During my trip at Stater Bros., I observed "the contradiction between the simultaneous desire for social superiority (elitism) and social equality (populism) that lies at the heart of the American Dream" (Solomon 524) within lower middle class shoppers. While I was looking for the advertised 45 cent tuna in the canned meats aisle, a woman in her 30s was explaining to her teen daughter who looked very busy texting on her iphone, how she and her father could no longer support her (and her cell phone bill) with their insignificant level of income. The mother told the daughter she would need to start looking for a job and advised her to start looking at Stater Bros. As the girl who appeared to be my age seemed to dismiss her mother, the nagging mom continued on with the mini-economics lecture explaining to her, “I am 34 years old and I wasn’t embarrassed to go into CinemaStar for a job.” What I found contradictiory was how the girl was exhibiting signs of superiority to her mother by dismissing her as well as to other shoppers by using an expensive piece of technology in accordance with disregarding her surroundings. She was so wrapped up with her social life in angst of assuring acceptance and equality within her circle of texting fiends that she did not take the time to level with her mother and acknowledge that in the real world you need a job if you want to pay for your digital world.
Solomon, Jack. "Masters of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising." Signs of Life
in the USA. Ed. Sonia Maasik and Jack Soloman. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2009.
525-534. Print.
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