Conspicuous Consumption: Article Analysis

Introduction If Veblen was to write a sequel to Conspicuous Consumption, he would most likely tile it “Conspicuous Production.” In today’s world everything is about efficiency, how hard one person can work, and how good they look while doing it. Veblen’s idea is taken anew in this article. CEOs are trying to prove their status and high class by how much they work. Everyone below them are following in the footsteps and trying to live this lifestyle as similarly they can get to it.
Summary of the New Article The article, The New Status Symbol: it’s not what you spend it’s how hard you work, was written by Ben Tarnoff. This article describes Veblen’s idea of conspicuous consumption, and how in today’s world that term has changed into conspicuous …show more content…
These dimensions are efficiency, calculability, control (technology controls us), the irrationality or rationality. The main ones I will be focusing on are efficiency and technology controlling us. The article relates to efficiency because the CEOs are getting a lot of work done in as much of one day as possible. Efficiency is all about how quick things can get done. CEOs working long hours to reach deadlines faster, and presenting more projects to more clients means more money. The more money this companies bring in the more money for the CEOs and other higher ranked employees. This also relates to the lower class working over the normal work week, they have to work faster and longer to get more money. If they are able to get more money they are able to pay more bills and support their family. The faster they get one job done the faster they can move on to the next. In any business, efficiency is one major key to being …show more content…
In Goffman’s Presentation of Self, he states that people only let on what they want people to know about them. The article mentions how everyone is using technology as a platform productivity. There is an app for everything and people use these apps and social medias to further themselves in the world. On Facebook there are privacy settings to allow only certain information about someone to be visible by certain people. Also many people put specific things up on these cites to make them seem like a different person than they are in real life. This is exactly how Goffman states how human beings are; people change how they would normally act when first meeting someone to seem appealing and get further up the food chain. If an individual doesn’t meet certain criteria from there social status online they miss out on an opportunity, or if one shares too much of their live on social media it may steer employers away. With manipulation of privacy settings and editing someone can portray as a great job candidate, same goes for “acting the part” in a first