Alice Cappelle has a brilliant video essay called “Capitalism and Ego Formation” where she discusses how we’ve reached a point where products generate the same sense of belonging, connection as religion, patriotism.
She references perhaps the first ever starter pack meme, an Apple ad from 1996. It shows two men representing a Windows user and an Apple user - one dressed in a suit and one dressed in jeans.
This picture captures the “buy a product, buy a lifestyle” phenomenon. The product isn’t even shown in the ad. You are literally buying an ideal lifestyle.
The starter packs generate the same appeal as the online personality quizzes; someone understands you without knowing you. In the case of aesthetics, this desire to validate and form your identity translates into buying products, clothes, following influencers who align with that lifestyle.
This is what French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan described as the “Ideal-I”, the fantasy image of oneself that can be filled in by others who we may want to emulate in our adult lives. Lacan’s concept of the “mirror stage” describes the moment a child first recognizes themselves in a mirror, which sets off the perpetual quest for a coherent identity.
The internet has exploded the number of possible mirrors. Traditionally role models were celebrities, actresses, singers, which is limited by supply. Internet media platforms have democratized the creation and distribution of influence. The For You page and infinite personalized feed could be counted as the fifth media revolution (printing press, telephone, television, internet… personalized feeds)
Jonah Peretti, founder of Buzzfeed, observes this in a 1996 anti-capitalist essay:
“the increasingly rapid rate at which images are distributed and consumed in late capitalism necessitate a corresponding increase in the rate that individuals assume and shed identities”
A couple exploratory questions on consumer media:
What does identity formation look like in the current and future of infinite content/personalized media?
What is the taste economy? Is this a long tail coastal elite phenomenon?
Spencer Yen
