MentalPolyphonics
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
May 23, 2007 at 6:23 pm
Postmodern marketing theory says “you are what you buy.” Or more precisely, “your identity is what you chose to consume and not to consume from the available options” (because it still counts if it’s free; and choosing not to consume something counts, eg: meat).
Everybody wants to belong to a group (I’m going to use “tribe”), so you’ll be happier if you’re buying what some other people are buying. There aren’t many tribes that cover all of life; eg: if you’re a Foodie, what clothes do you buy besides an apron? And many tribes don’t have a lot of depth; eg: you can’t be an ironic Hipster all of the time.
Advertisers, probably largely by accident, have created the world’s largest tribe: teenagers. Youth the world over consume basically the same things and therefore feel a connection. Media privilege this tribe, creating a positive feedback loop. The tribe of youth is supposed to have an age limit, but why would you obey it when you’re expected to jump from your powerful family into dinky, vague alternatives?
The media’s favourite effects of this are failure to consume housing, wedding rings, and diapers. Members of the tribe do consume iPods, adventure travel, videogames, streetwear, drugs, etc. (Sounds like everyone you know?) A more subtle effect is that since adolescence is a time of finding your identity, eternal adolescence means an identity never completely found.
Shifting identity is recognizable in analysis at a completely different scale: Canada is a child of Mother Britain and Father America. Canada is concerned about growing up to be like its drunken father, so it clings to an adolescent identity. This is reinforced by individual citizens who, although they are provided with a national identity, would rather buy one from American big-box stores.
MentalPolyphonics.com » I Am a Dead Fish
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[...] Since our culture worships youth, there is an emphasis on narratives from that period of your life or involving the sorts of activities engaged in by youth. There is also an emphasis on embodied activities over intellectual events. [...]
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[...] (although I gotta say, Starbucks is rocking those knee-high boots). People need to stop focusing identity-forming positional consumption, which separates people, and get together to change the [...]