Consumer Identities

So magazines influence our realities. It can also been seen they contribute to the creation of our identities, in particular the identities of adolescents. On way magazines will influence an adolescent’s identity is through the ‘stuff’ they tell them to buy. It is this stuff that depicts the latest trends, and in turn creates new and ideal identities for the girl’s reading. The fashion and shopping pages only create objects that they desire, but do not need (although they feel they need them in order to fit in), which is also backed up by allure of the glossy advertisements; this is seen as the ‘consumer culture’. Goods which are consumed only for leisure are seen as commodities, and it is the adolescent’s consumption of these which can be seen to be trying to create their identity according to our culture’s representation of the ideal. It is not only by clothes that these identities are constructed, but also by the make-up they wear, the music they listen to, the films and television they watch and the places they go.

The activity of consuming is perceived as a way of defining your social status and cementing your identity within a range of culturally prescribed and acceptable ways. The products we consume develop their own meanings through advertising and branding, which serves to make us believe we need them.

The media is seen to be a ‘vehicle for consumer culture’. It also sees the magazine as a way to ‘reduce the complexity of individual choice and ironically has become necessary to make appropriate, identity making purchases’. The implication is that the identity of readers is like an object, a commodity, within a market.