Consumption, identity, and surveillance during COVID-19 as a crisis of pleasure

ABSTRACT

The global COVID-19 pandemic was the latest instance of a crisis of pleasure. Crises of pleasure are periodic eruptions of discontent when consumption is disrupted by external forces. In this case, the pandemic also disrupted expressions of identity on social media, where identity is made legible through conspicuous consumption on social media in the early 2020s. Drawing from six qualitative focus group interviews conducted in the summer of 2020, we analyze how social media users interpret the accounts they follow posting content that seemingly violates social distancing guidelines during COVID-19. We find that consumption during the pandemic was highly contested and surveilled, with participants describing the disciplining power of social media and their use of news and public health guidelines to inform their identities. Both trends illustrate how surveilled modes of consumption characterize the post-lockdown consumption reality, which is polarized and partisan leading towards hedonist and puritanical models.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• consumption
• social media
• identity
• pandemic

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Protocol #2020-05-18, Texas A&M International University Institutional Review Board.

Additional information

Funding

The authors acknowledge support from the TAMIU Advancing Research and Curriculum Initiative (TAMIU ARC) awarded by the US Department of Education Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program (Award # P031S190304).

Notes on contributors

Arthur D. Soto-Vásquez

Dr. Arthur D. Soto-Vásquez is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Texas A&M International University. He studies the relationship between digital media, popular culture, and identity making.

Kyle Moody

Dr. Kyle A. Moody is an Associate Professor of Communications Media at Fitchburg State University. He explores the links between online communities, media practices, and information distribution.

Ariadne A. Gonzalez

Dr. Ariadne A. Gonzalez is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Texas A&M International University. She centers her work on organizational and health communication constructs like work-life, occupational identity formation and negotiation, dirty work, and patient-centered care in Latinx, immigrant, transnational work-life, and border life contexts.

Wanzhu Shi

Dr. Wanzhu Shi is an Assistant Professor in Political Science and Public Administration department at University of North Florida. Her research interests are using social media in nonprofit and public sectors, emergency management in local governments, and social equity in nonprofit management.