ABSTRACT
Consumption is viewed by some scholars as a process whereby consumers are the end users of products (Dixon, 1999; Firat, 2001). Generally, consumption includes activities of buying goods, social relations connected to the provision, allocation and use of goods and services and can also be viewed as part of the social space in which people participate in creating and reproducing meanings about the occurrences of everyday life (Luckmann, 1989). In developed nations, consumption is increasingly being viewed as one way that individuals and groups express themselves and their values (Katz-Gerro, 2004), but little is written about such issues in developing and emerging nations (Stolle and Micheletti, 2013). Commodities within this perspective not only have a use value for the consumer, but also have an abstract value that consists of the cultural, symbolic and emotional meanings around the good (Lupton, 1997). Consumers are believed to actually enhance a commodity’s economic value when they attach or add value to a product that is not intended by the producer (Dixon and Banwell, 2004). Unfortunately, much of the literature on consumption normally focuses on food, energy, clothing, etc. and much less on social media and Internet use (consumption), especially uses and gratifications associated with them in emerging and developing countries.
