Con·spic·u·ous Con·sump·tion
noun
When consumers buy expensive items for the express purpose of publicly displaying wealth or economic power rather than to cover the real need of the consumer.
3,730 Comments
Rebecca Millington
I think trisha spends so much money because shes lacking other things in life that she always says she wants like a family ect . You can have all the money in the world but the best things in life are free , true .
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jbajic44
such fleeting moments of happiness when you binge eat or shop your wallet away... it doesn't last. just creates guilt and shame and the cycle continues.... #sadfortrish
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Ophelia
keep it up and you're gonna go broke AGAIN
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Linzi F.
girl please spend some money on therapy
34,218 Comments
Benjamin Meyer G
"we have a BUDGET of 30,000$" only something mr beast is able to say
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Jonathan Plascencia
Lol at leasts he wastes his money for good things. If I had 30,000 I would buy a car. Welp time to become a waiter lmao!
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John Leonard Fernandez
I love how you earn money on youtube and share the money you have to others
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Omega Herbo
I watch these videos because I wont ever have that kind of money
Clickbait is standard fare on YouTube: over-the-top thumbnails and titles are necessary to make one's content stand out among the competition. But there’s a reason why Trisha’s spending videos have come to define most of her brand: it plays into the idea that “self-reflexive modes of post-feminist performance” linking empowerment to consumption still ultimately conforms to “normative power relations in relation to gender, class and race” (Arthurs et al. 2018). The majority of her comments shame her for making unwise decisions with her own money, whereas the reaction to Mr. Beast's tipping video received a far more positive response. Granted, his video is about giving money away to people who likely need it, whereas Trisha spends money on herself.
However, Mr. Beast often treats his philanthropic ventures as nothing more than good content. He films his good deeds where he hands someone an absurd amount of cash and then just walks away, but not without telling the lucky winner to subscribe to his channel or pose for a thumbnail first. He has no affect or charm about him; he is purchasing affect (in the form of the other person's reaction) to generate affective capital for himself, which he then uses to fund the next round of philanthropic videos, all without performing any of the affective labor required.
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"Just as you spend money on entertainment...Giving away money is just as entertaining to me"
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The economist who coined the term "conspicuous consumption" believed that a "flashy" consumer performs such behavior to gain a higher social status by emulating the wealth of higher classes. Mr. Beast is by no means the most popular, well-liked, or wealthy YouTuber. His videos gain the majority of their views from being on the trending page, not from dedicated followers who have subscribed to him like they do to the personality cults of the vloggers.
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For these conspicuous consumption videos, affective labor and affective capital are still being performed and exchanged for economic capital, but the workings of this exchange (and who is actually performing the labor) are more obvious and artificial.
