The 21st century has been defined by individualization, customization, and personalization. It has become apparent that differentiation is simply driven by a desire to be different—not necessarily a desire to be better. Thus, in The Substance of Style, Virgina Postrel writes, “pleasure, not manipulation, drives changes in look and feel” (82). Style is a result of the evolution of one’s identity, rather than external forces or elitism: ultimately, aesthetic expression is a personal endeavour.
At the same time, we want to belong to social networks that are compatible with our identities. For example, Geocities, in the early days of the Internet, allowed users to create web pages within distinct ‘neighbourhoods‘; however, the isolation of its users within homogeneous subcategories was symbolic of a bygone era. Contemporary social networks—Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, et cetera—encourage far more interaction between users, feeding off of our enthusiasm to share and showcase our skills as photographers, videographers, writers, musicians, and fashionistas. Facebook, for instance, has evolved from a passive social network to a self-marketing engine, integrated with one’s Flickr, Vimeo, YouTube, Blogger, Last.fm, and Delicious accounts, among others. Changes to Facebook’s interface reflect this increasing individuality; now, it looks and works a lot like Twitter (another site Facebook is integrated with). In fact, its effectiveness at self-promotion has even led to the use of Facebook profiles as résumés. Thanks to the Internet, one’s identity has not only been differentiated, but publicized—and plasticized. Rather than the vertical differentiation of class, self-expression has demonstrated horizontal differences of individuals (Postrel 106).
Considering the highly self-actualized culture that we live in, it becomes evident that the evolution of societal and economic paradigms was long predicted by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Therefore, the prevalent “creative” or “”experiential” paradigm of contemporary society addresses the most developed of human needs—esteem and individuality. →