Networks Shape Identity

Consumers have always been looking for similar individuals with whom to share information and judgments on goods and services. This search for who and what is homogenous with to one's interests is one of the key principles behind the development of social networks. The growing diffusion of social media in a digital environment has multiplied the scale of this phenomenon and at the same time it has led Web users to develop a habit for the socialization of one's own personal and consumer experiences.

The selfie explosion epitomizes this development, along the rapid growth of Instagram and Pinterest, and the heightened usage of Twitter to comment and share on daily events as they unfold in real time.

With specific reference to the world of consumption, participation in this ever more widespread social conversation on the Net contributes to augment the single individual's knowledge and often improves his/her choice. According to a nearly paradoxical logic, in a context where personalization and celebrity culture are often brought to excess, the individual is often swayed by his/her peers according to a sociological model of behavior where the consumer becomes part of larger social aggregates.

With reference to the music industry, it has been shown how sales of tunes are positively correlated with the volume of posts generated around the songs themselves on social media. Similarly, purchases of fashion items are more and more influenced by feedbacks obtained on fashion blogs and by the emergent phenomenon of social commerce, which induces users to create and share their own outfits and wait for the approval of one's own social network before proceeding to complete the transaction.

Thus, on the one hand users have ever greater possibilities to transform individual voice into collective opinion and have their voice be given stronger weight in public and private debate around companies and their level of attention for consumer rights. Such degree of customer empowerment is historically unprecedented. Consumers have access to more information, they can share it, and acquire knowledge in a two-way process where user-generated content and massive online participation become prevalent.

On the other hand, in this process of social sublimation of their choices and spectacularization of their experiences, the same users are becoming increasingly dependent on the opinion of their digital peers, so that judgment and approval of their social circles act as ratification of individual consumer decisions.

Due to extensive viralization fueled by social platforms, users are growing more independent with respect to corporate interests, but often exaggerate the importance attributed to geographically variable social networks, which are playing an ever more important role in the formation of personal identity and individual preferences.