Consumer Society

The New Consumer Society (2010)

Course Description: The current economic crisis, alongside developments in social media, has prompted a growth in a new consumer society, characterized by collaborative consumption. The collaborative consumption movement, according to Rachel Botsman, signifies “the rapid explosion in traditional sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, and swapping redefined through technology and peer communities.” Building upon the successes of popular social commerce sites such as eBay, Threadless, and Esty, the new generation of collaborative consumption stretches the boundaries of exchange between individuals, so that strangers can effectively share anything imaginable, from tools to cars, cash loans, or personal services. In this class, we will explore historical and contemporary discussions of commodity culture; the way consumers identify with brands and their branded communities; and how technology can facilitate relationships between individuals in the new consumer economy.

Semester-Long Assignment: Group Blog. As a group, you will create and maintain a blog that follows the readings and themes of this course. Make a calendar and plan for each member to write at least once per week on different days. Each group will determine a specific focus for their blog; for example, you might choose to write upon consumer society in terms of sustainability, debt, poverty, community engagement, or social media. In addition to establishing your theme, you will also need to establish your purpose: does your group hope the blog will serve to enlighten, entertain, or persuade your audience of peers? Expect to work with the same group of people for the entire semester and to earn a single grade for the entire product. There are many resources on blogging. I have made some available to you on Diigo. Be sure to check out ProBlogger’s beginner guide for a thorough introduction to blogging.

Student Examples:

• Tech in Collaborative Consumption “One of the biggest shifts that anyone would notice if they were to ‘travel through time’ would be how intense the development of technology has gotten and how it affects the world around us. Technology holds together the society we live in today. Another largely important aspect of the society we inhabit is the economy. We will be combining a specific aspect of the economy, consumption, with technology to create an analytical perspective on how they constantly interrelate to each other and can almost not exist alone.”

• Buzz in Media
• Constainability

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Unit I: The Story of Stuff
The first unit will offer an introduction to historical and contemporary discussions of commodity culture. Your major assignment for this unit will involve your engagement in a social commerce site where you can buy, sell, or exchange goods. During your reading of the selections in this unit, pay close attention to the value that is attributed to “things.” Analyze your own relationship to “things” as you make deliberate decisions about what to keep, what to give away, and what to acquire.  Plan to write a critical essay on the objects you exchange, and prepare to accompany your essay with photographs of the objects and snapshots of email exchanges, advertisements, and the exchange interface.

Assignment: Consumer Essay. This essay begins with an experiment in social commerce. You will choose items to buy, sell, or exchange on a social commerce website, such as Craigslist, eBay, Swaptree, or Freecycle, and participate in at least one full exchange in which you acquire one new object and give away one old object. Document the exchanges from beginning to end, including photographs of the objects, snapshots of the advertisements, and records of your conversations and interactions with the other consumers. You will write a 1000-word essay, with accompanying visuals, and post it on your group blog (the content should therefore be suitable for a public audience). Your final essay should (1) detail the life-cycle of two objects in their exchanges from consumer to consumer; (2) analyze your relationship with and attachment to each of the objects; and (3) contextualize your consumer experience in terms of one of the critical readings we have discussed in class.

Student Examples:

• “The Best in Life is Less” by William Woolery. Excerpt: “Music is an integral part of my life. The real worth of my acquired object is probably most meaningful only to me, another French horn player, or a general classical music lover. On eBay, I found and purchased a CD of Mozart’s Four Horn Concertos, featuring French horn player, Barry Tuckwell. It was not very expensive, but to me represented an extraordinary find. I consider it of great cultural value and a real pleasure to listen to Tuckwell’s amazing harmony and tone. Using the CD as my stress buster, for relaxation during a study break, and to aid in stimulating my imagination is pure enjoyment. It also reminds me of my Grandfather, a professional horn player,  who instilled in me his love of music, shared his secrets of the horn, and gave me the sound advice that music should be an important part of anyone’s life at any age.

• “Friendship for Sale”
• “From Junk to Treasure”

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Unit 2: The Story of a Brand
At this point in the semester, we’ll turn our attention to the way in which individuals identify with brands. For the project in this unit, you and a partner will work together to research a single brand and document with photographs its identity in the Georgia Tech and Atlanta community. During your reading of the selections in this unit, pay close attention to the purpose of branding. In what ways is branding useful and when is it harmful? Is it possible and/or preferable to create an unbranded public space or identity? How can brands be crowdsourced? Plan to produce a photo essay that captures a sense of how consumers project the brand’s image.

Assignment: For this project, you will work with a partner to research a commercial brand and document with photographs its identity in the Georgia Tech and Atlanta community. Begin by conducting research on the brand’s business practices and company philosophy: does it use sustainable materials, where do its profits go, how are goods produced, distributed, and discarded?  Next, follow your chosen brand around the city, interview consumers of that brand, and—with their permission—take photographs of consumers displaying the brand. Finally, you will assemble a photo essay that communicates your perspective on the identity of the brand: what kind of people buy it and why, are the consumers active participants in the construction of brand identity, are they well-informed of the brand’s business practices, what image do the consumers hope to project? You and your partner will offer an oral presentation of your photo essay and the results of your research to the class.

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Unit 3: The Story of People

Up until now, we have focused almost entirely on people’s relationships to commodities. In this unit, we will turn to relationships between people in the new consumer economy and consider ways of using technology to facilitate these relationships. Each group will create a TECHshares project: a social network that facilitates sharing in the Georgia Tech community. The readings in this unit will serve to model, inspire, or question the concept of sharing in its many manifestations on the web.

Assignment: In groups, you will design, experience, and promote a TECHshares social network that facilitates sharing in the Georgia Tech community. The success of sharing networks depends upon members’ commitment to share, even when equal reciprocation of goods and services is impossible. Your objective is to create a TECHshares network that appeals not only to the needs, but also to the desires of Georgia Tech students. One of the ways you will create these rhetorical appeals is by creating a smart brand identity for your organization. The TECHshares project will consist of three major components: design, experiment, and promotion. The final artifact will consist of a website and a presentation model. Groups will showcase their TECHshares at a public event at the end of the semester.

Student Examples:

• Food for the Forgotten by Nathanael Bates, Andrew Duda, Grant Grimes, and Grant Veve. About: “We are a Georgia Tech organization dedicated to bettering the community by providing warm meals, social interaction, and smiles to those less fortunate. These people are largely forgotten by today’s society and are often neglected, even ignored, by passers-by. Our goal is to eliminate the separation between the homeless and the general public, and we believe that we can achieve this through the activities of our organization.”
• Buzz2Buzz
• Buzz Bikes