Consumer Culture

Consumer Culture

copy and paste the URL below into your browser to visit a Washington DC parenting website and message board: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/

Spend ten minutes poking around to see what this website is and then read an article about a notorious conversation that took place on the message board there. It’s about a battle between two different groups of new parents: Washington, DC residents and Washington, DC-area suburbanites:

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/article/13040066/dc-mommy-fight-site

Then, read some discussions, like this one. It’s full of stuff relevant to this class and status oriented consumption:

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/134886.page

What is going on here (in this particular discussion and in the discussion board in general)? Analyze these two different groups and how they discuss consuming with a focus on issues related to brands, consumption and status. Can anything from class be brought to bear on this? Narrow the scope a bit. Can anything (readings, lectures and videos) from sessions #3 (social class) and #4 (coolness) and #5 (authenticity) be used to explain or illuminate this? This includes readings by Gladwell, Heath and Potter, McCracken, Potter, Seabrook, Steinhauer, Sternbergh and the documentary, People Like Us. Are there ideas from other weeks that can be applied? (Hint: yes)

In between one-thousand and twelve-hundred words, explain what is happening here. Interpret what you read and what you see, using the readings and class notes listed above to inform your thinking. Formulate an argument you wish to make and integrate your thoughts into a cohesive and coherent essay. Make sure you explain the significance and the connection of any of the quotes you use.

How to proceed: I would suggest reading a few threads beyond the one listed above (preferably those that are currently or recently active) from start to finish. Maybe you then want to read threads devoted to stuff and consuming and brands. To do this, you might try searching for threads that include these topics. Poke around a bit. Maybe you will want to visit the website for the upscale stroller brand referenced in the article from Washington City Paper (watch the short videos, note the prices of the stroller): http://www.bugaboo.com as well as the other strollers: gracobaby.com, maclaren.us. Explore the community and the brands implicated therein and try to figure out what is going on. Then, use content from the class to explain it and make sense of it.

Possible connections include: People Like Us (particularly the clips Joe Queenan’s tour (permanent high school; group boundaries), Most Likely to Succeed and WASP Lessons), Gladwell’s Coolhunt (as Coolness being the logic of high school in the marketplace), Heath and Potter (that in order for there to be cool, there must be the uncool), Potter (authenticity as conspicuous consumption). There are a lot of different directions you can take this.