Tweens and Consumption

The other day I heard a radio programme about tweens. It was about how tweens is a rather new phenomenon and how the parents of today might not be able to understand it, as there were no such thing when they were the same age. We are used to the idea of the teenager, but the tween is unknown to us. We think of them as children first and they stay that way until they grow into teenagehood.  Such programmes of course have experts and this was no exception. They had a woman on there who had been researching tweens and though she made sense most of the time, she also said something that made me take notice. She compared the tween to the teenager and stated that one of the biggest differences were that because tweens are regarded as children they have no possibility to take part in adult society except in one way: consumption. This, she added, is a passive activity. It seemed as if she understood consumption as just choosing between what is on offer. Of course the tween phenomenon is closely linked to the increased wealth of recent times and you do see companies regarding this as a specific new target group to which they can offer products so I consumption does indeed play an important role. However, the idea of consumption as a passive activity is reducing it to something that makes you blind to what is going on.

First of all, I think that focusing on consumption is not enough. We like to aquire stuff not just for consumption, but also for possesion. Anthropologists, sociologists and others that deal with modern society tend to forget this, and they also tend to forget that buying is just one out of many ways to aquire material possesions. By reducing all these things to ‘consumption’ one seems to be making some assumptions about how society works and buying into some of the ideas of the anti-consumerist left about how we are manipulated into consuming all the time. One is also missing the most interesting point which is: what do the tweens do when they aquire things and what do they do with them? It almost seemed as if the researcher didn’t quite take tween consumption seriously.

Shopping for new things can very often be a social activity. Especially for girls it seems. Of course we have all seen groups of girls walking around the shopping areas in the cities searching new garments or accessories out. Discussing what looks good or what doesn’t. But there are also other aspects of aquisition that can be shared. Today we do not only have tweens, we also have the internet and as we know the internet is great for sharing. Recently we have seen a rise in the number of fashion blogs, haul vlogs, and the like. I follow and read/watch quite a few of these and some of the girls (because it is mainly a girl activity) who make these are young enough to be characterised as tweens. Most famous is of course Tavi of ‘Style Rookie‘ fame who started fashion blogging when she was 11 years old.  Now, most girls doing this sort of thing do not become famous as Tavi, but they do enter into communities both IRL and online where they share their new aquisitions. Often these girls don’t have that much money so a lot of what you will find is that there is quite a bit on focus on where you can find cheap fashionable items. You tell each other about how you found a great piece on sale or show off what you bought for next to nothing on eBay or maybe you complain a bit about how you spent too much money on those shoes that you just had to have.  All part of creating shared experiences and communicating with others who can relate to what you are saying.

Of course not everyone blogs or tweets or even share their new aquisitions on Facebook, but what everyone does is form their identity through their possesions. This means that when tweens aquire new stuff they carefully select what they need to make them what they wish to be.  Shopping is also a form of communication with the producers of goods. Your choices tell them what you like and what you don’t like, and when goods are possesed they can be used to communicate with others around you and also to tell yourself stories about who you are. We all do this. Therefore it seems strange that some people in academia insist on labelling consumption as a passive activity when it in fact is a very social activity that is shaping ourselves and the world around us.

Tweens are taking an active part in this process and we should take their actions seriously. There is no reason to believe that an 11-year old buying Humör trousers and a New Era cap is doing something without any awareness, than there is to believe that an adult couple buying stuff for their house to make it presentable or a businessman buying a Rolex are doing so.  I think that we need to get past this anti-consumerist nonsense and instead dive into and acknowledge all these marvelous and interesting activities going on around us all the time. Reducing everyone to passive robots is just not going to cut it.

Image from here