By Praditya Adiga Dirgantara
A person’s success is a personal and qualitative value. There is no one standard in assessing one’s success, some people may meet the standard of success only by fulfilling the main aspects of one’s needs, such as adequate housing, food, and clothing without burdening other people. Some people may judge that success can be measured from the goods or brands of goods the person uses.
Flexing culture is a culture that is getting more and more popular, especially with the rise of social media users in the world. Flexing culture itself is a culture that is closely associated with exhibiting luxury goods or luxury activities with the aim of getting validation from the community. For example, in recent years many teenagers have worn clothes from Spanish designers, from a brand called Balenciaga, which can cost around RM 3,000 for a to. The main purpose of this is to fascinate their friends and to win in a prestige competition among their peers. RM3,000 is an amount that is impossible for teenagers to have, unless their parents contributed to the amount or they have been working part-time for a long time.
Another example of flexing culture is when someone often shows off on social media, his or her luxury vacation trips, such as vacationing in Europe, America, or other parts of the world that are considered expensive to visit to most people. In the context of flexing culture, this is intended so that his or her social media followers can see how happy and successful he or she is, in living a glamorous life. In some cases, some people even combine images of purchasing luxury goods with traveling abroad, and then posting these images on their social media so they can get more validation in the form of likes and compliments from their followers.
According to Bain & Company, in 2021, China, as the second country with the highest GDP around the world, contributed USD73.59 billion out of the total USD320.6 billion global luxury goods expenditure. This means that China contributed to about 22.95% of the luxury goods market globally. Meanwhile, United States as the first country with the highest GDP around the world spent about USD102.59 billion or about 32% of the luxury goods market globally. Before the pandemic appeared on 2019, China remained a country with the largest luxury goods market globally. However, due to the strict lockdowns in Beijing and Shanghai, luxury brands are counting on Americans to purchase from them.
The question that now arises is “should flexing culture be judged as a form of self-expression or should it only be judged as a form of conspicuous consumption?” Self-expression can indeed be associated with what we wear and what we wear symbolizes our personality. Therefore, many young people today oppose the culture of flexing as they call it a negative thing. For them they do not need to get validation from other people. They also argue that buying luxury goods or spending on vacations is a form of self-reward to themselves and if they are happy with these purchases then why should they flex them?
On the other hand, others argue that flexing culture is merely a form conspicuous consumption which means that consumption is only done in order to display their wealth and show one’s high social status. As it is expensive to purchase luxury goods, then those who own branded items consider themselves superior to others. When people show off their luxury brands in public, that consists of different economic classes, then this will highlight their higher social status to others.
To answer the question, the answer must be seen from the intention and ability of a person to buy these luxury items and show them on social media. There is an interesting saying that goes “if you can’t afford to buy something twice then you can’t afford it”. This means that a person must have twice the money to buy the item in order to really afford buying it. If people become poor after buying an expensive item once, then buying luxury goods is something that is unaffordable to them and hence, reflects their lack of wealth.
Talking about intentions, it is true that no one else knows his or her intentions other than themselves and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala. Therefore, if the intention of someone posting luxury goods on social media is for self-expression, then we are not allowed to prohibit it, because it is the person’s private account. However, if the intention is only to compete with his or her friends, it should be avoided, because life and success are not all about prestige and competition, but about how to live life according to religious orders.***
(Praditya Adiga Dirgantara is a student in Department of Business Administration, Kulliyyah of Economic and Management Sciences (KENMS). The article is part of ‘Responsible Consumerism’ course. The views expressed here are those of the writer/author and do not necessarily represent the views of IIUMToday,)