CONSUMER CULTURE AND MODERNITY

 
Consumer Culture and Modernity
Introduction
The consumer theory in economics defines the relationship between the income and his
purchasing power. There are many internal and external factors which influence the buying
decisions of consumers and it makes consumer buying process a complex matter. The low value
products are bought by consumers on impulse without pondering much. The company focuses
mainly on attracting consumers of their competitors and winning the competition. According to
Don Slater, a customer does not act rationally, nor acts like a vulnerable dupe. Instead, the
consumer acts as a self-conscious manipulator of meaning behind symbols which are attached
to the consumer goods and a consumer acts like a person who chooses products in order to
retain or create a standard impression, identity or lifestyle. In contemporary society, the image
of such a consumer may be well-known as “craft consumer” as it is a guide in comprehending
the behaviour practiced by the consumer (Janneke , 2009). Don Slater has tried to place
consumer culture of today in the modern context and has remarked as to how the consumer
and consumer sovereignty is developed in terms of modernization.
The Act of Consumption:
The Act of consumption indicates a strong link between ritual behaviour, consumption and
modernity which shows the significance of objects and images in social construction (Thomas,
2011).
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These days, consumer owners and brand managers try to absorb cultural ideas and iconography
which helps the consumer brands to reflect by projecting the ideas and pictures reverting it into
a culture as “extensions” for brands (Klein, 2000).
The media today plays an important role in the act of consumption as the endorsements and
iconography influences greatly on the buying choices that the consumers make. These reasons
have made manufacturers to make products which are aesthetically creative and designed
attractively which makes it more geographically cultural and adds to the system of trade (Slater,
1997).
In the olden days, the act of consumption was usually based upon pictorial prints used by the
early modern era people (Thomas, 2011). It was believed that the images carry practical
information, such as engineering restructuring and steps in furniture making. The expressive
ones were used in the representation of culture and the economic value of the product was
determined. Therefore it is for sure that printing and images in consumption act dates back to
early modern period and the production procedures used printing as a cultural heritage. Ever
since the development of printing trend, a lot of marketing and advertising techniques were
introduced which increased the sales in the market substantially. The consumer culture is said
to have formed a scope of consumer choices (Janneke , 2009).
The consumers are the leaders in the scope of market. They calculate their self-interest
rationally and connect their humane desires and social institutions with them so that the
market demands can respond to it. All these behaviours give a rise to coordinating social action
and extracts law, policies, and practices from the consumers. Hence a social compromise occurs
between the identification of consumer desires as well as its linkage to the utility. Hence, this 
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way the resources are allocated through an efficient mechanism with regards to the consumer’s
desire. Slater is of the view that the cost that the culture has to pay for consumerism is the
same as it has to pay for modernity to culture.
The Act of Consumption changed its meaning when a shift in the thinking of consumers took
place and they put forward their notions as to why the youth used the products of mass
marketing without criticizing. It also suggested that the pressures of the advertisers and
marketers were resisted. Miller suggested that the transformation of object should take place
and this is possible if the object is recontextualized and the transformation of consumer goods
can take place into “potentially inalienable culture (Janneke , 2009).” When these activities like
collecting, gifting, refurnishing of a product would take place, the product would become a
crafted good or a consumer good rather than a commodity.
“Craft consumption” is an activity in which not just practice control over the process of
consumption but also bring about a set of creativity which includes skills, knowledge,
judgement, love and an overwhelming passion to their consuming which would be similar to
the way that the craftsmen and craftswomen deal with their task (Thomas, 2011).
There is no limitation involved between the wants and desires of a modern consumer and the
making of the producer. Hence consumption this way is not regarded and treated as a waste or
a deficit from the economy but rather makes economic production a focal point. It makes
consumption as systematic needs of expansion and a crisis-free capitalist e