BY CHRISTOPHER BARILLA
The current global landscape is more interconnected than ever before, exacerbated at its foremost with the invention and subsequent open armed integration into millions of people’s lives of social media sites such as Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook. These sites existing have brought about astounding societal changes, particularly in highlighting the disparities between the rich and poor.
Prior to social media, of course, people lived luxuriously, but for an entire generation now social media is the cornerstone of the ability of those living lavishly to share their lifestyle with the whole world at the click of the button. This can have seriously negative effects mentally on those who aren’t necessarily in the same financial situation.
Considering that the U.S. Census Bureau‘s 2017 survey of poverty in America ascertained a 12.3% figure for the number of citizens living below the poverty line and that the number could still not even accurately represent the total number of citizens who live paycheck to paycheck and are barely scraping by as well.
Highsnobiety, a well-regarded publication that discusses fashion and cultural happenings, published a study highlighting key points in modern consumer culture and its relation to social media. In their research, 78% of subjects cited exclusivity as the key factor in purchasing anything with a higher price tag (with a $500 minimum for all purchases inquired about). The exclusivity factor is then directly correlated to social media, where users take to the internet to flaunt their recently acquired “exclusivity”, or as Highsnobiety states, “all of which will be duly memorialized on Instagram for posterity.”
As with any divisive topic, there are individuals with vastly different points of view when it comes to the idea of flaunting wealth & success on social media. Clothing and shoe collector Nick Rizzitello, 18, of Nashville, Tennessee is firm in his belief that social media is a healthy way to share the things he acquires and does on a daily basis, saying, “I believe people should be able to show off the things that they’ve attained in life because in a lot of cases a lot of hard work went into your acquisition.”
“Furthermore, it could even be seen as inspirational to somebody else seeing and aiming towards having that same thing as you,” Rizzitello continued.
Conversely, however, marketing student Connor Farrell, 22, of Manalapan, New Jersey sees flaunting on social media in the completely opposite light, commenting that, “Materialistic goods serve no purpose rather than to convey a higher social status through a blatantly visible logo, etc.”
“Quality should always come foremost to a name regardless,” Farrell said.
But where will the potential problems caused by people “showing off” on social media
be reigned in? A study conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development stated that “in all countries, what students do with computers, from using e-mail to reading news, is directly linked to their ‘socio-economic status’ with inequality continuing, even in countries where all young people have easy access to the internet.”
Furthermore, the Program For International Student Assessment, in its study of students globally, stated that “socioeconomic differences in how young people use the internet are strongly related to their academic performance.”
In greater pop culture, artist Kanye West spoke last year in regards to his goal to work with social media platforms such as Instagram to instill new features which would include but not be limited to hiding follower count, removing the “likes” counter from photos, and being able to further filter the content you see on your screen. Although these features have not been fully implemented yet, the ideas being in the works are a positive step towards making social media a place anybody could feel comfortable spending time and not necessarily feel out of place due to their economic status.