Consumer culture is a lifestyle that is hyper-focused on spending money to buy material goods. It is facilitated by the market and creates a particular relationship between the consumer and the goods or services they use or consume. Here are some key points about consumer culture:
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Acquisition and consumption: The cardinal features of consumer culture are acquisition and consumption as the means of achieving happiness.
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Democratization of desire: Consumer culture democratizes individual desire, rather than wealth or political and economic power.
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Money value: Money value is the predominant measure of all value in society in consumer culture.
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Identity formation: Consumer culture contributes to the process of identity formation.
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Economic and commercial aspects: Consumer behaviors are strictly connected to economic and commercial aspects of production.
Consumer culture has been attributed to, but is not limited to, the capitalist economy of the United States. It began to increase rapidly during the extreme economic growth of the Roaring Twenties. The interest in consumer cultures focuses on the aspect of production of everyday life as a source of cultural meaning and expression as well as the constant alteration of the symbolic universe through these practices of signification.
