Really good, interesting article Cam. I've long considered the appeal of MTB to be primarily 2 fold. Riding is cool, but the tech and consumerism that it drives it is undeniably the other factor. Amanda Marie has a good comment explaining the current neuroscientific hypothesis around this behaviour. While I think the consumerism and riding each feed each other, I think they also function independently. The act of buying something new and shiny isn't only exciting because I'll get to ride it. Just researching for a purchase, pulling the trigger, bringing it home/the arrival of the delivery, and unboxing are all 'enjoyable' experiences that stand mostly independent from the act of riding. I doubt many people have riding in the forefront of their mind at least. Riding is why we 'care' about the stuff, but it doesn't go much further than that.
It's essentially untestable, but I do think existing in an ocean of advertising is mostly responsible for this. At the very least it's a reasonable idea. It's hard to overstate just how immersed in advertising we are, and also just how comfortably almost everyone accepts it. When I recently did a one year mickey mouse degree that included advertising I was horrified at the ethical standard of how I was being pushed to apply advertising. In this case, there have been improvements in bikes, and that confounds the analysis in the instance you're discussing here. However there are many things that don't really have those factors, where people just make really, really bad decisions from an objective standpoint. With a little thought anyone can come up with some huge, shockingly significant examples.
May 30, 2017, 12:38 p.m. - natbrown
Really good, interesting article Cam. I've long considered the appeal of MTB to be primarily 2 fold. Riding is cool, but the tech and consumerism that it drives it is undeniably the other factor. Amanda Marie has a good comment explaining the current neuroscientific hypothesis around this behaviour. While I think the consumerism and riding each feed each other, I think they also function independently. The act of buying something new and shiny isn't only exciting because I'll get to ride it. Just researching for a purchase, pulling the trigger, bringing it home/the arrival of the delivery, and unboxing are all 'enjoyable' experiences that stand mostly independent from the act of riding. I doubt many people have riding in the forefront of their mind at least. Riding is why we 'care' about the stuff, but it doesn't go much further than that. It's essentially untestable, but I do think existing in an ocean of advertising is mostly responsible for this. At the very least it's a reasonable idea. It's hard to overstate just how immersed in advertising we are, and also just how comfortably almost everyone accepts it. When I recently did a one year mickey mouse degree that included advertising I was horrified at the ethical standard of how I was being pushed to apply advertising. In this case, there have been improvements in bikes, and that confounds the analysis in the instance you're discussing here. However there are many things that don't really have those factors, where people just make really, really bad decisions from an objective standpoint. With a little thought anyone can come up with some huge, shockingly significant examples.