Being hybrid: a conceptual update of consumer self and consumption due to online/offline hybridity

ABSTRACT

Emergent mobile technologies are dramatically and rapidly changing not only the way we consume but also the way we live. In theory, it is becoming harder and harder to keep pace with the changes already embodied in practice. First, this paper aims to reduce the gap between theory and practice by introducing online/offline hybridity both as a new kind of hybridity and a universal contemporary human condition. Second, it presents the concept of hybrid space as a new frame of reference, as an overarching conception of our everyday. Third, it proposes the necessary micro-level updates regarding consumer self and consumption due to these changes in perspective. Fourth, it concludes by introducing privatescapes as a new global flow of shared private content with a significant impact on consumer behaviour.

KEYWORDS:

• Online/offline hybridity
• consumption
• mobile technology

Acknowledgments

This article was supported by the University of Economics, Prague internal support funding IG632087.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Economics Prague [IG632087/86/2017].

Notes on contributors

Klára Šimůnková

Klára Šimůnková ([email protected]) is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Economics in Prague (Faculty of Management, https://www.fm.vse.cz/en/). She is a researcher in the fields of the social impact of technology, urban studies, new mobilities, public space management, game studies and surveillance studies. Klára focuses on the concept of hybrid space in the context of management studies and consumer culture theory and explores the potentials of hybrid reality games as a marketing tool.