We no longer have material, we only have the current experience.
Shenzhen Translation Bureau is its compilation team, focusing on technology, business, workplace, life and other fields, focusing on introducing new foreign technologies, new perspectives and new trends.
Editor’s note: In the past 201X, the growth of spiritual products was a change that can be easily discovered. 36Kr hereby compiles 3 observation articles on mental product consumption in the 201X in order to show mobile Internet and social media. The impact of our lives. This article mainly discusses the antecedents and consequences of the consumption “experience”. In the carnival of mobile Internet and social media, we no longer have material, we only have the current experience, and anxiety is always with it. Kyle Chayka, author of the article, titled The Decade We Paid to Feel Something.
Drawing: Brennon Leman
Let’s take a look at the ultimate product of material pop culture around 2019: the Ice Cream Museum. The Ice Cream Museum opened in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District as a temporary interactive art show in 2016, and has since exhibited in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Miami. This museum is indeed easy to replicate: more than 1.5 million people visited its rock sugar caves and swimming pools-filled with rainbow sugar made of inedible plastic. The Ice Cream Museum does have something to see, but it’s not really a museum. You can buy real ice cream and other dessert-themed ice creams there, but it’s not just a shop, it’s an experience.
After entering the 2010s, experience has become a typical representative of consumerism. In the first decade of the 21st century, buying useless things is not acceptable. And now, we are testing new technologies, subscribing to digital services, and spending money to book experiences, from little-known resorts to ever-changing local flavor menus to unique sensory perception spaces—a bit like movies, but In real life, these experiences are like ice cream museums, and are usually defined primarily by the timing of their recording. The digital images we posted on Instagram replaced our need for other souvenirs.
At the end of this decade, there are many experiences to choose from: in Color Factory, you can take selfies in front of brightly colored backgrounds; in Meow Wolf, you can take pictures of surrealistic sculptures; in the avant-garde restaurant Vespertine, you can eat food that does not look like food (then take pictures and upload them to Instagram); With Airbnb, you can hire locals to take you to the grocery market or play with their dogs.
This is enough to keep you from going through anything else. We are shifting from consumer objects to consumer experiences because the Internet occupies too many interactions that constitute our daily lives. Instagram has become a possession-by posting photos on Instagram, your lifestyle, a set of compelling pictures, and a set of tasteful experiences that have become popular in social life, dating, and work. Or, if you are good at it, your career path will affect others. Since the advantages of digital life are huge, if you do not participate in it and actively spread it, can you still say that it is okay? If you can’t insist on publishing your punch-in information, why do you need to persist for a long time?
The so-called experience economy is to some extent a millennial phenomenon. A 2016 survey by Harris Poll found that 78% of millennials “choose to spend money on a satisfying experience or activity rather than buying something satisfying.” But experience is also one of the few things that young people can easily consume. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the impact of the financial crisis kicked off this decade, which means that those who entered the job market during that time had a wealth level that was less than a decline. It was 34% lower. Compared to previous generations, millennials have higher student debt and lower home ownership rates (about 8%).
If you do n’t know where you want to put things, you ca n’t buy things. If you ’re not sure where you want to stay, it ’s difficult to invest in lifetime property (cupboards, furniture, cars, etc.) — We may be forced to move at any time because of work, relationships or the inevitable middle class. Digital products don’t take up any space on your mantelpiece or kitchen bench, and they’re easy to move around. Anyway, all you have is your phone and laptop. Startups like Zipcar, Rent the Runway and Feather will provide us with cars, clothes and furniture when we need them. These goods have also become a short experience.
The financial crisis has not only forced people to consume less material products. This new form of consumption has also been encouraged by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, who have mercilessly commercialized what was previously a freer and more open digital space. Today, we pay for email storage, cloud drives and web hosting, not to mention pure digital products such as design, applications and subscription services. For advanced digital consumerFor consumers, there are Fortnite skins and speculative cryptocurrencies to choose from. Even the best new consumer products are basically intangible-take a look at Peloton and Mirror, which are wall-mounted screens that play live training footage so you don’t have to go to a real gym. This decade has witnessed the large-scale emergence of digital “luxury goods”, which is an aspect of the cultural economy, and its breadth and depth will only expand further in the future.
Social media allows us to value our belongings and experiences, not as a part of identity, but as a commodity in the market. Through social networks, we can let others see their own experiences, Then share and measure by preference. Intrinsic value is now measured not by personal emotional satisfaction, but by popularity. Even traditional properties can become unstable as they are included in the digital sharing economy: If you put an apartment on Airbnb for your choice, does it really belong to you?
The gradual proliferation of material products is related to popular minimalism and lifestyle inspired by Marie Kondo. But in this case, less is more. This is not to say that we have shaken off the shackles of materialism and that our buying experience is no happier than buying goods. We just project the same anxiety on immaterial things, which will inevitably disappoint us in turn, and will also stimulate desire, greed and jealousy.
Translator: Hi Soup