When "Katchi Sera" catches Consumerism

Social media, especially Instagram has played a major role in setting trends across age groups. From deciding upon where to go and which place to have food at, social media intervenes in our day to day lives in everyway possible. With its growth the use of Instagram has changed dramatically allowing both consumers and business owners to use it in innovative ways. Through Instagram reels, influencers have great impact on helping companies grow. It has also helped some small business owners get their products discovered and that is how it formed a connection with consumerism. Instagram reels have given a new dimension to the concept of consumerism.

Consumerism in a social media context is the promotion of consumers' interest in purchasing goods and services. It is embedded in our urban culture and gradually entering rural societies too. But what if it creates a phenomenon of FOMO along with consumerism. Our choices are becoming socially constructed through these Instagram reels. Only when we wear a particular dress or when we visit the place that has been shown on reels every time be scroll down, we feel connected with the society we live in. Commodities are not just material objects anymore. They symbolize class and invoke feelings and emotions. We feel like we must have some digital footprint in the places we visit, otherwise they were never there and they will never feel seen. These Instagram reels with catchy edits and trendy songs tend to promote a particular lifestyle. We feel the need to buy these lifestyle products to feel a sense of belonging or as a part of our self-expression. So what if the things we own end up owning us? This consumer culture has blurred the distinction between wants, needs and must haves. Our need to relate to an influencer or buy their product may make us feel part of a community, but we succumb to the social pressures to be part of it. This also creates a certain level of "consumer- fetishism" a term coined by Karl

Marx to explain consumerism beyond necessities, a social need induced by

capitalism.

At the same time, it creates a sense of accountability among sellers and awareness

among the customers. Considering all this, we must know how this new social

media-induced consumerism affects us. As sociologist Charles Horton Cooley said, "I

am not who you think I am, I am not who I think I am, I am who I think you think I

am" This gives us a food for thought about who we are under the pile of new clothes

and gadgets.

PS: The song “Katchi Sera” is being widely used by the Instagram influencers in their reels in order to promote their products. It was used in the title of this blog for creative purposes only.

- Soumiya Sinthumathi S