Globalization of Consumption, Lifestyles And 'Viral Society'

Abstract

This text discusses the central globalization process of products and services’ consumption, and its influence on social agents’ lifestyles. For instance, drinks, food, information, or mall’s goods’ consumption. Some of the phenomena associated with or resulting from global consumption are as follows: post-salariat, hyper-consumption, hypo consumption, hegemonic and counter-hegemonic consumption, citizenship of consumption, polyphony of consumption, consumption traps and the recent 'viral consumption’ and ‘viral lifestyle’, originated within the Covid-19 pandemic. This new situation of health and social crisis generates anti-pandemic resistances. One strategy of resistance occurs via the consumption of information, which, among other activities, has increased exponentially in cyberspace and cybertime, due to the social pressure exerted by Corona virus. In this perspective, today we are witnessing the transformation of insufficient or inflated information’s consumption about the Covid-19, into more profound, pertinent, and useful knowledge about this pandemic.