Consumer objects in the construction of adolescent individuation processes.

Abstract

Preliminary results of a research that analyzes the centrality of consumer objects in the individuation processes of adolescents are presented. Some dynamics that can be recognized in the life stories of eight adolescents from Santiago de Chile are described, such as the search for personalization through the consumption of serial and fashionable objects and the consequent potentialities-limitations of the location in the social space. The subjects themselves reveal the permanent reconstruction of the stories, which moves simultaneously between affiliation to imaginary meanings embodied in specific reference groups, and opposition to others, which are embodied in rejected groups.