Abstract
Conspicuous consumption now exists on social media where everyone seems to desire a ‘Soft life’. Individuals with a large social media following, whose content has the highest number of likes and comments are usually regarded as ‘Slay queens’ and ‘Ballers’ among other phrases. This study is fascinated with the emergence of Instagram ‘Slay queens’ and ‘Ballers’ amidst rampant economic inequality in the South African context. Conspicuous consumption behaviour was first identified by sociologist and economist Thorstein Veblen in his Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) that expounds that conspicuous displays may function as a means of gaining competitive advantages over others. Presently, similar phenomena of signalling exist on social media. There is an identified large interest in conspicuous consumption content on social media especially in the South African context which is a subject that is widely studied. Through Netnography Qualitative research data collection method this study identified signalling functions of Conspicuous consumption through Instagram posts. Purposive sampling and thematic analysis methods were used to identify the preconceived themes such as mating tactic, social status and intrasexual competition as signalling functions that motivate the emergence of Slay queens and Ballers. The main findings correlate with the literature that suggested the two study streams that seek to account for conspicuous consumption behaviour: the social stratification theory and the evolutionary psychology stream. This dissertation found that soft life as indicated by vast conspicuous consumption posts on Instagram has certain communicative functions. Through assessing the messages found along with these conspicuous consumption posts, the signalling potential of Slay queens and ballers online. A total of 23 Instagram posts were used to answer the three questions centralised around the communicative functions of conspicuous consumption.