Reflections on Consumption in Digital Networks: an Essay about Interactions between Social Networks, Digital Influencers and Users

Abstract

Objectives: the purpose of this essay is to reflect on the process of building consumption in online social networks, focusing in particular on the relationships between users, digital influencers and digital media. Methodology/approach: In order to study the meshes of relationships present in on-line social networks, the social constructionism approach was chosen. Distancing itself from the objectivist and subjectivist paroxysms of modern currents, social constructivism grants greater explanatory power to the formation of social networks because it is based on an intersubjective perspective. Main results: Actor’s co-creation, and the ongoing interchange of information among them, provides to the social networks a polysemic and participative formation. However, it ends up promoting the emergence of an immanent consumption culture, conceding to marketing the function of the creation of social meanings and senses. Besides the distinction between the traditional physical consumption and the virtual one, an interaction model among social network actors is presented. Academic contributions: Based on the reflection on the interactions between the actors, a relational model for building virtual networks is suggested, which contributes to the literature by providing an integrated way of understanding the development of social media co-creation relationships based on the social constructivism. Practical contributions: New research agendas are suggested, showing that consumption in digital environments has marked differences in relation to traditional physical consumption. The continuous interaction between its actors guarantees the ubiquity of the digital co-creation process, bringing practical effects to the management of marketing and virtual consumption.