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A Social Perspective on Consuming for Popularity

One of the most basic truths a new student of sociology might encounter is that people care what others think. Interestingly enough, many people will admit that most people care what others think, but think that they themselves are somehow exempt from this process. In other words, it is common to find the person who says “I don’t care what other people think of me,” and this person will usually agree that most people do care what others think of them. This is the first fallacy that must be addressed. All people care what others think of them, regardless of who they are. A humans need for social interaction is undeniable and if the entire world thinks of you as undesirable for social interaction, you will suffer mentally. This is one of the few things which applies universally to all people. People love to be loved, and they alter their behavior on a daily basis to make themselves more “likable” or “lovable.”

This being said, I bet many of you still think you are exempt. Truth is, you are not. Even if you don’t care what your peers at work or school think of you (you probably do care somewhat), it is almost certain you care what your family thinks, and if not, you must at least care what your significant other or a potential significant other thinks of you. This phenomenon is, in large part, what differentiates humans from other animals. Sigmund Freud called it the super ego and George Herbert Mead called it taking the role of the other. I’ll call it personal branding, and it is basically the idea that every time you do something, there is a “social aspect” of the decision making process which asks what will people think if I do X? Will people approve or disapprove? It is the idea that, consciously or unconsciously, every single action is affected by the potential reaction of people around you, weather they are loved ones or strangers. Every word you speak in a conversation, every piece of clothing you buy, and whichever car you drive will be judged by someone at sometime. In short, anything which anyone is capable of observing you do will be judged, to some degree, and help them to form an opinion of you.

Sure, it might be better if this were not the case, but it is almost unavoidable. It is in all people’s interests to have social bonds and those bonds are most rewarding with people who share similar values and ideas. Forming a social bond with someone who thinks opposite of you is sure to end in pain for both parties, and we have a natural tendency to avoid these type of unpleasant relationships. Hence, the endless judging of all actions to place people somewhere inside a mental framework, and to use that framework for forming an opinion of that person as a whole.

So, you might be asking, what do all these crazy theories mean, and what is their relationship to destroying the world? The point which is being made here is that every person has the ability to control other people simply by having opinions of that person’s actions. Now, this might seem like a cruel and domineering perspective towards social interaction and indeed, it is; but it is important to note that this already happens, that it is a real phenomenon, and that people have a responsibility to take hold of this force and turn it into a cause for good. Let us consider a few brief examples.

This one is only $6,600. What a deal!

First, imagine a female college student who walks up to her friends after class wearing a brand new Gucci bracelet which she purchased for, according to the website, $1,650. “Oh my God,” they might exclaim, “It’s so beautiful.” Having received praise, this girl will be happy with the purchase and she will associate buying the overpriced bracelet with happiness. The girls who do not have a Gucci bracelet will observe the attention she gets and associate owning that bracelet with social praise. They might try to buy something of equal social value in the future.

Second, Imagine a middle aged male, we’ll call him Fred, who works downtown for a corporation in an office building. He is out to lunch one day with several co-workers. They work together but are separated by cubicles. They are acquaintances but not close friends. “Look,” says one of them, “I just got an iphone last week.” Another co-worker gives a smile. “You just got yours?” he asks. “Me and Jim have had ours for months.” A fourth co-worker pulls out a blackberry. “My blackberry is more awesome than your iphones will ever be” he says in a rather snide tone. “How about you Fred, what kind of phone do you have?” Fred pulls out his 15 dollar pre-paid phone, shows it to his buddies, and notes that it has been functioning quite nicely and he is quite happy with it. All of a sudden the table gets quiet, the co-workers exchange glances and Fred feels the need to start a new topic. Fred feels left out of the group, he notices that the others all feel a sense of superiority, and Fred decides that this weekend, he will buy an iphone despite the increase in price and the two year binding contract.

Third, consider our imaginary friend Jamie. She just got married last week and now finds herself at a family reunion. Naturally she begins to spread the news. “Oh, that is so great Jamie, I am so happy for you,” exclaims her aunt. “Let us see the ring,” she pleads. At this moment Jamie feels a twinge of embarrassment as she lifts her hand to reveal the beaded hemp ring her husband made for her. In fact, the two of them had decided their money would be much better spent on a tropical vacation together than it would on a silly symbolic wedding ring. Her aunt and cousins can hardly believe that their relative married someone and received a two dollar ring. They look at her in disgust and end the conversation quickly. Later in the night Jamie hears someone whispering about her husband “he must be a real dirt-bag. A hemp ring?!?!”

Fourth, lets follow George. He just entered the 9^th grade, is excited about high school, and is hoping he can make lots of friends and give off a good impression right from the start. He’s never thought too much about music and has always just listened to what ever happens to be on. He finds himself excited as he walks into his first high school party. As soon as he gets in the door someone puts on a new CD. “Oh Damn, it da new Little Wayne,” yells one guy. “I love this song,” says a pretty girl who begins dancing in the corner. George hears the words of the new hit song:

“I want the money,
money and the cars,
cars and the clothes,
the hoes,
i suppose,
i just wanna be,
i just wanna be,
successful. ”

Hey, he thinks, this song is pretty cool.

Hopefully it is already clear what these four scenarios have in common. Each is an example of social learning. That is, the main person in each scenario is learning how they ought to act if they want to gain social acceptance with particular people. They are learning what people consider cool and what people do not. The girls who see the Gucci bracelet are learning that buying expensive name brand jewelery will help them be more popular. Fred learns that even though his phone does everything he needs it to do, people will think less of him for not having what is considered a “cool” phone. Jamie learns that even though she will be much happier going on vacation with her husband than she will from owning an expensive ring, that this is not socially acceptable, that the worth of her husband is determined by how much he is willing to spend on a useless piece of metal and rocks. George learns that if he wants to fit in with the people who throw parties, he will have to listen to music which encourages wasting money on buying lots of overpriced, “cars, clothes, and hoes.” This is what he must desire if he wants to be “successful,” he learns.

Only $92.00 for this very average polo shirt.

This is what is destroying the world; popularity based consumption. The idea that people will judge you based off of their feelings towards brands which you support financially. This is what has brought us to a point where someone will pay over 1500 bucks for a piece of jewelry which could be made for 20 bucks. The reason that people will sign a 2 year phone contract and pay 100 bucks for a new phone, when a fully functional phone can be purchased for 10 dollars, no strings attached, is because of the social reaction they get by having that nice phone. Additionally, it is the reason perfectly functional four dollar clothes go unpurchased in thrift stores while people spend $132.00 on a t-shirt which displays “Ed Hardy” across the front in enormous letters. Alas, due to socially perceived value, some guy will spend $92.00 on a Lacoste polo with a tiny alligator logo on the front when a nearly identical polo could be bought at Target for $12.00.

The fact is that we live in a world where the marketing companies have won. It is them who dictate, via expensive and far-reaching ad campaigns, exactly what you think is cool. They have the power to manufacture feelings inside your head so that you will consistently engage in irrational behavior, its only justification being the associated social value of engaging in that behavior. Indeed, for many Americans, clothes manufacturers are using years of research on the human brain to create ad campaigns which will get you to spend about 400% more than something is worth, simply because you “like the brand.” The sad reality is that people are buying this overpriced garbage while people on the other side of the world are starving and dying. Americans refuse to pay enough taxes to guarantee health care to all of its citizens, yet many of us will happily spend $200 on a coach hat which is nothing more than a $20 hat plastered with their trademark “C” logo over and over again, so that people from 50 feet away know that you are a cool enough person to buy a coach hat.

Fortunately, there is a solution to all of this madness. Although these feelings are indeed produced by the marketing arm of sleezy companies, the true responsibility falls upon the consumer. Although their ad campaigns try to trick you into buying their overpriced garbage, you are not helpless in the battle. Indeed, you can and should try your utmost to resist these solicitations and instead encourage the opposite behavior. Let us now consider how you should react to various personal choices, in order to create a less materialistic and more honest society which thinks rationally and uses valuable resources wisely.

Someone proudly wears an overpriced clothing brand

This behavior should be scoffed at. Anytime someone is seen in public wearing coach, bebe, ed-hardy, gucci, or any of these other ridiculous “social value added” brands, they should be publicly humiliated. Why on earth should people think someone is cool for spending way to much money on clothes? Would someone be equally cool for flushing 100 dollars down the toilette? The reality of this situation is that someone is taking a very valuable resource, money, and giving it away to a (usually) rich corporation who uses the money to trick more people into feeling like buying their product will make them cool. We should, as a society, discourage this wasteful behavior. In its place we should prefer that people buy an article of clothing which is ethically produced, bears no visible brand, and is sold as cheap as it possibly can, in direct correlation with the functionality of that product. What would be really “cool” is if people made a conscious effort to buy all their clothes from a second hand store. Here it is possible to buy quality clothes which are priced way cheaper than they should be based on their functionality. The purpose of clothes is to keep your body covered, protected, and even to make you look nice. This can be accomplished really cheaply and it is a disgrace to pay a ridiculous sum of money to have a “cool brand.”

People wear jewelery, make-up, and expensive watches.

This too should be shunned. The idea that people must wear make-up or jewelery to be attractive is silly. This is another attempt for companies to produce an artificial need in a person in order to make them buy more useless shit. Girls should stop wearing make-up. Guys shouldn’t pay more than 50 bucks for a watch. The idea that some men will pay in excess of $100,000 for a watch is unbearable. The purpose of a watch is to tell time. Watches can accomplish this for about $10. The fact that someone would spend that much money on a watch while people are starving is deplorable. They are in effect committing murder and should not be perceived any differently. If you really have that much money to blow, should you save a life or show everyone you are really really “cool”(stupid)?

People decide to go with very modest weddings/wedding rings.

This should be encouraged. Imagine how much happier it would make you to travel Europe than to spend $20,000 on a wedding. Imagine how many functional things you could get to start your new lives together instead of buying a $3,000 engagement ring. If your friends skip the traditional wedding and do something cheap, you should encourage them all the way. They are not being cheap, just sensible. Marriage is a celebration of love and a decision to be together forever, not a game of prove your willingness to buy each other expensive useless garbage. Profit motivated individuals have managed to twist this cultural celebration into a reason to senselessly spend money. Bad idea.

People buy the most advanced cell phones

Again, this is not necessary. Sure, a few people might actually need some of the new features of the latest cell phones in order to do their job or perhaps for some other reason. But, the majority of people sign away their freedom so that they can get a $400 phone for $100 bucks and a 2 year contract. The problem here is that these new phones are seldom needed. A phone only really needs to make calls and send texts. While I’ll admit the new technology is cool, it is still mostly a social phenomenon that people are willing to buy a $400 phone when a functional one can be bought for ten or fifteen dollars. It is the perceived social value of having this phone that is the motivating factor, not that the new functionality will make your life that much easier. A phone should work like this: You pay full price for it upfront. You sign no contract. You pay for your service as you use it. End of story.

People buy luxury cars

Again, we should react to this as the disgusting act it is. While it is understandable you might be willing to pay a few extra bucks for air conditioning or a more comfortable interior, why on earth would someone want to buy something like a Ferrari or Lamborghini? The point of a car is to get you from point “A” to point “B.” Although making sure this ride is comfortable makes sense, spending more than 20,000 dollars on a car us pointless. You can probably buy a nice used one for 10 G’s which will get you where you need to go in relative comfort. When someone spends a quarter million dollars for a car, they are clearly showing they have too much money and are hoping their excess cash flow will make up for their inability to make friends. We should look at this type of waste with a scoff and not offer them encouragement for having wasted money.

People have an affinity for watching T.V.

T.V. Is something which can definitely be entertaining, but it is, for the most part, the cause of all the irrational behavior this essay has been discussing. Instead of T.V. Society should encourage people to find an alternative means of entertainment whenever possible. Not only does T.V. stuff us full of advertisements which manufacture the desires to buy worthless stuff for lots of money, it also acts as communicator of social norms. That is, it takes characters in shows who act unrealistically and makes them into a socially accepted norm. It teaches people how relationships should work and what life will offer in the future. Instead of people learning these things by living life, they are constantly turning to the television to shape their desires. This leads to people thinking, usually unconsciously, that buying useless expensive stuff will solve their problems. A better alternative is to watch the shows online and to block their adds to the best of your ability. This will let you see a show in less time and expose you to fewer ads. All the while, it is important to sort the things you see in tv shows into the entertainment category of your brain and not the reality category. Keep shows to a minimum and don’t let their characters shape your conceptions of life and real world behaviors.

For only $200, you can be a walking billboard too!

It might seems harsh, the recommendations given to exclude someone from your circle simply because they bought at abocrombie shirt, but it is really no different than what goes on daily. Consider Fred and our cell phone example mentioned earlier. In our current society people are being socially punished for doing sensible things like buying cheap phones and shopping at thrift stores. People are being rewarded for doing irrational things like using their bodies as billboards for crappy brands. The point of this essay is not to push blame onto all the people who buy this stuff, just to get them to re-consider the motivations for their actions. Also, the goal of this paper is to encourage the minority to stand up for sensible purchases and a less materialistic life. This essay wants people to use the power of social stigma to encourage things which will actually benefit everyone, instead of encouraging those things which benefit the powerful companies which already control government and media.

One day, it is my dream, that people will stop wasting money irrationally. We could spend this cash on creating a much nicer world which encourages art, traveling, reading good books, socializing with friends, and making sure no one in the world goes hungry or lacks health care. The fact is that people have a right to waste their money. It is indeed theirs to waste. It is entirely within your rights to dump money down the toilette while people starve and die, although it is unethical to do so. By wasting money in the frivolous ways mentioned above we are contributing to the oppression and misfortune that takes place all over the world. It is the responsibility of anyone who gives a damn to encourage their friends and family to start spending money rationally, and not to encourage people who waste money on overpriced crap they don’t need. When people wear these disgusting brands, they should be laughed at, not envied. They should be seen as heartless, not cool.