Analysis and Correction of the Trend of Consumerism Virtualization

Analysis and Correction of the Trend of Consumerism Virtualization

Liang Jun Qiu Xue

(School of Marxism, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710000)

[Abstract] The rapid development of the Internet has caused changes in the content and form of consumerism, showing a significant trend of virtualization in cyberspace. The realistic basis for the virtualization of consumerism is the virtualization of the consumer subject, the virtualization of consumer objects, the virtualization of shopping forms, and the virtualization of the consumption process. Its inherent essence is the unreality of object possession, the alienation of subject existence, and the nihilism of value orientation. The mechanism of its cause is the media technology of the Internet, the logic of capital proliferation, and the consumption alienation under symbolic coding. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the regulation and guidance of virtual consumption, actively create a green consumption environment, and emphasize leading green consumption behavior with Marxist views on consumption.

[Keywords] Ideology; Consumerism; Internet; Capital Logic

Xi Jinping pointed out: “The rapid development of the Internet has brought profound changes to human production and life, as well as a series of new opportunities and challenges for human society.”[1]160 The new changes and challenges here manifest not only as changes in real economic and political activities but also involve changes in existing ideological concepts. Influenced by the continuous penetration and expansion of online media in the real field in recent years, the current ideological pattern and form of society in our country are also gradually changing. One prominent phenomenon is that consumerism has undergone a corresponding virtualization transformation due to the virtualization of consumption behavior. This not only makes it more concealed and permeable but also exacerbates the issues of spiritual nihilism and entertainment. Currently, it is necessary to pay attention to this changing trend of consumerism and respond theoretically.

Analysis and Correction of the Trend of Consumerism Virtualization

1.The Real Basis and Inherent Essence of the Trend of Consumerism Virtualization

To stimulate greater market vitality, Internet technology promotes capital to build a new commodity consumption system in cyberspace, and by leveraging the characteristics of the Internet’s virtualization and diversification, it causes people’s consumption demands, consumption methods, and even consumption concepts to shift from reality to the virtual, leading to a trend of virtualization in consumerism as an ideology. This transformation is bound to intensify the dissemination of consumerism in the current ideological field of our country, especially negatively affecting the value concepts and behavioral habits of young people. Therefore, it is essential to first grasp the objective realistic basis and inherent essence of this transformation.

(1) The Real Basis of Consumerism Virtualization

Marx and Engels emphasized: “It is not consciousness that determines life, but life that determines consciousness”[2]525. Consumerism essentially belongs to ideology, which is an “epitome” of objective reality, and its virtualization tendency fundamentally originates from the virtualization of consumption behavior on the objective reality level. It is precisely the increasing expansion of the latter in the current real field that has caused the corresponding trend of consumerism virtualization. Therefore, research on the latter must logically start from revealing its realistic basis.

The current situation of the virtualization of consumption behavior can be explained from four aspects. First, the virtualization of the consumer subject. We construct our relationship with the existing world through our bodies. However, in the context of the digital age, “individuals in the Internet can only exist through the digital intermediary of the virtual body… which is ‘data packets’ produced by computer algorithms”[3]99. This leads us to first restore ourselves to a digital identity or ID when engaging in consumption activities to ensure we can successfully log into the app and consumption space. At this time, the subject’s name, gender, appearance, etc., all exist in cyberspace as symbolic coded representations, such as character virtualization in dress-up games, identity virtualization in online nicknames, and personality virtualization in online interactions. As a result, interpersonal interactions are penetrated by virtual data streams, no longer based on real physical bodies. Second, the virtualization of consumer objects. Goods in cyberspace exist in a digital virtual form, with virtual goods as “goods existing in a primarily image-based virtual world”[4], characterized by intangibility, variable content, and strong replicability[5]. Therefore, virtual goods can be classified into virtual assets represented by game props and accounts, virtual currencies represented by Q coins and game coins, virtual value-added service products represented by platform memberships, website searches, and e-books, and functional goods with level distinctions represented by community forum badges. Third, the virtualization of purchasing forms. The essence of purchasing is exchange; Marx referred to the commodity exchange process as “the material transformation of social labor”[6]127. Under digital exchange conditions, “the production, exchange, and consumption of products are reorganized and structured by general data”[3]20, prominently manifested in the dehumanization of sales terminals. Everything in the world of goods exists in cyberspace in virtual and digitized forms such as data, images, and user evaluations. This illusory form serves as a digital mapping of physical goods, easily generating virtuality under the control of digital technology. Furthermore, the symbolic nature of exchange subjects makes the exchange process full of uncertainty; even if a specific digital consumption object is locked in, in many cases, the parties involved in the exchange have not predetermined specific subjects, leading to the actual users of the symbols changing at any time. At this point, the real referentiality of the exchange subjects is no longer the focus of attention, and the essential power of individuals exists between abstract digitization and intelligent virtual products. Once interpersonal relationships are replaced by data, they are thoroughly hidden behind the virtual space of the Internet, exacerbating the objectification of interpersonal communication in the market economy. On the other hand, regarding the purchasing end, “when monetary relationships belong to a digital account or password”[3]12, the value relationships generated by currency as an equivalent form are virtualized, and money visually becomes a string of numbers. This greatly reduces the “exchange experience” when consumers make payments, psychologically deepening their recognition of the virtualization of purchasing forms. Fourth, the virtualization of the consumption process. “The ultimate goal of commodity circulation is consumption, which is to satisfy needs”[5]175. In traditional consumption, people must rely on real physical spaces to purchase goods to meet the actual needs of their lives. Although they pay attention to the symbolic value of goods, the actual possession of use value is the main driving force behind their consumption. Consumption in the virtual realm is based on environmental virtualization, subject virtualization, and the virtualization of subject activities and social relationships, thus focusing more on the virtual experience of the consumption process. The highly compressed time and space of virtual space reflect and transcend reality, using technology to transform what already exists in the real realm or the possibility of existence into digital language to achieve a “hyper-real” virtual existence. People replicate the consumption habits of real physical spaces in the virtual world, such as the possession of virtual real estate and the display of virtual clothing. The essence is that data, information, and other non-substantial goods become the objects of consumption, fulfilling more of their virtual consumption needs through fictitious non-real experiences. Since the sense of satisfaction during this period is achieved through the virtual process, it is marked by significant falsehood and can easily be disciplined or misled by digital platforms.

(2) The Inherent Essence of Consumerism Virtualization

Traditionally, consumerism is an ideology manipulated under capital logic. Driven by the practical reality of the virtualization trend of consumption activities, it inevitably tends toward virtualization at the ideological level. Although the virtualization of consumerism has not deviated from its essence, the intervention of network technology has given it new vitality in virtual spaces. Therefore, in addition to clarifying the realistic basis of consumerism virtualization, further research on its inherent essence is necessary.

In the digital age, although consumerism tends toward virtualization development in the “cyberspace”, its essence of capital profit-seeking and symbolic consumption has not changed. Compared to traditional consumerism, the two aspects of consumerism virtualization that remain unchanged are: first, the nature of capital proliferation and the characteristics of private ownership of production materials have not fundamentally changed; capital always seeks to shorten the necessary social labor time by compressing time and space to gain high profits. Second, it has not deviated from the essence of symbolic consumption. Network symbolic consumption is the false needs created by the fetishism of symbols further penetrating into the virtual realm. Network media and symbols code and accomplish each other, superficially creating the consumption pleasure of commodity symbolization, but in reality, it generates implicit differentiation through symbols, guiding people to produce intuitive desires to stimulate consumption pleasure, thereby achieving differentiation and hierarchical differentiation.

Traditional consumerism, under the wrapping of online media, further exposes its falsehood in aspects such as the unreality of object possession, the alienation of subject existence, and the nihilism of value orientation. Specifically, it is manifested in the following aspects: First, the virtualization of consumerism primarily manifests as the unreality of object possession. Traditional consumerism regards the satisfaction of material desires and sensory enjoyment as the supreme pursuit of life. Although it strives to render the symbolic value of goods, it still relies on the possession of physical objects to achieve psychological satisfaction. After the 20th century, consumerism entered a mass communication era mediated by digital networks. In the network space lacking physical and real material foundations, consumerism wrapped in network technology no longer requires real scenes of exchange between objects; instead, it displays all virtual goods constituted by data codes through the vast “virtual reality” and inclusiveness of cyberspace. In addition, capitalism stimulates people’s consumption demands around the clock through network algorithms, creating a great desire for virtual goods, but ultimately, what is consumed are virtual data codes. People experience hyper-real illusions in the false narratives constructed by the Internet, gradually confusing the relationship between possession and existence, losing the ability for rational critique. Second, the virtualization of consumerism manifests as the alienation of subject existence and the nihilism of value orientation. Virtualized consumerism uses the “instrumental rationality” of network media to abstract specific lives; at this point, individuals are controlled and enslaved by the objectified powers they have created. This inversion of the subject-object relationship leads to the meaning of human existence being framed by virtual symbols. The visual feast of desire production and virtual commodity landscapes continuously dissolves individual autonomous thinking and choice abilities. On this basis, relationships between individuals are also endowed with new forms of expression—data relationships. Under the erosion of data capital, subjects cannot maintain their rational value and become alienated into virtual bodies composed of data packets. The richness of human existence is replaced by unified data, and the organic connections between people are alienated on both physical and psychological levels, yet they willingly follow this set of cultural logic of consumption, leading to the alienation of subject existence. Furthermore, individuals attempt to achieve self-socialization and identity recognition through virtualized consumption demands, self-exiling in the value “vacuum” constructed by capital and technology. This sense of satisfaction without physical possession further leads to a void in people’s spiritual worlds and the virtualization of cognitive relationships, causing individuals to gradually become spiritual vassals of capital fetishism under data domination, revealing the nihilism of value orientation.

2.Analysis of the Causes of Consumerism Virtualization

Revealing the realistic basis and inherent essence of the transformation of consumerism virtualization is key to studying its causes. Consumerism, as a mirror reflection of the social phenomenon of consumption alienation, inevitably leads to the virtualization transformation of consumerism at the ideological level due to the virtualization of consumption practice activities. Therefore, analyzing consumerism virtualization from the essence of network media technology, capital logic, and consumption alienation under symbolic coding is an important logical approach to uncovering its causes.

(1) Network Media Technology Induces Consumerism to Develop Towards Virtualization

Dutch scholar Jos de Mul pointed out in his book “Odyssey in Cyberspace—Towards Virtual Ontology and Anthropology” that “the migration to cyberspace” and “the colonization of daily life by cyberspace” will proceed hand in hand[7]2. This is the new landscape presented by the consumer society empowered by technology. The reason why network technology can become a social force driving consumerism towards virtualization lies in two aspects: first, it reconstructs the consumption environment and provides possibilities for virtual consumption; second, it still follows the will of capital and thus has ideological functions.

Technology, as a tool for the operation of capital logic, endows consumerism virtualization with rationality and legitimacy, and attempts to maximize capital proliferation efficiency by creating a new “consumer society” in virtual space for non-material consumption objects, providing a premise for the occurrence of consumption behavior in virtual space. On the one hand, technology provides new growth space for capital proliferation by reconstructing the consumption environment. Network technology and data algorithms have strong inducements and directives for consumption; they precisely locate audience consumption demands, transcend temporal and spatial limitations, and continuously create false consumption needs and desires. At this point, the traditional consumption’s “physical presence” is no longer a sufficient necessary condition; network technology creates an immersive consumption experience that transcends self-perception through the model of “real person—symbol—virtual field—emotional satisfaction” in virtual situations. People only need “symbolic presence” to complete the consumption feast. Network technology blurs the boundaries between reality and the virtual, attempting to shift the focus of the consumer society to cyberspace, thereby achieving technological hegemony in the field of consumption. On the other hand, network technology still follows the will of capital and carries ideological functions. Marcuse believes that in the process of developing towards a one-dimensional society, technical control has become a new form of control, “the rationality of technology has become the rationality of politics”[8]159. It appears value-neutral but has a clear political intentionality, which endows traditional consumerism with new forms of expression. Technology, through the monopoly of platforms and data, makes consumerism under the drive of capital logic more concealed and alluring. Consumerism constructs a closed consumption space for consumers through network technology to deepen their rational recognition of the ideology of virtualized consumerism. Thus, under “time-space separation,” consumption individuals in cyberspace see and understand processed information about goods that conform to the logic of capital operation, remaining unaware that they are in a forced consumption dilemma, willingly exploited by capital, and unconsciously following the ideological system constructed by technological capitalism, resulting in a loss of the ability for rational critique and becoming alienated into an existence beyond individual life.

(2) The Essence of Capital Logic Drives Consumerism to Develop Towards Virtualization

Marx pointed out: “Capital seeks to destroy all local restrictions on exchange, to seize the entire earth as its market, and on the other hand, it seeks to use time to eliminate space”[9]33. It can be seen that capitalists are constantly changing effective means of capital proliferation under the drive of capital accumulation logic. They build a new commodity system in cyberspace through media technology, accelerating the speed of capital accumulation, and this behavior hastens the transformation of consumerism towards virtualization.

Consumerism in cyberspace still serves the fundamental will of capital accumulation. There are two reasons why capital promotes the transformation of consumerism towards virtualization. First, the consequences of blind capital expansion are that the cyclical contradictions of capital accumulation can never be alleviated, leading the world into an era of overcapacity, thus creating pressure for capital accumulation and resulting in economic crises. Consumerism always follows the logic of capital expansion, but when traditional commodity fetishism manifests the relationship between employment and commodity logic, it is easily seen through, preventing capital from proliferating more rapidly. In this case, to alleviate the proliferation pressure caused by capital accumulation and further conceal and adorn the exploitative relationships revealed by Marx, it is necessary to extend consumerism into the virtual space of the Internet. Network platforms, through entertaining and everyday dissemination methods, collude with capital to instill a sense of free consumption into consumers, stimulating desire generation to guide consumption behavior in cyberspace to obtain more surplus value and maximize capital accumulation. Second, network platforms bring new development space for capital accumulation; “capital has only one living instinct, which is to proliferate itself and create surplus value”[6]269. However, in the consumer society, the real production space corresponding to capital encounters bottlenecks. In order to seek breakthroughs in capital accumulation and avoid capital overproduction, capitalists combine capital with network technology to shorten the turnover time of capital, utilizing the super-temporal and spatial characteristics of network technology to provide a living space for capital to operate at high speed day and night. Consumption in cyberspace appears to have stronger selectivity, and consumers seem to have greater freedom of consumption. In reality, it is digital hegemony under data algorithms, using technology to virtualize consumer subjectivity, privatizing consumer data, and exploiting the surplus value of laborers in this new consumption field of network platforms. Under the drive of capital logic, consumerism thus manifests as a more virtualized and abstracted ideology in cyberspace.

(3) Consumption Alienation Under Symbolic Coding Promotes Consumerism to Develop Towards Virtualization

The union of supporting network technology and the essence of capital logic drives the specific circumstances of consumerism virtualization. However, compared to traditional consumerism, which endows entities with symbolic existence, the consumer subjects and objects in cyberspace have transformed into virtual entities composed of data codes, forming a more illusory consumption pattern of “symbolic consumption symbols,” which is undoubtedly a new alienation phenomenon of consumerism under symbolic coding, further accelerating the process of consumerism’s transformation towards virtualization.

“The Internet, as a world of generalized symbolization, symbolizes whatever object and relationship enters the network”[10]. This allows consumerism, which is essentially symbolic consumption, to expand and spread in cyberspace in a more virtualized form, forming a set of symbolic systems with its own values and meanings. On the one hand, capital logic promotes the alienation of symbolic consumption. In capitalist society, labor alienation prevents individuals from exercising their subjectivity and creativity in production, leading them to seek to compensate for the spiritual emptiness caused by labor in consumption freedom. Pursuing the symbolic value behind commodities becomes an important channel for the audience to realize their self-meaning. However, capital always seeks to capture as much surplus value as possible to achieve capital accumulation. Capitalists keenly capture that information network technology can achieve the purpose of uninterrupted capital proliferation across time and space, thus combining consumerism with network technology and guiding subjects to enter the virtual world of network goods in a symbolic state of existence. This not only helps subjects achieve consumption freedom but also conceals the secret of capital’s appropriation of surplus value. Consequently, network symbolic consumption, as a product of capital logic, collaborates with capital to realize capital accumulation through more concealed means, manifesting as the alienation phenomenon of “symbolic consumption symbols” in cyberspace. On the other hand, consumption alienation under network symbolic coding accelerates the alienation of individuals. Subjects entering cyberspace exist in a referential relationship of code meaning, using ID symbols to represent identities and digital virtual bodies to replace their true selves, which is a derived existence of subject consciousness. This existence, without entity and symbolically bodily, is a “body avatar” or “body simulacrum” placed in cyberspace, constituted by data codes, representing a dataized expression of arbitrary consciousness or abstract consciousness[11]. “And reconstructing in thousands of symbols piled together to create a comprehensive individuality”[12]81, people become tool-like and secularized under the control of false desires, gradually alienating into a “one-dimensional person” beyond their subject existence in cyberspace.

The marriage of network technology, capital logic, and symbolic coding promotes traditional consumerism to continuously change its mode of existence in reality, in order to exploit consumers through more concealed means for rapid capital accumulation. The virtualization transformation of consumerism will undoubtedly accelerate consumption alienation and weaken consumer autonomy. Therefore, deeply analyzing the causes of consumerism’s development towards virtualization can timely discover the adverse reactions of consumerism in this development and provide correct suggestions.

3.Correction and Guidance of Irrational Consumption in Virtual Realms

The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out: “Erroneous thoughts such as money worship, hedonism, extreme individualism, and historical nihilism occasionally appear, and chaotic online public opinion seriously affects people’s thoughts and the social opinion environment.”[13]5 Consumerism has severed the dialectical relationship between production and consumption, promoting emotional consumption, desire consumption, and meaningful consumption in the virtual realm through Internet technology, continuously obscuring mainstream ideology and the core socialist values, eroding people’s thoughts and trapping them in the quagmire of commodity fetishism. Therefore, it is necessary to guide the audience to clarify the adverse effects of virtual consumption, coordinate governance through the government, platforms, and individuals, correct and guide irrational consumption behaviors in virtual realms, and establish a healthy atmosphere for green consumption.

(1) Strengthening Regulation and Guidance of Virtual Consumption with the Government’s “Visible Hand”

Virtual consumption under capital control continuously erodes the audience’s spirit. The government, as the “first line of defense” for external regulation, must strengthen the supervision and enforcement of virtual realms to create a clear online space. Therefore, the following points must be achieved.

First, formulate and improve laws and regulations for virtual realm transactions. First, issue relevant laws and regulations to manage virtual transactions from the source—strengthen legal supervision in the production link of virtual products, systematize and standardize consumption behaviors, establish a comprehensive network information supervision system and network transaction review system, and create a comprehensive supervision system for the production, dissemination, and consumption processes of virtual goods, accurately assessing consumption behaviors. Additionally, actively implement the opinions of the “Ministry of Culture on Regulating the Operation of Online Games and Strengthening Supervision During and After Events,” “standardizing the issuance services of virtual props in online games, and strengthening supervision during and after the use of online games”[14], further constraining virtual consumption behaviors. Second, improve reporting channels for illegal activities, strictly implement real-name authentication, set up reporting feedback windows, and conduct real-time monitoring and feedback. Finally, improve the consumer rights protection system, establish a payment protection network for consumer account binding and information transactions, and establish a complete network payment environment and consumer privacy protection system.

Second, regulate and guide the market order of virtual consumption. On the one hand, standardize and manage the behavior of online anchors, strengthen the management of broadcast content, and guide the normative behavior of anchors, enhancing the positive value guidance of broadcast content. On the other hand, strictly control online fundraising, credit loans, and other inducements for consumption, prohibiting the setting of “recharge voting” functions, canceling online live broadcast reward rankings, promptly discovering and clearing fundraising support information that violates industry regulations, especially prohibiting minors from participating in rewards and support consumption, using big data to monitor software platform pop-up pages in real-time, and blocking and shielding websites that involve “credit loans” and “campus loans” that induce premature consumption, and strictly dealing with them according to laws and regulations.

Third, severely punish bad consumption behaviors in virtual realms. On the one hand, severely punish the sale of fake goods; merchants selling goods in virtual realms should price them according to market demand, label them as “virtual products,” and cannot replace actual utility, providing corresponding after-sales services and refund systems. For merchants and platforms that do not comply with pricing or refund systems in the virtual realm, lighter cases should undergo legal education, while heavier cases should be banned from sales and require software to be removed for rectification. On the other hand, for the inducement of consumption behaviors against consumers by online anchors and platforms, implement various degrees of punishment such as account suspension, fines, administrative penalties, or criminal liability based on the severity of the behavior.

(2) Creating a Green Virtual Consumption Field with Platforms as the “Second Line of Defense”

While the government’s “visible hand” serves as external forces for good regulation of the virtual consumption environment, virtual consumption also needs to rely on merchant platforms to achieve final profit acquisition. Therefore, achieving a joint effort between the government and platforms to create a green consumption field must also accomplish the following points.

First, raise the entry threshold for platforms and improve transaction mechanisms. On the one hand, improve IP management, record the network IP showing the region, and track browsing history. On the other hand, improve identity information authentication, accelerate the implementation of online real-name systems, set up consumer facial recognition, especially age limits for login, and set protective mechanisms such as time locks and password locks for minors to prevent account borrowing for consumption. For frequent payment and transfer behaviors to the same account, implement transaction suspension. Additionally, a cooling-off period for consumption can be established, allowing consumers to receive unconditional refunds within a reasonable period for impulsive consumption generated on online platforms, granting consumers the “right to regret.”

Second, optimize technical means to purify the online space. On the one hand, strengthen technical guidance and repair platform vulnerabilities. Provide high-quality network support platforms, and offer professional network optimization tools for virtual consumption, improving the management level of automated optimization systems. On the other hand, conduct comprehensive diagnostics of websites, utilizing data algorithms, big data analysis, and other technical means to monitor transactions in real-time, and promptly repair platform transaction vulnerabilities to purify the online space.

Third, mainstream media should take responsibility and construct a healthy development of integrated online media. National mainstream media should actively assume the responsibility of disseminating mainstream culture, fully exerting its role in guiding public opinion by monitoring current hot issues in consumption, timely discerning the development trends of consumption culture, occupying the commanding heights of positive public opinion dissemination and theoretical propaganda, enhancing the value traction and dissemination power of mainstream consumption concepts, and constructing a healthy development of integrated online media.

(3) Guiding Green Consumption Behavior with Marxist Consumption Views

The ideology of consumerism has varying degrees of influence on individual consumption concepts and choices in virtual realms. To prevent people from falling into the quagmire of material desires and return to a human-centered green consumption concept, it is necessary to use Marxist consumption views to regulate and guide green consumption behavior, achieving green consumption and sustainable development in virtual realms.

First, unveil the veil of false consumption and cultivate awareness of green consumption. On the one hand, fully mobilize the subjectivity of the audience, enhancing their discernment and criticality towards virtual consumption. Guide the audience to actively understand relevant knowledge about online media, strengthen education on online consumption literacy, critically accept various consumption information in cyberspace, and recognize that while virtual goods enrich their spiritual lives, they must also be aware of the adverse effects of excessive consumption, enhancing their discernment of virtual goods’ symbolic information. On the other hand, popularize knowledge about virtual consumption. Through advertising, theoretical presentations, and other forms, educate on the essence of virtual consumption and virtual products. Additionally, organize social volunteer services and charitable activities to guide the audience to return to real life, gaining respect and recognition within real social relationships, further clarifying the true needs of individuals and cultivating awareness of green consumption.

Second, conduct education on Marxist consumption views to guide green consumption behavior. The current consumption in society often manifests as consumption for consumption’s sake, and people become slaves to commodities. To change this situation and guide the audience’s green consumption behavior, several aspects can be approached: on the one hand, offer courses related to green consumption concepts; cultivating green consumption views in adolescents is of significant importance for their growth. Therefore, actively promoting green consumption into classrooms, thoroughly explaining the basic principles of Marxism and relevant concepts of Marxist political economy. At the same time, integrating the party’s policies and guidelines into specific teaching content, especially introducing case studies of green consumption into the classroom. On the other hand, strengthen practical teaching to cultivate green consumption. School clubs can organize activities such as green recycling stations and green charity sales, engaging students in substantive participation in green consumption, achieving the unity of theory and practice.

References:

[1] Excerpts from Xi Jinping’s Discussions on Building a Cyber Power[M]. Beijing: Central Literature Publishing House, 2021.

[2] Marx and Engels Collection (Volume 1)[M]. Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2009.

[3] Lan Jiang. General Data, Virtual Body, and Digital Capital: A Critique of Digital Capitalism from a Historical Materialist Perspective[M]. Nanjing: Jiangsu People’s Publishing House, 2022.

[4] Zhang Yaozhen, Huang Weidong. Current Situation and Countermeasures of Youth’s Virtual Commodity Consumption[J]. China Youth Research, 2011, (12).

[5] Wu Hong, Peng Hui. Brief Discussion on Virtual Goods[J]. Journal of Tsinghua University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), 2010, (3).

[6] Marx and Engels Collection (Volume 5)[M]. Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2009.

[7] [Netherlands] Jos de Mul. Odyssey in Cyberspace—Towards Virtual Ontology and Anthropology[M]. Translated by Mai Yongxiong. Guilin: Guangxi Normal University Press, 2007.

[8] [Germany] Herbert Marcuse. One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society[M]. Translated by Liu Ji. Shanghai: Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 1988.

[9] Marx and Engels Complete Works (Volume 46) (Part II)[M]. Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1979.

[10] Yang Zhuyuan. Why Abolishing “i Slave” is Impossible: The Covering of the Labor Process and the Rise of Non-Economic Rewards[J]. Modern Communication (Journal of Communication University of China), 2018, (7).

[11] Zhang Yan, Zhao Xinshi. The Mist of Liberation of People in Cyberspace and Its Dissipation—From the Perspective of Historical Materialism[J]. Journal of Zhejiang University (Humanities and Social Sciences Edition), 2022, (6).

[12] [France] Jean Baudrillard. The Consumer Society[M]. Translated by Liu Chengfu et al. Nanjing: Nanjing University Press, 2014.

[13] Xi Jinping. Hold High the Great Banner of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics and Unite to Strive for Comprehensive Modernization of the Socialist Country—Report at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China[M]. Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2022.

[14] Notice from the Ministry of Culture on Regulating Online Game Operations and Strengthening Supervision During and After Events[EB/OL]. Portal of the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China, http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2016-12/06/content_5143968.htm, 2016-12-06.

Welcome to Subscribe

1. Subscribe through the local post office.

The publication code for this journal: 80-476

2. Contact the editor to subscribe.

Phone: 010-62332831, 62334268

(1) Postal remittance

Address: Editorial Department of “Research on Ideological Education” (Recipient), No. 30, Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing

Postal Code: 100083

(2) Bank remittance

Bank: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Beijing Dongsheng Road Branch

Account Name: Beijing University of Science and Technology

Account Number: 0200006209014432650

Bank Code: 102100000626

Analysis and Correction of the Trend of Consumerism Virtualization

Related posts

Leave a Comment Cancel reply