Frequently asked questions
Largely it is because you are cool af. In addition, just as uniforms can indicate belonging to a particular group, owning specific items and brands can signal our association with social groups, both to others and ourselves. A brand's success can be partly linked to people wanting to display their membership in a consumer tribe associated with being "cool." More and more, people seem willing to go to great lengths, whether by waiting in long lines or paying high prices, to demonstrate their loyalty to a brand/product and their group identity. As traditional sources of fulfilment and community, such as family, country, and religion, become less central, people increasingly seek these connections through the marketplace instead.
Sources: Christian Jarrett, Robert Kozinets, Philip Cushman, Robert Putnam.
You like watches because you have repressed childhood trauma relating to time. For instance, it could be that you were asked to tell the time in front of your class and you got it wrong and everyone laughed at you and called you Timeless Tommy and said it was time for you to go home.
Or, that you asked your teacher 'what's the time mum?' and she wasn't your mum so everyone laughed at you.
Or, that you were dropped on your head as a baby, and the person who dropped you was wearing a watch.
Due to these or similar traumas you want to show the world you can tell time on a nice watch, or lots of different watches.
As we go through life, the objects we own become more symbols of who we are as individuals, serving as physical vessels for the experiences, connections, and stories that shape who we are. In addition, our belongings do more than just reinforce our feeling of self; they also serve as signals to the world around us. Also, because you're a gullible, easily influenced, simple sacks of meat and bone.
Conditioning is a psychological process by which a person or animal learns to associate a specific stimulus with a particular response or behavior. There are two main types of conditioning:
Classical Conditioning: This is when a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a meaningful stimulus, eventually eliciting a similar response. The most famous example is Pavlov's dogs, where the sound of a bell (neutral stimulus) was paired with food (meaningful stimulus) until the bell alone could make the dogs salivate. Another is when brands release products for a short amount of time, in limited supply or numbers eliciting a similar response for humans.
Operant Conditioning: This involves learning through the consequences of behavior, where behaviors are strengthened or weakened based on the outcomes. For instance, a behavior followed by a reward is likely to be repeated, while a behavior followed by a punishment is less likely to occur. Buy two watches you don't want, and at a later date you will get one watch you do want.
In both cases, conditioning is a fundamental way in which learning occurs, shaping how individuals respond to their environment within frameworks of numerous smaller systems.