Relationship Between Modern Technology And Luxury Consumption From The Perspective Of Philosophy

The rapid development of modern technology brings wealth to human while it also makes some people’s lifestyle gradually get luxury. In recent years, luxury consumption has spread quickly in China. According to many market investigations, China has been a big country of luxury consumption. What impacts will the prevalence of luxury consumption bring to social life and spiritual word? It is not only a major social problem, but also an important philosophical problem. Modern technology has played a very important role in the production and development of luxury consumption which has deeply influenced modern technology itself. This article will research on the relationship between modern technology and luxury consumption from the dimensions of ontology, ethics and aesthetics.Luxury is a desire beyond the basic human needs. As a kind of social behavior, luxury consumption means people possess themselves of the materialized needs which point to both the material desire and the spiritual desire about symbol, politics and culture. The relationship between modern technology and luxury consumption shows different characteristics of spirit and culture in the process of their historical development. In the social condition that the way of production was relatively single and modern market economy had not yet appeared, technology had not become the power that controlled and manipulated human life and practice, and the relationship between technology and luxury consumption was explored in the frame of politics and ethics.The relationship between modern technology and luxury consumption has been endowed new characters different from before. In the facet of ontology, the transformation of the way of modern production brings the transformation of social function of technology. As a kind of social existence, luxury consumption is manipulated by modern technology which has become a power of social control, as the same time, luxury consumption also reacts to modern technology and makes it diversified. The way of batch production of modern technology gradually popularizes luxury consumption. Independent technical design department continuously provides symbol of consumption to the public, and try to formulate a symbolic consumption pattern by modern media technology. The emergence of brand symbol brings about new consumer demand. The increase of luxury consumption is not only proving quite profitable to businesses, but also providing great support to the R&D and production of luxury goods. The relationship between modern technology and luxury consumption is characterized by symbolization, fashion, popularization and leisure.In the facet of ethics, since modern luxury consumption is essentially a kind of symbolic consumption constructed by technology, it not only satisfies people’s basic material needs, but also contents them with symbols of freedom and wealth during symbolic consumption. The symbolic manipulation of technology can be an alienated power that brings many ethical problems about freedom, justice and social conduct. Businesses have controlled consumer awareness, attitudes and actions by modern technology, which suppresses the individual freedom. The prevalence of modern luxury consumption, is exacerbating the social wealth gap and protruding the justice issues between social individuals on the one hand, aggravating the destruction of natural by human’s technology activities which lead to the controversy about rights, responsibility and justice between generations on the another hand. It is recognized that consumers choose the way out of morality to achieve self-fulfillment, and people more and more depend on symbols constructed by technology to get social recognition rather than a universal moral choice.The symbols constructed by modern technology have both affected social ideology in the form of culture idea and meddled in people’s aesthetic feeling with experience, as a result, aesthetic activity is no longer "reflecting without utilitarian", but severing the aim of consumption. The social control of modern technology is constantly dispelling the aesthetic subjectivity, which leads to diversified aesthetic standards and fragmented aesthetic activities. The interaction of modern technology and luxury consumption has got the aesthetic practice into an unprecedented trouble, therefore, it is necessary to rebuild aesthetic, restore the freedom and judgment of aesthetic and restructure the rationality of aesthetic activities in the context of modern technology.In luxury consumption increasingly prevalent today, studying on the relationship between modern technology and luxury consumption from the perspective of philosophy has not only provided a comprehension of ontology for the issue itself, but also reflected on the relationship between modern technology and luxury consumption ought to be from the perspective of ethics and aesthetics, which is of great value for analyzing and solving the social problems brought by modern luxury consumption.