Flexing culture in the age of social media: From social recognition to self-satisfaction

Abstract

In the digital age, flexing culture may have become a virtual tradition in which people display their possessions and express their conspicuous consumption behaviors on social media. Within the platform, the commodities attached to their bodies and the services they post indicate multiple meanings such as gaining social recognition, building body image, negotiating selfbranding, finding self-pleasure and self-satisfaction, demonstrating selfactualization, and gaining more financial benefits. This practice is common on social media, including YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. This study explores flexing culture by referring to Indonesian content creators who display their extra wealth on their social media accounts. This is qualitative research with a cultural studies approach, using Jean Baudrillard's theory of consumer society and Thorstein Veblen's conspicuous consumption. The result shows that flexing culture on social media is an ideal place to express social identity by displaying luxury fashion brands and services. Flexing culture increasingly spreads and constructs a space for virtual competition. Moreover, it is becoming a strategy for the social hierarchy to fight and differentiate itself from the other classes. The social behavior of today's society shows something intended to be offensive through the manipulation of signs and symbolic values.