Abstract:
In the digital age, Instagram influencers play a significant role in promoting conspicuous consumption and materialism, shaping consumer behavior and perception of status. Through curated displays of luxury products and extravagant lifestyles, influencers create a culture of aspiration and desire among their followers, leading to increased pressure to keep up with trends. This phenomenon has raised concerns about authenticity and the impact on consumer well-being. The fear of missing out (FOMO) driven by influencers’ content can lead individuals to overspend and prioritized external validation over intrinsic values, potentially causing financial strain and low self-esteem. The pervasive influence of social media influencers on platforms like Instagram underscores the need for individuals to critically evaluate their consumption habits and prioritize their well-being over societal pressures.
In today’s digital age, the way consumers interact with culture has undergone a significant transformation, with platforms like Instagram playing a pivotal role in shaping buying behavior. The rise of Instagram has not only amplified existing trends but has also ushered in a new era of consumer engagement, particularly through influencer marketing. Showy spending and a focus on luxury have long been associated with elitism and superiority, but the influencer wave on Instagram has elevated this concept to a new level of intricacy and constant exposure. Influencers now seamlessly showcase high-end products and grand experiences to their vast audiences, creating a culture of aspiration and desire among their followers. However, this heightened visibility and the pressure to keep up with trends have led to a surge in fake sales and influencer product placements raising questions about authenticity in the online consumer landscape. While the allure of luxury and the visual feast of idealized lifestyles drive sales, there is a delicate balance between enticing consumers and perpetuating materialism and superficiality in modern consumer culture. So, how does Instagram in the digital age facilitate the dissemination of conspicuous consumption by influencers.
Influencers can rapidly grab onto a huge public on Instagram and act as effective propagators of trend and way of life. Influencers’ drive to display expensive consumer things and lavish experiences on these platforms further encourages the public to adopt the culture of appearing wealthy. Additionally, there is a menace of showy consumption as explained by Sabuncuoglu (2015). Some people actively seek social validation and express it by publicly showcasing pompous dear mark, a behavior that promotes the validity of their social status. It enhances product visibility, boosts their appeal, and creates a pattern where public endorsement of things by influencers become fashionable. For status-conscious people, Instagram is therefore a source of consumer data that can easily shift the purchasing choice.
Figures on Instagram and alike stages frequently distribute photos displaying the life in which they flauntcostly items and experiences. Hence, figures’ substance suggests to their devotees a particular standard they ought to arrive at. The marvel of showy utilization, as noticed by Dantas and Abreu (2020), which suggests that purchasers purposefully post photos devouring items of explicit brands to flaunt before others, has a genuine effect on buyer way of behaving. Inferable from the appeal of way of life replicationalven way of behaving can provokes expanding extravagance utilization way of behaving as people struggle to rehash each component of figures’ way of life; henceforth, they secure signs of the status, reflected in the utilization of extravagance products. Notwithstanding purchaser way of behaving, it is likewise about a method for building character driven way of behaving as individuals mean their character based on the presentation of ownership, as Belk (1988) focuses in authenticity and acknowledgment of character through possessions.
The Instagram platform was acknowledged as a location where many users tend to compare their own life or belongings to lifestyle influencers and many of Instagram users. The display of conspicuous consumption on Instagram reflects the idea of showing wealth and conveying the notion of having a high money rank, possessing skills. Such behavior may lead to the desire of conspicuous consumption through expensive and exclusive things(Krause et al., 2019). The influence of observing lavish life of others will cause an imbalance leading to envy and feelings of inferiority, which can make a person make materialistic sufficient to raise the level of self-worth. In turn, the activity affects all participants and even may increase consuming tendencies. There is a relationship between observing conspicuous consumption and using for Instagram, which may also increase consumer having the intent to purchase the intention of materialism. It may affect consumer choice and make person increase the level of having debts.
The digital period has made branding power possible, owing to the simple fact that the overflow of goods on a person’s daily life has led to the usage of social network to be serious in passing a message particularly in the dealings of commercial marketing (Lee, 2011; Priluck et al., 2011). It is observable that excessive intake has become part of the society and individuals connect luxury as part of being successful and joyful (Nielsen, 2004). Using social networking websites such as Facebook, Instagram, etc. users develop a profile that is likely to bring admiration if the goods they use are costly (Sabuncuoğlu, 2015). Furthermore, to set spending habits for future consumers who are eager to use symbols to keep the established culture of branded products, has an increasing effect on other beings (Youn and Jung, 2015). This is why power, social standing, and eventually succeeding in every feature of a person’s life are connected with larger sums of riches in the aspect of the digital period. It is the reason why online direction is associated with the use of social marketing in advancing intake behavior (Statista, 2019). Signing on to the use of social network is therefore attributable for chronic failure to intake and succeeding on the pretense projected on the internet.
The influence of fashion influences on people’s consumption habits and social behavior is a significant phenomenon in today’s society. When individuals see influencers showcasing certain products or lifestyles on social media, they often feel compelled to emulate those behavior in order to gain social approval and fit in with a particular group. This desire to conform and seek validation from others can have negative consequences on individuals. One major impact is the strain on individuals’ financial resources. The pressure to keep up with latest trends promoted by influencers can lead people to overspend or go beyond their means in order to acquire similar objects or services, resulting in financial stress and potentially pushing individuals to their fiscal limits, as highlighted by Dantas & Abreu (2020). Moreover, the practice of purchasing items solely for the purpose of showcasing them on social media can lead to a sense od superficiality and low self-worth. If individuals are unable to afford or obtain the same items as the influencers they admire, it can negatively impact their self-esteem and self-perception. This emphasis on external appearances and material possessions over intrinsic values can hinder personal development and overall well-being. In essence, the influence of fashion influences on consumer behavior can create a cycle of materialism, social comparison, and validation-seeking that may ultimately detract from individuals’ happiness and fulfillment. It is important for individuals to be mindful of their motivations for purchasing certain products and to prioritize their own values and well-being over external pressures to conform to societal standards set by influencers.
People’s doings across social media sites (SNS), including Instagram, is believed to be related to such model of spending as showy spending (CC), which implies that individuals display pricey items to signal their high social level (Krause et al., 2019). Typically, this pattern of conduct is sparked by the wish to keep up with others or to avoid sensations of inferiority stirred up by the observation of what others can afford (Krause et al., 2019). Envy is a usual feeling experienced on platforms like Instagram, which makes the bad effect on users’ wellness, like life satisfaction fall, impoverished body images, etc. (Krause et al., 2019). Also, scholars have noticed the link of CC and overspending inclinations among Instagram users. Owing to this fact, it is stated that there are fiscal risks of doing CC, especially for low-earning folks (Krause et al., 2019). Thereby, to uncover the effects of envy and showy spending on user conduct on SNS is vital to sense the bad ramifications on users’ fiscal health.
The presence and prominence of social media influencers within online communities, such as on the platform Instagram, can evoke a powerful psychological phenomenon known as the “fear of missong out” (FOMO) in their followers. When individuals view the lavish lifestyles, luxurious possessions, and extravgant experiences curated and displayed by these influential figures, it can trigger a deep-seated desire to emulate and replictae those same markers of success and status. Compelled by this FOMO, some people may feel compelled to invest substantial sums of money in an effort to mimic the opilent journeys, designer fashions, and material goods flaunted byb the influencers they follow. The carefully crafted and meticulously edited visual narratives that users construct and share on Instagram serves to amplify the perceived vlaue and desirability of these influencers’ lifestyles, grnating them a considerable degree of power and influence over the online behaviors and purchasing decisions of their audience. Ultimately, this onsession with showcasing one’s affluence and gaining the admiration admiration of others is often rooted in a fundamental insecurity- the fear that one’s own worth and accomplishments may not be recognized or appreciated without the trappings of wealth and status (sabuncuoglu, 2015). The drive to constantly outdo and outshine one’s peers on Social media can be seen as a manisfestion of this underlying need for validation and recognition.
Nowadays, social media influencers on Instagram dictate the new rules of the game. Products and lifestyles are forced onto the audience, who receive a mixture of genuine admiration and designed promotion. This causes the issue of misleading people through the visible consumption of goods. The growing pressure from the media touches not just teenagers who use drugs and alcohol to gain social approval and status but also fashionable men and women. Incredibly captivating fashion outfits mean nothing; they should convey something to the owner’s peers. They seek a way to affirm the already chosen method of expression, and they also require peers to express compliments with five dollars an hour work. Speaking this way, one should not be surprised at the rapid absorption of pictures of beautiful mythic males into the subconscious. Hypersexual individualities cultivate the process of interpersonal communication. Numerous visual depictions of alluring residents are hurled even before the level indicator reverts to the same position as it was before the conversion. Lofty anachronisms trigger a swift introduction of the law of least square. Advertising can amplify the development of variable ones in the popularity of male attributes. Today’s press persons produce patterns of visual communication that are black stylized water images with typical headlines. Photographs test all forms of written longhand. Broadband kinds of visualization induce hypoplasia. There’s a new way of assimilating the vibrant representation of visual communication about the media. It, without rehabilitation, refers to the increasing popularity of the illustrated viscountesses. Girls connected with bony changes are the primary line of business. Industries use visual depictions to produce visions of communication through magazines.
In boisterous words, it definitely can be said that Instagram stars have a fair hand in shaping the culture of conspicuous purchase and promoting materialism. Due to its nature, the results of Instagram boost the growth of the brand culture. It is possible because of a visual presentation of a lavish life with dear things, which makes people compare themselves with other people. The stars and their ideas cause the need to feel the solvency and inspire spending more cash. Followed where so familiar with prior points. They may lead to stronger promotion of the new brand and increase the intake of luxury goods and services. The effects of such behavior on social media society are adverse, and the theory assumes resolving it, using the influences explained. For folks that value the comfort of living more attempt to get the things they see every moment and mostly everything they do not need. They value the physical objects for the spirit production of personality. Massive buying on the standard fuels power to make damaging processes for the human being, which will end. Altogether, it is essential to shed the light on the poor sides. Nothing is wrong with some following, but it is full dependence on fake ideas what make people change their customs so drastically.
Referencing:
EFENDİOĞLU, İbrahim Halil. (2019). The Impact of Conspicuous Consumption in Social Media on Purchasing Intentions. İşletme Araştırmaları Dergisi.
https://www.isarder.org/2019/vol.11_issue.3_article61_full_text.pdf
Dantas, B. L. L., & Abreu, N. R. (2020). An analysis of the influence of the conspicuous consumption of fast fashion on identity construction on Instagram.
https://www.scielo.br/j/ram/a/yRg3LsB6tgPvcJRTC7v8jqk/?lang=en&format=pdf
Krause, H.-V., Wagner, A., Krasnova, H., Deters, F. g., Baumann, A., & Buxmann, P. (2019). Keeping Up with the Joneses: Instagram Use and its Influence on Conspicuous Consumption. AIS Electronic Library (AISeL).
https://core.ac.uk/pdf/aaa301384365.pdf
Thoumrungroje, A,. An increasing number of people all around the globe are spending tremendous amounts of time in the cyber world on activities such as connecting with one another and searching for information. It is undeniable that social media (2014) The influence of social media intensity and EWOM on conspicuous consumption, Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042814039135
Bainotti, L. (2023) Striving for conspicuousness. how micro-influencers construct and display social status on Instagram., IRIS.
https://iris.unito.it/handle/2318/1849661
Siegle, L. (2019) How instagram influencers are fueling one of our most destructive addictions, HuffPost.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/15365042211012066
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.