In 'Consuming Life', the Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman describes how people are goods and practice marketing. They mutate into products capable of generating attention as well as demand, in order to obtain what he calls social gratification.

We see this happening every day in new media and in particular in social networks: Followers, friends, retweets, feedbacks etc. are just a few examples of social gratifications. The fact that these gratifications are often instant adds to their value.

Whether we want to admit it or not, the majority of us is and always has been very receptive to social gratification. In my opinion this is another major reason for the popularity of new media. After all, how could the average human being obtain social gratification in old media?

Posted via email from achimmuellers’s posterous