, and sizes.

Economic consumption can also have a lot to do with symbolic value. My like for music can provide some good examples of symbolic capital and consumption. For instance, I am a huge Neil Young fan; therefore, over the break I had no problem shelling out just a shade under thirty dollars for a rare live import CD. Of course I wouldn't pay thirty dollars for just any album, getting this album was important to me because it had some unreleased material that I wanted to have thus I valued it more than the average person might. Most people could probably care less about hearing these songs, but since I am a fan it had a symbolic value to me and was a perfectly feasible buy. The same goes for concert T-shirts. Under normal circumstances I would not pay twenty-five dollars for a band's shirt, but if I am at the concert I probably would. The shirt serves as a memory of the show, and therefore to me it is worth the money. Products such as import CDs and concert T-shirts serve little use value to the ordinary person, but they serve a huge symbolic value to fans. Use value in most instances like this is no more than a normal shirt or CD but because of its symbolic significance fans are willing to pay more. By consuming products that have a symbolic value, people are again defining their own self-image.

Page 1 of Consumption: A Gateway to Self-Identity
Page 2 of Consumption: A Gateway to Self-Identity
Page 3 of Consumption: A Gateway to Self-Identity
Page 4 of Consumption: A Gateway to Self-Identity