Research On College Students' Symbolic Consumption Behavior

With the development of the times,China has stepped into the consumer society from the production society.Symbolic consumption has emerged.The current research on the symbolic consumption behavior of college students is more focused on the study of the relationship between college students' symbolic consumption behavior and self-identity,and the research on the influencing factors of college students' symbolic consumption behavior.The research question in this paper is: the basic situation of the symbolic consumption of the current college student groups,the features they present and the origin behind them.This paper takes Jean Baudrillard's symbolic consumption theory as an important theoretical support,and takes C-college students as the research object.It mainly conducts empirical research by means of questionnaires and supplemented by case interviews.The study finds that the monthly average spending of contemporary college students has increased somewhat compared with before;living expenses mainly come from families;family economic conditions set the upper limit of college students' consumption levels;and consumption programs mainly focus on daily eating,drinking,and living.There is less funding for learning.Undergraduate students will generally conduct rational and reasonable symbolic consumption behaviors according to their own specific conditions such as economic conditions,and have a relatively high degree of acceptance of various types of consumer credit products.However,very advanced symbolic consumer behavior is not universal,and self-restraining ability is strong.The group of college students usually use the appearance and value of commodities as the basic point of appeal for their symbolic consumption behavior.Their symbolic consumption behavior is more to express themselves and seek the sense of belonging of the group,and their symbolic consumption behavior is more vulnerable to economic conditions and peer groups.The influence of mass media.Combining empirical research and Jean Baudrillard's symbolic consumption theory,the author analyzes the origin of the symbolic consumption behavior of college students from two internal and external factors.The internal cause is mainly the college students' self-intention to express themselves and seek group identity.The external factors mainly include the arrival of consumer society,the prominent function of commodity symbols,the vigorous development of mass media,and the widespread use of various consumer credit products.For the group of college students,symbol consumption has both positive and negative effects in the consumer and moral fields.