Discussions on youth consumption in India focus on observed purchasing behaviors. Despite its tremendous value in guiding marketers, there are two key issues, rather than data-led insights: one, one, bigger, more fundamental, that consumption is located in the “mass” of life’s wishes, dreams and emotions or the overall canvas of mainstream young India. 2: The “mindset” or Zeitgeist that fundamentally shapes this companion’s life. This is the area of the last column of our series.
First extract the second question and take advantage of what we discussed in our previous column: Rebellion is not its mentality in the face of unsupported structures, and although it is a companion of fatigue and entropy, rebellion is not its mentality.
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Young people will not be betrayed by the state system. Instead, they accept that opaque and non-face-to-face “markets” are the arbitrators of work, and even national progress is interpreted as development of working conditions. They also have no (so far) frustration.
We believe that this is because of the nature of their “waiting room to a better place” living in difficult gifts while planning a stable and safe low-pressure future. However, due to the lack of a strong collective peer culture, increasing personalization, leading to loneliness and emotional fatigue, this is a painful area. Similarly, the young Indian Leitmotif is a fragmented mindset that reverberates as much as the broken and fragmented nature of their daily lives.
The answer to the first question goes against the widely believed that every generation after liberalization is increasingly acquired or consumerists. We suggest that consumption of material goods is not the basis of this generation’s wishes. The nature of long-term wishes, dreams and the “good life” are surprisingly related to material goods – Gaadi,,,,, Bengal,,,,, MeccaGreen Card – But around security and peace, as well as connection with nature. Their search is je ne sais quoi Or as one defendant said: “magic.”
In animals, nature and pastoral life, most of the population has dreams of peace, tranquility and meaning. Either way, we interpret these dreams as textual reality or a metaphor of some kind of life, in which consumption is worth noting.
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But isn’t consumption their lives at all? Of course, it does. But only as an activity that brings temporary stimulation and distraction to the real world, as well as relaxation and rest (in the words of one respondent) as “treatment.”
This generation consumes distractions and “time communication”, “carnival”, “self-care”, “inspiration” through social media, entertainment, shopping, shopping and other forms of daily small pleasure. If we name a consumer culture in this regard, it is that this group of young people consume sponge-like joy pies, distracted by every new thing before turning to the next shining object.
In their statements of life, wishes, and dreams, material possessions do not significantly serve as means of self-expression or state signals that we usually associate with consumption. The closest they are to spending habits is to be a “better version of themselves.”
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These purchase preferences include motivational books, podcasts, and social media content, which contribute to their physical, social, intellectual and emotional well-being. Therefore, the primary position of smartphones in their lives, as well as the focus on clothing and embellishments, which are directed at how they manage their own perceptions and therefore value in the world. In this, clothing, accessories and cosmetics form a large part of their choice, including the various brands in these conversations. However, most people show no special signs of lasting brand loyalty or preference.
The consumers they express also want to look for “novelty” and “experience”, which is a major preference. But, in this regard, they delay all consumption to the future. There seems to be very little ability or motivation to go to places they enthusiastically appreciate.
If anything, their virtual life seems to partially satisfy these curiosities and manage this delay successfully. In particular, this suggests a persistent blurring of the boundaries between real and scroll life of our survey respondents. However, their online interactions did not provide any evidence of the root cause. Their preferences are still scattered.
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Split and overinformation stimulation are characteristics of this generation, with no evidence of brand loyalty. The consumption of this study became a hit single for temporary dopamine, fading away, making room for the next path and promising everything better.
This generation seems to require little fun, no large expenditure categories, and is often not nailed to the idyllic fantasy of the future of non-consumerists in nature and animal companies.
What ultimately emerges is that this part of Young India is very concerned between the forms of involvement and dedicated learning, experience, pleasure, distraction and consumption, while possessing the fantasy of beauty, peace, animals and world travel. The consumer culture we identify as being distracting at one end is a permanently deferred long-term politics seeking “other things” (consciousness, purpose, joy and connection).
The study was commissioned by Bijapurkar, conceptualized and led by Krishnamurthy, and assisted by the AuzoHub field team.
The authors are business consultant and associate professor of anthropology at IIT Madras.
