Experiential Consumerism

[Reno]

Seems to be a thing now amongst my better off m/c friends.

People who not so long ago were very materialistic are now all "Oh, We're not about 'stuff' we're about 'experiences'".

Which they then buy as a package based upon whatever is in vogue amongst their peers.

Yuk.

I've had plenty of experiences, I didn't pay for them. I could do with some more 'stuff' (or better stuff) though, thanks.

It's only the media which keeps telling me that this is apparently a thing now. I've never actually heard anybody talk about it that way. What does that even mean ? If people can afford to go to on a holiday, a gig, the theater or go see a sex worker, then I suppose that's an "experience". They haven't just started doing it now because its in fashion, they've always done these things.

 

[Yossarian]

I tried to look up "experience packages" and got a link to some "Psychedelic Society" getaway to take psilocybin truffles in the Netherlands, which probably says more about my search history than it does about trends in experiential consumerism.

Psychedelic Experience Retreats · The Psychedelic Society

 

[Magnus McGinty]

I don't think owning a smartphone can really be considered some sort of wild consumerist extravagance. 85% of UK adults have them - close to 100% for younger adults.

And so it’s easy to say you prefer experiences if you already have those kinds of desirable items covered. Or are they saying, don’t buy me a Jaguar this year as I’d much prefer a trek along the Andes?

 

[killer b]

And so it’s easy to say you prefer experiences if you already have those kinds of desirable items covered. Or are they saying, don’t buy me a Jaguar this year as I’d much prefer a trek along the Andes?

I've no idea, I don't know anyone who says stuff like that. The stuff the OP talks about sounds like one of those awful articles the Guardian prints in the weekend pages. I've never been totally convinced those articles are about real people.

I know people who go on holidays and post pictures of them on facebook (hell, I even do that myself), but I think sharing photos of the fun things you do with your mates is a fairly normal thing to do. We even do it on here.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

You can be superior and condescending. Archly so. The Urban way.

I had arrived at this very conclusion after scrolling through the comments here. Okay well,

Smartphones - as a middle class signifier. I will be pointing this out to the youth of Birmingham.

As for those people who take photos of stuff rather than sitting there in a reflective manner what a bunch of cunts eh...

 

[Magnus McGinty]

I've no idea, I don't know anyone who says stuff like that. The stuff the OP talks about sounds like one of those awful articles the Guardian prints in the weekend pages. I've never been totally convinced those articles are about real people.

I know people who go on holidays and post pictures of them on facebook (hell, I even do that myself), but I think sharing photos of the fun things you do with your mates is a fairly normal thing to do. We even do it on here.

The op was talking about people he knew.

I had arrived at this very conclusion after scrolling through the comments here. Okay well,

Smartphones - as a middle class signifier. I will be pointing this out to the youth of Birmingham.

As for those people who take photos of stuff rather than sitting there in a reflective manner what a bunch of cunts eh...

I’m not saying it’s a mc signifier. I’m now perplexed as to what material things they’re apparently rejecting.

 

[LDC]

I don't think owning a smartphone can really be considered some sort of wild consumerist extravagance. 85% of UK adults have them - close to 100% for younger adults.

Read something recently that was a load of interviews with refugees fleeing war zones/disasters and their phone was their number 1 item they'd take. Number 2 was often a power bank or another phone.

 

[Magnus McGinty]

I think it’s possibly that they’re not having experiences instead of material stuff, they’re having it aswell as but painting it in a bohemian way.

 

[LDC]

It's experiences as material commodified stuff, isn't that the point?

 

[Magnus McGinty]

It's experiences as material commodified stuff, isn't that the point?

Well that was the point the op was making, yes. But also that they think they’re post-materialistic (or something).

Seems to be a thing now amongst my better off m/c friends.

People who not so long ago were very materialistic are now all "Oh, We're not about 'stuff' we're about 'experiences'".

 

[Yu_Gi_Oh]

I think the idea of experiential consumerism is fueled by things like bucket lists and an idea of 'doing' a country, as if you can consume it and digest it and it's not there any more.

My in-laws have been to China several times now. They don't want to come back because they've done China. It's all done. Tick, tick, tick. Been there. Got a photo of that place. They've done all of the must-do's that this country is said to contain. I'm not sure if they've ever actually been here at all though. They were too busy doing it.

 

[SpookyFrank]

But it’s an object/tool that people don’t necessarily need, it’s a high end piece of tech that people desire. Anyway, I was adding to your earlier point and not looking for a disagreement.

Great, thanks.

 

[Jon-of-arc]

People, buying stuff, with their money, maybe posting it on social media.... Cunts.

How fucking sneering is this post?

 

[SpookyFrank]

How fucking sneering is this post?

Very.

Or were you referring to the OP?

 

[mojo pixy]

I think the idea of experiential consumerism is fueled by things like bucket lists and an idea of 'doing' a country, as if you can consume it and digest it and it's not there any more.

My in-laws have been to China several times now. They don't want to come back because they've done China. It's all done. Tick, tick, tick. Been there. Got a photo of that place. They've done all of the must-do's that this country is said to contain. I'm not sure if they've ever actually been here at all though. They were too busy doing it.

Yeah, 'doing' places seems to exemplify that consumeristic approach to travelling. Like "having an experience" is more about the having than the experience.

 

[Jon-of-arc]

Very.

Or were you referring to the OP?

Both..

 

[8ball]

It's the human condition to want more and more, surely?
As long as we a have a instrument of measurement that assures us "we" have more than "Them" then it can be anything really?

What, even haemorrhoids?

 

[maomao]

What, even haemorrhoids?

More bum health.

 

[chilango]

Both..

You should have heard the sneery tone used towards me in the conversation referred to in my OP.

I'd only asked what they wanted for Christmas.

 

[chilango]

...and I'm less talking about about whatever the activity happens to be but more about how it's sold and consumed.

Y'know, the commodification of experience, of emotion, of memory.

That's not a benign trend.

 

[Jon-of-arc]

You should have heard the sneery tone used towards me in the conversation referred to in my OP.

I'd only asked what they wanted for Christmas.

Fair enough, and I've no doubt there are some arseholes out there who probably do need sneering at doing this kind of thing, but "experiences" as gifts has been a thing for a while now. It's no different from someone getting you tickets to a gig or something, really. Plenty of perfectly sound and ordinary people I know do stuff like this...

 

[Treacle Toes]

Yes, even going to the cinema is experiential consumerism if it's sold to you using pouncy marketing language that includes description s of the chairs and suggests ones arse won't get numb...

 

[killer b]

I think this is an interesting topic, but you got off on the wrong foot by comparing it to your own more virtuous model of consuming experiences.

It's difficult to avoid these discussions becoming a babushka doll of sneering - at the end of the day everyone is searching for meaning in an increasingly fucked up world, and it's understandable that many people in a consumer-based society would find purchasing meaning an option.

 

[chilango]

I think this is an interesting topic, but you got off on the wrong foot by comparing it to your own more virtuous model of consuming experiences.

It's difficult to avoid these discussions becoming a babushka doll of sneering - at the end of the day everyone is searching for meaning in an increasingly fucked up world, and it's understandable that many people in a consumer-based society would find purchasing meaning an option.

Wasn't intended to be "more virtuous" At least not in that sense.

It was more about disparity in wealth.

But I guess that didn't across the way I intended

 

[chilango]

I'd also argue that whilst "commodification" of the immaterial is that the right word?) Is the big picture...

...it's also about the gentrification of activities.

 

[toblerone3]

To blur the lines somewhat, what about "the Smartphone experience". That sort of thing seems to be a trend in the way that material consumerist objects are marketed.

 

[Fez909]

I was having this very conversation on Sunday with a friend, but I didn't see it as most of the descriptions on this thread have seen it. I was thinking more like, it's better to go on holiday for two weeks than have a UHD OLED Samsung Smart TV.

Sure, the TV will last longer, and you'll appreciate it for potentially years. But a holiday has the potential to make you feel great, as well as dwell on the memories of it, for years after the TV has been resigned to landfill.

Even better if you go away with someone you're still around - a long term friend or a partner. The shared and remembered 'experience' is even better than one where you're just recalling a past trip with someone who wasn't there.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

Wasn't intended to be "more virtuous" At least not in that sense.

It was more about disparity in wealth.

But I guess that didn't across the way I intended

No, it didn't. I think the question of 'experiential consumerism' is an interesting one. It raises questions about embeddedness under neoliberalism and also about changing 'cultural repertoires'. There is definitely a class context too but not in the way some posters have expressed it here in my opinion.

 

[Treacle Toes]

The whole 'buy an experience' monster has grown out of 1. Lots of people already having too many things and 2. a buy yourself into worthiness through the character building/culture/self development quest being incorporated into the reasoning of marketing campaigns/strategies.

 

[ElizabethofYork]

I was having this very conversation on Sunday with a friend, but I didn't see it as most of the descriptions on this thread have seen it. I was thinking more like, it's better to go on holiday for two weeks than have a UHD OLED Samsung Smart TV.

Sure, the TV will last longer, and you'll appreciate it for potentially years. But a holiday has the potential to make you feel great, as well as dwell on the memories of it, for years after the TV has been resigned to landfill.

Even better if you go away with someone you're still around - a long term friend or a partner. The shared and remembered 'experience' is even better than one where you're just recalling a past trip with someone who wasn't there.

Not for me. I have aphantasia, so have no visual memories whatsoever.