Technology and Consumption : Understanding Consumer Choices and Behaviors

Technology and Household Consumption is a comprehensive text that provides insights into technology’s impact on consumer behavior and the household environment. Consumption and consumer behavior has become a very important subject of study that is now covered in many disciplines including family economics, culture studies, and feminist/women studies.

In the first section, this book provides a historical perspective on how consumer behaviors have changed because of technology and how technology itself has changed. Data on ownership and expenditures is detailed in describing the penetration of technology in the household and changes over time. In the examination of demographics and social changes, an emphasis is placed on women and children. As it is important to understand the entry paths and factors that influence them, the book also introduces a research framework to understanding the adoption and utilization of household technologies. In the second section, the book examines specific household technologies and consumption experiences including shopping choices and behaviors, entertainment outlets and availability, communications technologies, and working at home. The book concludes with a section on the relationships between marketers and consumers.

Computers, smart phones, hi-def TVs, iPods…we buy them, upgrade them, abandon or complain about them, but are lost without them. We know how these ubiquitous items have changed our lives. But to what extent have they changed us?

Technology and Consumption explores this provocative question in astute detail, bringing together extensive study findings and original insights to create an instructive profile of contemporary consumer life. Focusing on the areas of life most transformed by technological innovation―shopping, entertainment, communication, and payments for these activities ―the author analyzes the complex psychological, societal, and market forces that drive evolving trends in consumer behavior, comparing U.S. and international phenomena and the current era with earlier periods of technological growth. Our intimate relationship with technology is presented in its evolution from a means of accomplishing goals and saving time to a multifaceted way of being influenced by as well as altering our conceptions of time, space, mobility, and community. In this manner, the author raises significant conclusions about communal versus individual space, family and social structures, and the self. Included in the coverage:

• Historical and macro level influences on the development of consumer choices.
• Consumer orientations and technological contradictions.
• Individual-level variables that influence consumers to buy and use technology.
• Old and new shopping behaviors.
• All play and no work? entertainment.
• Reach out and touch anyone, anytime communication.
• Buy now, pay later: payment technologies.

Holding a state-of-the-art mirror to 21^st-century life, Technology and Consumption will be read and discussed by professors and students in consumer behavior, family relations, marketing as well as researchers in social policy and the economics of the family.