Finally, here are some of the facets of the adolescent self that might be relevant when considering what and why young people of this age consume. We have already looked at social referencing in Chapter 7 in the section on “Identity and Role Confusion” when the adolescent anchors her mood changing, body changing self to others by benchmarking using upward and downward social comparison. There are other ways of sourcing information for the development of self. One that is peculiarly relevant for today’s adolescents was originally put forward by Cooley (1902) in his ‘looking-glass self ’. The metaphor of a reflecting self was reflexive in that you evaluate what you think you look like, together with what you think another person thinks about you or how she judges your appearance, and add some emotion (pride and mortification were the ones cited in Cooley (op. cit., cited in Franks & Gecas, 1992, p. 51)). Although self-image is not a direct reflection of the impressions of other and you are assumed to get some sort of evaluation from what others think of you, other viewers or participants are assumed to play a major role in contributing to your self-image. And this, for the adolescent is even more important given the nature of adolescent thought where others’ opinions, especially those of peers and significant others is so important. Adolescents are also avid consumers of social media and a continual barrage of ‘likes’, comments and emoticons of ‘selfies’ and shots of cakes may create a false impression of popularity.
Another facet of the self can be found in the context of social media and is therefore appropriate for today’s youth. Kerrigan and Hart (2016) call it ‘digital personhood ’ and Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) claimed that the functions of social media can be classified as self-presentation, self-disclosure as in Twitter or Weibo, social networking as with Facebook , connecting sharing communities (YouTube) and both virtual social worlds (Second Life) and virtual game worlds (World of Warcraft). The size of social media is immense and Kerrigan and Hart (2016) claimed that Facebook holds over one billion active users worldwide. 29 So how do adolescents and younger adults relate to social media? According to Kerrigan and Hart (2016, Table 1) analyses of the process of social media participation rely heavily on the work of Erving Goffman (1959) a literature that is not unknown to many sociologists and psychologists. The dominance of this paradigm and the more empirical offshoots such as impression management is in my opinion justified as much of the face work 30 done online using social media is with people who will only be your virtual friend and who you will rarely if ever meet in the flesh. This creates a novel environment that Goffman who died in 1982 could not have anticipated. However it is quite appropriate to use the powerful conceptual equipment that he left for us in his writings in order to obtain insights. For example emails between colleagues in universities were not uncommon 25 years ago and spread to businesses before the turn of the century. Nowadays in England, in 2016 83% of the adult population used the internet daily or almost every day, up from 70% in 2012 (Office for National Statistics (GB), 2016). So there has been a rapid rise in internet use with a ceiling of saturation use and there is no reason to believe this is not a universal trend in most economically active countries. Netiquette, the correct or acceptable way of using the internet, spread from academic and business audiences initially and included not using capitals as they are read as SHOUTing, recognising the level of informality (e.g. is it ‘Hi’, ‘Good morning’, ‘Dear Mr. X’, and familiar names or title and surname?) and the acceptable time limit for an expected reply. However with the spread of social media and smartphone platforms, the rules change and possibility of misunderstandings increase. Impression management on social media is risky and with a large circle of Facebook friends, teens run the risk of unintended enmity and animosity as well as flattery and friendship.
Summary
In this section we have looked at the developmental origins of ownership and possession . Where does it all start? Very early in life if we look at the psychoanalytic explanation reviewed and discussed by Woodward (2011) and based on Winnicott’s (1953, 1971) object-relations theory . The zone or ‘transitional space ’ between mother and infant during feeding for example or when the infant interacts with another object is where need, want, and longing can arise and drive the quest in future consumption . By two years of age the child has a basic understanding of objects that belong to them and an understanding of the symbolic function of brands and products that are owned and displayed by someone will emerge in the preschool period and can function as an integral part of the child’s growing self-awareness and social relationships. Consumer constellations that emerge later can provide a functioning stereotype of group membership and they continue through adolescence embracing several aspects of the identity of young person such as their musical tastes and preferences and choice of clothes.
By the time the adolescent has become a young adult her ownership, possession , and expectation of goods and services is understood not just for their functionality but also for their symbolic value and this permeates most of the psychology of the individual including the different aspect of the self . Objects, manners, style and taste are appreciated and understood automatically and the young adult consumer can tune into social groups and discharge appropriate roles as a member of different groups using self-presentation skills. Most consumer researchers in ownership and possession will work over this field populated with savvy adult consumers and only occasionally in their research nod in the direction of the young ones, so we need to explore now this world of adult stuff.
Notes
1.Bourdieu’s enthusiasm for education ascribing cultural capital to the graduates is perhaps reflective of his own history ascending through the structured French educational system and graduating through the Ecole Normale Supérieure, which for many aspiring French students was the top of the academic tree.
2.The voiced—unvoiced distinction in phonology distinguishes ‘p’ from ‘b’, or ‘ch’ from ‘sh’.
3.My apologies to all these F-Ss out there but for some reason that name resonates for me as prototypical.
4.I have used the numbers this way to emphasise the exclusivity of these routes to the top of the political ladder in the UK as they emphasise the ‘route within routes’ nested structure of privilege.
5.I recall after leaving University and revisiting and chatting to elderly relatives back home, that one said ‘ye talk like a book, son’. There could be no response made by me that to that call.
6.I was sceptical about PIF as it looked so contrived but the authors do cite Karma Kitchen, their local Indian restaurant as operating a PIF pricing model for Sunday lunch for some years. In the UK there are plenty Indian restaurants offering an ‘eat as much as you like for a fixed price’ model. The authors however are affiliated to two California universities, UC Berkeley and UC San Diego. Maybe there are cultural differences working here?
7.Focussing on Christmas does not suggest I am ignorant of the other winter festivals such as Hanukkah, Diwali, Kwanzaa, or Yalda.
8.The unholy mixture of Santa Claus, Jesus in the manger, and three wise men coupled with copious and conspicuous consumption of alcohol and rich HFSS foods is just too much for some of us. Google ‘escape Christmas’ for some alternatives.
9.The range of ‘occasions’ covers birth to death and celebrations and anniversaries in between as a stroll round a card shop will demonstrate.
10.This secrecy can be difficult to maintain especially if the present is large and easily identifiable from its shape; like a bicycle for example. As I recall from childhood, a helpful and compliant neighbour can be very useful.
11.Thus increasing the value of the relationship which will have more staying power and hence higher chances of the genotype or phenotype surviving.
12.I’m using the expression in the sense of ‘friends and relatives’.
13.The so-called ‘tabula rasa’ that Locke popularised with the assumption that all knowledge arose from sensory experience.
14.Beware card exchange. Even just a brief
scan of my local card shop reveals cards that can accompany gifts where the message might suggest the recipient is an alcoholic or sexually continuously active. Use cards with little or no message and suitably peaceful and unambiguous scenes on them.
15.Although the authors emphasise the ‘Chinese-ness’ of Hong Kong, my own interpretation would assume that several cultural influences work on people especially those who have grown up and lived in that place and that both self (independent) and group (interdependent) construals are available.
16.Belk’s treatment of the extended self was also framed in a lifespan sequence which led me to thinking that perhaps all consumption practices could be treated in a similar way.
17.This is best defined by Ho in terms of two interacting parties as “the reciprocated compliance, respect, and/or deference that each party expects from, and extends to the other party” (cited in Bond, 2010, p. 481). It’s actually a bit more complex than that as it will also depend on Confucian morality and the extent to which relationships are equal or hierarchical.
18.An example might be where a grandchild receives an endowment on the death of the giver but this is only on the child’s future 21st birthday.
19.Possession would be the term that I think Winnicott prefers but the generally accepted words for searching for example would be ‘transitional object’.
20.There is no suggestion here that the mother is aware of the terms ‘fetish’ and ‘magic’—they are used to describe certain aspects of the psychanalytic theory behind the explanation of the behaviour.
21.Gene Wilder’s portrayal of Leopold Bloom, the stressed accountant with his desperate need for his ‘blue blanket’ at times of stress in Mel Brooks’ 1967 film The Producers could be taken as epitomising this magical and fetishistic process. Or maybe ironizing it.
22.However, this does not mean that within routine consumption goods are not ‘transitioned’ and much of the power of analyses like these is to see how within the ordinary, the extraordinary can be found. See for example Silverstone (1993).
23.I rely on Woodward’s commentary on Bollas here, rather than the original paper.
24.The ‘object’ here is used in the widest sense and covers animate and inanimate objects or parts of objects.
25.This is not as simple as might be thought. Some authors such as Belk talk of consumption symbolism and others (e.g. McAlister & Cornwell, 2010) refer to brand symbolism. There is also the term ‘consumption constellation’ suggesting that certain brands, products and consumption patterns go together in groups of individuals. Searching in different places using these and other words demonstrates that there is a literature out there though.
26.I’m assuming these changes from the original operational definition of Watkins et al. (2017) is seen as a legitimate generalisation.
27.I hesitate to continue with ‘tastes, preferences and style of life’ as a whole raft of social and group influences and different kinds of salient identities have still to emerge through adolescence and the rest of life as well as access to income and inclination or desire to spend it on symbolic value purchases.
28.They said at the end of their paper that “…the question of when this ability begins is still unclear. Are preschoolers able to form even simpler constellations than first graders?” (Chaplin & Lowrey, 2010, p. 775).
29.Over three times the population of the USA.
30.Face work in Goffman’s terminology implies that rule governed impression management is used as a matter of course in interpersonal communication and that one’s social relationships are maintained that way.
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