Generation Bubble

Public Image Unlimited: Consumerism and Anonymity’s End

The apotheosis of consumerism is where our identity is entirely implicated in market-mediated sociality. This fact can’t be buffered by the anonymity of money and market exchange. Rather than entering into an exchange with a stable identity, we become ourselves through the public transaction, which provides us with a self only for as long as it is approved in the interaction process. The exchange is “singularized,” its uniqueness supplants that of the people involved. They fade into the communal backdrop, waiting to emerge again in another dramatic moment of “sharing.” And every effort at sharing will be judged, fixing our place within a status hierarchy. We can fantasize about finding the status hierarchy we could dominate — maximizing our “subcultural capital.” But this involves doubling down on personalized exchange, moving further away from the capital that circulates with no questions asked (money) and reinforcing the value of contingent capital that has worth only in particularly circumstances. So at that point, we would be dealing in an even more obscure personal currency, begging for people to accept it, exchange it into acceptance and attention. Even if we were fortunate enough to find people to accept it, would we be willing to sacrifice the ability to trade with anyone else? Or would we be content to be the big fish in a ludicrously small puddle, without worrying about the size of everyone else’s ponds?