You can purchase abstract nouns now.

 

I have always wondered what drives people to purchase things that are pricey on a cosmic level, behave in an quaint disposition whether that be posting exuberant images on social media, flashing how they read “The Subtle Art of Not giving a F*ck” although they do, using a gratuitous and esoteric vocabulary, behave like a hipster, the rage to appear ‘cool’ in social gatherings etc. – all alluding to something which we are going to explore today.
Let’s recourse to the most familiar example – What makes people spend exorbitant amount on an i-phone? Well, you might already know this. ‘Status signaling’ is the term we all are thinking of here. This was intriguing to realise how capitalism has commodified intangible abstract nouns such as ‘status’. You want to attain a higher status, then just purchase a newfangled smartwatch, buy a fancy phone etc. and ‘pay money’ and your status will be delivered at your doorstep. Interesting right? It is reflective of the changing culture where the desire to attain status has transmuted from a position of power to tangible things. For example, my parents’ generation impinged on a government service job thus, getting all the status they aspired for however in my generation, you can have the feeling of status by purchasing some things. It can be expatiated by an example too. I always marveled over my classmates’ propensity to ascribe a higher value to the “Classmate” notebook over other companies’ notebooks. Although we attest to the fact that we can have low priced books with more pages but still, classmate was providing something which other notebooks couldn’t. And you got it correct, it was a mild idea revolving around ‘status’. Period, that’s it! We are trained to acquire those goods which would also please us by delivering status in addition to the utility we originally purchased the product for.
So, I conclude this exposition about status and how the process of commodification intermingled with it too.

But, there is a higher abstract nouns which we I also want to talk about. It can be expatiated by the term ‘elitism’ although there is surely a nuance attached with it. Call it an attempt to escape my vapid life and arrangement of things into a more refined or ‘elitist’ one. The reason is because social media renders us conceive our life as banal and provides us with a way to elevate that. It is what I call an escapade. The glimmering display of that refined lifestyle where everything is clean, clear and perfect is infatuating. The crux of the matter is that in a similar fashion how status has been commodified, the sense of being an ‘elite’ or someone belonging to a higher place in a social hierarchy has also been commodified. The result is that not only people can brandish their purchased ‘status’ but also can purchase the idea of being an ‘elite’.
Let me share an anecdote. On some previous day I was watching an old Bollywood movie with my mother and what grabbed my attention was a constant hinting of elitism by some character in a peculiar disposition. It was marked by English speaking, Western dressing, urban lifestyle and a refined way of life in contrast to the protagonist who was more of a modest person. The populist vs elitist distinction was pellucid there. Let’s revert back to our times. Here, we have a clear idea of that elitism where we see social media influencers. We are trying to imitate them because that’s how we think we would become a part of a society higher on a social ladder. Hope things are connecting by now.

When I discovered that all my attempts to gain followers, friends, likes, comments were driven by that urge to attain a higher status and a dose of elitism, I had to abandon using it. I prefer sitting bored than to use these platforms to portray a superficial, spurious and misleading idea of my life. Everyone’s trying to achieve it so it doesn’t make any sense to use social media. However, this post is about articulating the commodification of status and elitism than an indignant repudiation of social media. It’s just a part of the whole process our culture is undergoing now. On a personal level, I feel light whenever I am navigating my life in the ‘real’ world than to perform something which is a part of escapism motivated consciously or unconsciously to attain a higher place. I know that I am constantly being fed that I can purchase it but I also know that it is transient and moreover it is just fake. Instead of trying to escape my banal life, I shall try to work in it because as a mortal being who is going to sleep one day knowing he won’t wake up the next morning, I have a lot to do than to find escape from this resplendent life. It provides me a sense of strength to envision my life as not insipid but astounding because I know that if I were to participate in the same race those ‘elites’ are trying to entice me into, is just a manifestation of capitalism.