Abstract

Visual Consumerism in Borderless World: How Globalised Social Media Art Shapes Youth Desires and Cultural Practices

Dr. Sugandha Maheshwari

Volume: 16 Issue: 2 2026

Abstract:

This article investigates the mechanisms through which globalised social media art comprising digital aesthetics, hyper-curated visual consumerism and visual interactions in everyday life. The intensification of digitally mediated global interconnectivity has amplified visual consumerism, defined as the consumption of symbolic and affective value through images disseminated across networked platforms. Algorithmically elevated stylistic forms configure youth desires, identity orientations and cultural practices within a borderless sociocultural milieu. Informed by Appadurai’s (1996) theory of global cultural flows and Mirzoeff’s (2015) conceptualisation of visuality, the study frames borderlessness as an emergent condition facilitated by platform-driven deterritorialisation and the transnational mobility of visual symbols. Employing a mixed-method approach integrating visual content analysis and interpretive user narratives, the research demonstrates that social media art functions as a potent vector of aspirational modelling, cultural hybridisation and performative self-representation among youth. The findings indicate that algorithmically circulated visual cultures simultaneously reinforce homogenised global aesthetics and enable localised reinterpretations, thereby producing a dynamic interplay between global consumer imaginaries and situated cultural negotiation. By situating these processes within broader scholarship on consumer culture (Baudrillard, 1998; Featherstone, 2007), the article elucidates the sociocultural implications of visual consumerism for identity formation, meaning-making and participation in contemporary globalised digital environments.

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