Millennials and Gen-Zers’ obsession with personal image
Recently, I’ve noticed more and more students on campus wearing Apple AirPods. My initial response, after marveling at the idea that anyone is such a fanatic of Apple to buy what look like $159 cotton swabs that they jam into their ears, is that I must take a further analytical look at this device.
AirPods have become a socioeconomic marker lambasted in memes, but more importantly an everyday occurrence for Millennials and Gen-Zers, especially college students. AirPods and their “cult following” speak to the new and improved cultural fascination with personal image.
When AirPods were first released in December of 2016, I was astounded that earbuds with wireless connectivity could cost so much.
I remember growing up in the early era of Bluetooth wireless headsets, so it was odd to me that Apple was entering this arena. Early Bluetooth headsets were mired in longstanding mockery due to how ridiculous a person looked while wearing them.
Headphones with Bluetooth connectivity, for the singular purpose of listening to music, were accepted due to a level of pragmatism. No cord to get tangled in when you’re at the gym, no cord to deal with when you go on a run, no cord to get stuck on kitchen cabinet handles or door knobs.
Apple took these two things and melded them together. So AirPods have the microphone to make calls, as well as the capability to listen to music without a cumbersome cord in the way. And maybe even more importantly, they are discreet.
On the surface, AirPods have a real utility, but their market price was one that didn’t justify the purchase if one couldn’t afford it.
It is this idea of not being able to afford something seen as luxurious that make AirPods both mocked and admired.
As I said in a previous piece about Fyre Festival, social media creates an idyllic image that many people envy and wish they could obtain. AirPods fall into this preoccupation with image due to their price point.
AirPods realistically speaking can only be bought on a whim by someone who has $159 laying around. That person is not the lion’s share of Millennials and especially Gen-Zers (or more accurately Gen-Zers’ parents).
While Morgan Stanley Research anticipates a “youth boom economy” with more Millennials and Gen-Zers entering the labor force, these generations of people are dealing with an inordinate amount of college debt, for example, due to the evermore normative idea that you need to go to college.
Also, as Morgan Stanley Research reports, Gen-Zers are stepping onto more financially stable ground, due to further generational interest in the tech and medical fields that will make college costs less worrisome overall. However, there is still that component that Gen-Zers (including myself) aren’t there yet.
AirPods come at a time when Millennials, and especially the first few years of Gen-Zers, are in college and accumulating a lot of debt.
AirPods feed into a more obtainable fantasy for Millennials and Gen-Zers, with a price point that is lower than $200 so one could save up and purchase them after a while. They are a marker of financial stability, if not great wealth.
And when social media is inundated with images of lofty spending, luxurious trips and the newest technological advances, AirPods have become a status symbol.
People have become so preoccupied with personal image and “brand,” most importantly everyday people, due to the cultivation of their social media.
I had a conversation with someone a few months back about making sure her “feed” was cohesive. This person was a normal college student who had maybe 300 or 400 followers on Instagram.
The prevalence of AirPods is indicative of a new kind of social signifier that augments a person’s image and their preoccupation with obtaining these social signifiers.
Clout culture with the, what I find horrendously ugly, all Supreme outfits and what not, is probably the furthest extent of this new and ever-evolving fascination with personal image. But AirPods are the most normative and least strange product of this new preoccupation.
AirPods in and of themselves are not bad or evil, but they do point to something I believe has become an issue within the Millennial and Gen-Z generations. The great lengths that the cultivation of personal image is starting to move towards is troubling.
It’ll start with a $159 pair of earbuds and end up with hundreds of people stranded on a Bahamian island for a “VIP” music festival experience.
We need to take a step back and think about the ways in which we are falling into this obsession with our personal image. We need to collectively think about how we are urged and how we urge others indirectly to take on a performative financial stability or overly admire great wealth.
AirPods in and of themselves are not the issue, but they are a product of a fascination that I think can and will horribly ravage our innate self-worth.
