SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE NEW ENVIRONMENT OF CONSUMPTION: CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION REDEFINED

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56815/IRJAHS/2025.n2.14-18

Abstract

Social media can be defined as a computer-based technology that facilitates the sharing of ideas, thoughts, and information through the building of virtual networks and communities. A research conducted in 2021 shows that 78% of the people access social media platforms from their mobile phones. The present paper considers the role of popular social media platforms like You Tube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in creating and disseminating the culture of ‘conspicuous consumption’.‘Conspicuous consumption’, a concept developed by Thorstein Veblen, is that behaviour of social actors , by virtue of which they utilize goods and services not for the satisfaction of their actual needs, but for the sake of showing off to others and gaining self-esteem, which is very much dependent
upon the esteem accorded to them by others in the society. In the present era of increasing influence of digital media, this trend has become the order of the day. This trend however does not remain confined to any particular class, but has a trickle-down effect, thus creating a mass culture marked by false needs.Based on a content analysis of social media posts and personal experiences, and taking lead from Veblen’s theory of the Leisure class and the theory of Mass Culture as developed by the Frankfurt School, the present paper attempts at an understanding of how social media acts as a mirror as well as a tool for reinforcement of behaviour marked by conspicuous consumption, which due to the tendency of pecuniary emulation, gives rise to a homogenized society.