Consumption and the Self
“American” is not a part of a person’s identity, but it is just a term for people living in a certain place. Being American does not give one person a different identity from another individual. An individual’s identity is characterized by the everyday life they live. Their family, religion, race, or the things they prefer such as food, music, or the types of things they buy is how a person’s identity is characterized.
Nowadays, our identity is easier to characterize. Websites like Amazon.com allow us, the user to set up the site to their preferences. This website allows the user/customer to only show items on the website that they have an interest in, or thinking about buying. Websites work well to define a user’s preferences. The following is an example from Amazon.com. First the site asks you to select stores that you are interested in, such as music, games, and electronics. Then they have you select your favorite categories from each store that you selected. For example, from music they ask you to select from a list of types of music such as R&B, pop, hip hop, and others. From games they ask you to select a system that you have or like such as Xbox. From electronics they ask you to select items that you like such as DVD players, TV’s, VCR’s, CD players, etc… They then ask for you to enter in words pertaining to the stores you first selected (music, games, and electronics). For music, they ask to type in your favorite musician or band. In games, they ask you to enter in a game system or title that you like or own. In electronics, they ask for a company name you trust or an electronic item that you plan to buy. They then ask you to rate certain items from the different categories you selected. Then they give you recommendations of different items that might interest you in the different categories you selected.
When looking through the recommendations, I saw that they were very accurate. The items that they had recommended for me were items that I had planned on buying or items that I already had. These were items that I also interested me, things I found neat, items that I would like to try out one day, such as an expensive mp3 player or a palm pilot. They showed me items that I usually go and check out when I go shopping at a store, like a BestBuy or Circuit City.
As I used their site more, the items that were recommended for me began to be narrowed down even further. For example, in my first recommendations that I received, the items they showed me were from a very broad range. As, I kept using the site, the items that were recommended for me were of similar types and of the same company. For example, when I first received recommendations from music, the items were from different rappers and singers. But, as I kept using their site, I found that the albums/CD’s they recommended for me were just of a few rappers like Tupac, Biggie, Eminem, and 50 Cent (all rappers that I listen to frequently). Another example of my recommendations being narrowed down was when I was receiving recommendations on electronic devices. When I first started to receive recommendations, they showed me electronic items from different companies like Phillips, Sony, Panasonic, etc… As I kept using their site, the items from the different electronic companies were narrowed almost entirely down to just Sony products. I usually prefer Sony products over any other company when purchasing electronic equipment. It is very amazing to see how this site can tailor to one individual’s preferences.
This system could be applied to different things. They could start a dating service from the products an individual likes. They could match two people together that have the same preferences in music, companies, books, etc…
Websites like Amazon.com now allow user’s to easily identify their preferences. It is incredible to see how a company can narrow down products to only what the individual likes. Pretty soon we will not even have to deal with items that we do not like or do not have an interest in.