Parasocial consumption
In a recent post by Rob Horning, he wrote about a 1998 book by Alain Ehrenberg, The Weariness of the Self. This paragraph from Rob’s essay really stood out to me:
“If neurosis is the tragedy of guilt, depression is the tragedy of inadequacy,” Ehrenberg writes. “It is the familiar shadow of a person without a guide, tired of going forward to achieve the self and tempted to sustain himself through products and behaviors.” That would seem to include everything from shopping to substance abuse to social media compulsivity — all the shortcuts to having a legible social self and “being human,” as well as all the distractions from that requirement.
My personal “shortcut to having a legible social self” is a combination of consumption and social media and how the two are bound up in music gear forums. For me, these forums provide both a social outlet, inasmuch as lurking is social, as I never join any conversations, as well as a sense of belonging-by-consuming. I buy what they buy, so without engaging with anyone in a way I feel like part of their milieu.
tags: month-of-blogs, social-anxiety, depression