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Yi Zhuang

Dr. Erin McLaughlin


Multimedia Writing & Rhetoric
Nov 24th, 2015
Consuming by Our Likes How We Are Affected by Consumerism Inside Social Media
One of the most significant signs of globalization, Internet is now a life essential for
many contemporary users. Social media, which allows people to create and communicate ideas
and information, is significantly popular among young users who are ready to share their views,
lives, and their likes with peers. Instagram, based on smart phone application, is one of the
major platform for users to share pictures with others. Recently, an Instagram celebrity quitted all
her social network and re-edited the captions of her past Instagram posts, revealing that she was
paid to post her life wearing the clothes sponsored by certain brands and shops to advertise
for them. This immediately arouse debates about these particular group social media celebrities
who post about their life, their outfit of the day and thereby gaining great popularity among
other users some of whom become their followers.
On the other hand, as the Chinese consuming culture has transformed tremendously since
the birth of the nation, a lot of youth tend to engage in luxury consumption. They are frequent
social media users, and among them are also some internet celebrities and trend followers. As
one of the group, I cannot help but feel uncomfortable whenever open up Instagram, and see my
Chinese peers wearing exactly the same types of brand shoes and luxury bags. The next minute I
open up my online chat application, I can always see groups of girls talking about fashion week,
about new sales, and about luxurious eating and dating spots. I am one among them, sometimes,
as a great fan of shopping. However, I still feel compelled to make myself stay in trend, by

following the styles my peers like. Are we pushing ourselves too far from our genuine selves?
Are we in fact, forced to follow the trends imposed to us by social media?
As this paper will argue, social media like Instagram, under consumerism and
materialism culture, makes these Chinese youths engage in luxury consumption and harm their
personal well-being by setting unrealistic standards of good life and promoting certain
lifestyle. The paper will examine the consumerism and materialism culture within the social
media platform, the consumerism culture inside Chinese youth consumers, the culture of being
liked on social media and how this all results in excess consumption and harm to well-being.
Social Media and Our Shopping Behavior
Social media plays an important role in promoting luxury consumption among Chinese
youths through posts of fancy lifestyles. As a manifestation of Web 2.0, social media has a
significant role in promoting consumption, especially among youth users through peer
communication. As assistant professors at the University of Florida points out, in the United
States alone, it was found 22% of Twitter users purchased a product after tweeting or after
retweeting, while 33% of Facebook users made a purchase after sharing, liking, or making a
comment. (Muralidaharan, Sidharth and Men 596) They conclude the phenomenon as Social
Networks provide users with a hedonistic consumer experience. (596) That is to say, social
media users often find shopping through social network to be both convenient and useful through
communicating shopping and post shopping experiences with their peers. Instagram, although it
is not by itself shoppable now, still provides bunch of ways for people to enjoy consumption
just as Twitter, Facebook and many other social media do. A lot of brands have their official
Instagram accounts now, leaking advertising pictures through the platform. For example,
Valentino, the famous Italian luxury brand enjoys 5.5 million followers, whereas Louis Vuitton

official enjoys 8 million. Most of their posts are about celebrities, movie stars and fashion
bloggers with their brand clothes, handbags or shoes. Apart from the active branding on social
media, the internet celebrities also play a significant role in social media shopping. One of the
most famous fashion blogger worldwide, Chiara Ferragni enjoys 5 million followers in total. She
posts 3-4 times every day and all in different apparels. After posting, these internet celebrities
will normally leave a caption describing the brands for specific outfit and tag the brand as a
quick link for the audience to explore further. This strategy then successfully grasps the audience
attention and attracts them to click on the link and possibly engage in further shopping.
Instagram is a little portal into someones life the outfits they favor, the way they decorate
their homes, the vacations they take which is maybe why Insta-shopping often ends up feeling
so cozy, like you live in a small town where all the shopkeepers and customers know each other.
(Marisa Meltzer 98) However, it may be hard to discover the truth that such online branding
affects normal life. Though it seems people are themselves the agents to get engage in the
shopping behavior, they are in fact influenced by the styling trend ruled by the internet
celebrities they trust and follow.
This influence mainly comes from the autonomous comparison and judgment between
oneself and the celebrity aroused by the pictures on Instagram. As Marsha Richins, the Chair
professor of Marketing department in University of Missouri summarizes, this frequent
exposure to images of wealthy, beautiful, and happy people generates a false reality in which the
uncommon and ideal become mundane and attainable. (Social Comparison, Advertising, and
Consumer Discontent 242) When people are browsing the pictures shared by celebrities, they
are actually unintentionally affected to judge themselves. It is common to find out comments
under the super models posts of sentences like I wish I could be like you even for one day.

Such comments in fact reflect the inner self-judgment when comparing oneself with the
celebrities who seemingly lead a glamorous life. However, such judgment is unreasonable.
Everyone has his or her own trait and uniqueness, why should we wish to become a glamorous
star? Thereby, when one starts judging oneself for the differences one has from the celebrities,
one is in fact consumed by the high standard set by the overall consumerism culture within social
media.
Consumerism and Materialism the Contemporary Culture
This phenomenon comes form the general consumerism culture society wide: Merchants
want to maximize selling; customers want to satisfy themselves through purchasing.
Consumerism, a modern consumer culture, has evolved far from the need-based consumption.
As David Kiron, the executive editor from MIT Sloan Management Review, points out, the
vision of the good life that is elaborated by the themes of advertising has become increasingly
oriented toward more luxurious and comfortable lifestyles. (233) Most of the modern
economists conclude consumer culture to limitlessness of desire in human nature. That is, the
endless dissatisfaction within human psychology arouses the tendency to purchase excess goods.
This tendency can become extremely compelling under the effect of advertising. Richins presents
that (advertisement) does so in part by inducing social comparison with idealized images and by
raising consumers expectation about what ought to be in their lives, particularly with respect to
consumer goods. For many, the result of these processes is dissatisfaction and a desire for
increased consumption. (Social Comparison, Advertising, and Consumer Discontent, 242) As
consumers are always discontent with reality and eager for something better, they are always
willing to accept and cater on the ever-changing fashion. This particular dissatisfaction, then
becomes a catalyst for consumption.

This endless need for material good as a satisfier then results in materialism, the
excessive desire to obtain material goods. Richins defines materialism as the importance a
consumer places on the acquisition and ownership of possessions and the tendency to view
acquisition as a necessary means to reach important life goals and desired end states. (When
Wanting is Better than Having 2) That is to say, materialists view material possession as a major
source of happiness and central goal in life. Recent study from San Diego State University and
University of Georgia shows that recent generations are becoming more and more focused on
material and money gaining. (Twege, Campbell and Freeman 1050) The increasing inclination
toward material gaining, as a result of consumerism culture, however, is actually shown to have
negative impacts on peoples well-being. Researches and national survey conclude that when
materialists are continuously satisfying themselves through purchase, they are actually raising
their standard for satisfaction and therefore harder to feel satisfied through next consumption.
Studies also concludes the negative effect of materialism life: The more people aspire to
materialistic goals, the less satisfied they are with life, and the more at risk they are for
developing psychological disorders. (Van Boven, 139) Thereby, materialistic pursuits actually
hinder people from gaining long-term happiness through other immaterial experiences.
Consumerism and China
Though some may believe consumerism and materialism value is rooted in western
capitalism countries only, China, as a growing giant economic body, has transformed a lot from
its traditional repression of consuming to conspicuous consumption nowadays. The original
thriftiness endorsed by communist government and Confucian value is no longer present,
especially among Chinese youth consumers. At the beginning of nations formation, because of
the communist government values, consumption is restricted. According to Duan and Dholakias

study in Chinese customer values conducted in University of Rhode Island, Chinese have long
values thriftiness, suppressing of desire and the delaying of gratification through consumption,
especially conspicuous consumption. (410) However, since Chinese economic reform in 1978,
the country has experienced radical transformation in economic body and contemporary culture.
More notably, as the development of technology advanced internet, Chinese people are
connected to western values and global consumerism culture. The study also concludes the
reason to the transformation: Because they witness the rapid development of the market
economy and are well exposed to the Western culture, people who were born during Chinas
economic reform years tend to hold materialistic values. (Duan, Dholakia 410) What is more,
the one child policy also plays a significant role in youth consumption. As one research from
Science magazine concludes, the one child policy in China makes the single child in family
become little emperors growing up spoiled by family and seldom feel stressful economically.
(Cameron et al. 953) Therefore, they always tend to the hedonism and materialism values
having limitless goals for satisfaction in consuming.
Though in traditional perception, the low average income in China restricts its consuming
potential; however, the unequal development throughout the nation actually ends up with giant
luxury consumption. Considering per capita income, China is still one of the poorest countries in
the world according to World Bank statistics, Chinas GDP per capita is $7,593.9 while that of
United States is $54,629.5, more than 7 times of that of China. However, because of the
disproportional development over the country and increasing inequality among its citizens,
Chinese urban residents in fact have considerably increasing economic income, more than twice
of that of national average. The unequal development throughout the nation magnifies
polarization among its citizens the rich in fact has great economic potential for excess

luxurious consumption. For instance, the Fortune Character Institute points out that Chinese
consumers spent $102,000,000 on luxury consumption in 2013, nearly one half of the global
market luxury consumption.
Urban Chinese residents, especially those who enjoy notable wealth, tend to enjoy luxury
consumption for reasons of Bandwagon, Snob and Veblenian as Harvard Professor and
Economist Leibenstein theorizes. As researchers from University of Miami explains, that such
consumption reflects the tendency to conform to social norm, the desire to be special and
differentiate oneself from the group and (the desire to) openly display wealth to signal social
status. (Tsai, Yang and Liu, 293) For the youth Chinese from wealthy families, they are eager to
distinguish themselves from other peers; however, as they are not aware of how, they tend to
follow the social standard for fancy lives the lives of internet celebrities who enjoy adoration
from other users; aware of their wealth, they also want to highlight their social status through
luxury consumption. These factors altogether result in the youth consumption in luxury.
The Chinese youth engaging in such luxury consumption then diverges into two major
groups: internet celebrities and followers, whereas the followers are usually affected through
autonomous comparison. One of my high school upperclassman, Elise Hu enjoys thousands of
followers on Instagram. Elise now starts her own shop selling the brand bags and clothes she
recommends. She usually posts her brand outfit, her dinner at Michelin restaurants, her travels to
Dubai, Paris, Milano and etc. or her stays at grand hotels. The followers send out like, follow
the new fashion trend she recommends, visit the same restaurant, try the same coffee shop, and
set out to purchase the same clothes, shoes, or bags she has in the her own shop or professional
buyer shop usually shops of sponsorship. On the other hand, the followers mostly ordinary
people enjoy killing time through social media are inevitably affected by these posts: why I

cannot have these glamorous looks, why I cannot enjoy so many likes from others, why I cannot
get popular among my peers Such questions usually end up with dissatisfaction in real life,
and then under the consumerism culture, these followers tend to participate in consumption, in
the belief that consuming material goods can bridge the gap between themselves and the
celebrities they want to become. The consumption circle inside Instagram then, becomes a
hidden culture the celebrities promote their luxurious lifestyles, and the followers cater on
these particular lifestyles through luxury consumption.
Conclusion
In all, Instagram reflects consumerism and materialism culture within the society. Such
culture makes Chinese youths users follow the trend set by the celebrities they adore. However,
as a result of the consumerism and materialism culture, the illusion that the dissatisfaction
aroused by comparison between celebrities and oneself can be erased through consumption is in
fact harmful to personal well-being. When followers are treating the material life of the
Instagram stars as standards for good life, they are losing the access to the long-term happiness
through immaterial experiences. Though we may treat ourselves as intelligent agents who are
capable of acting on our own life values, we may still be affected without notice by social media
ironically, we are consumed by our likes.

Works Cited:
Duan, Jingyi, and Dholakia, Nikhilesh. (2015),The reshaping of Chinese consumer values in the
social media era, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, Vol. 18 Iss 4
pp. 409 426
Goodwin, Neva R. The Consumer Society. Washington, D.C.: Island, 1997. Print.
L. Cameron, N. Erkal, L. Gangadharan, and X. Meng "Little Emperors: Behavioral Impacts of
Chinas One-Child Policy." Science 10 Jan. 2013: 953-57. Print.
Leibenstein, H. "Bandwagon, Snob, And Veblen Effects In The Theory Of Consumers'
Demand." Quarterly Journal Of Economics 64.2 (1950): 183-207. Business Source
Complete. Web. 23 Nov. 2015.
Meltzer, Marisa. "Instashopping." Fader 96 (2015): 32-37. Academic Search Premier. Web. 24
Nov. 2015.
Muralidharan, Sidharth, and Linjuan Rita Men. "How Peer Communication And Engagement
Motivations Influence Social Media Shopping Behavior: Evidence From China And The
United States." Cyberpsychology, Behavior & Social Networking 18.10 (2015): 595-601.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.
Richins, Marsha L. "When Wanting Is Better Than Having: Materialism, Transformation
Expectations, And Product-Evoked Emotions In The Purchase Process." Journal Of
Consumer Research 40.1 (2013): 1-18.Business Source Complete. Web. 21 Nov. 2015.
Tsai, Wanhsiu Sunny, Yang Qinghua, and Liu Yu. "Young Chinese Consumers' Snob And
Bandwagon Luxury Consumption Preferences." Journal Of International Consumer
Marketing 25.5 (2013): 290-304. Business Source Complete. Web. 23 Nov. 2015.

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