Consumer Culture in the Era of Digitalization

Abstract

The application of digital technology to various areas of life and society, or “digitalization,” is progressing at a rapid pace, and is dramatically changing what consumers want and how they want it. The impact of digitalization is not limited to superficial phenomena such as the digitization of information content, the penetration of online shopping, and the expansion of cashless payments. Another benefit of digitalization is that it has made it easier for consumers to participate in the marketplace by enabling them to match and communicate with various trading partners around the world. Furthermore, digitalization has created consumption settings that emphasize use and access rather than possession, and materialism that has been the basis of traditional consumption is being fundamentally shaken. In this paper, we examine the impact of digitalization on consumer culture. First, we review three studies that provide a thought-provoking discussion from different perspectives: extended self (Belk 2013), liquid consumption (Bardhi and Eckhardt 2017), and McDonaldization (Ritzer [1993] 2018; Ritzer and Miles 2019). Second, we situate these previous studies within the consumption process and formulate the impact of digitalization on each stage. Third, based on this model, we propose the issues of (1) a sense of possession, (2) materialism, (3) sustainability, (4) consumer identity, (5) overconsumption, and (6) prosumers as questions that should be addressed in the future research. This formulation and the research questions could contribute to updating the traditional sociological approach to consumption.