‘This above all: to thine own self be true’: Authenticity in a time of mass consumption

While reading the article "The Good Enough Revolution: When Cheap and Simple is Just Fine" my mind kept thinking about how the definition of quality and better has changed over time and what we want as consumers. 

Robert Capps states that the MP3 effect and "other Good Enough Technologies" have changed what qualities we value. He states that in this age it seems that flexibility, convenience, quick and dirty qualities are preferred over fidelity, features and slow and polished qualities. 

Simon Fleming-Wood from Pure Digital defined "better" as how easy and accessible an action is. When using their products, a consumer can easily shoot video and then just as easily and quickly share it with whomever they want. For Pure Digital being "better" is not about the resolution of an image or the features their devices offer. It's about how easy they can make a task. It gets the task done

And even though, according to Forbes, vinyl sales continue to rise, many people prefer the MP3's sound (if we are going by the study conducted by Professor Jonathan Berger from Stanford University). Some people prefer that sound because they have become "accostumed" and think that music is supposed to sound like that.

In the TED Talk “What Consumers Want,” management advisor and author Joseph Pine says that consumers are looking for authentic experiences. There is no such thing as an "inauthentic" experience, he says, just as there is no such thing as a "natural" one. 

Pine defines authenticity with the verses spoken by Polonius in Hamlet: 

This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

But being authentic is a little bit complicated. Authenticity has two dimensions, he points out, which are being true to oneself and being what it says it is. This results in four outcomes: Real Fake, Real Real, Fake Fake and Fake Real. Here is the chart:

Is what it says it is                       Real Fake                                        Real Real

Is Not what it says it is                 Fake Fake                                       Fake Real

                                          
                                                Is Not true to itself                               Is true to itself

The best is to be Real Real and the worst is being Fake Fake. Pine says that a company achieves authenticity by knowing their "heritage" and what they represent. He gives advice for both businesses and consumers. 

For the business people there are three simple rules: 

1.  Only say you are authentic if you really are authentic 
2. It's a lot easier to be authentic if you don't say you are
3. If you are going to say that you are authentic, then you better be authentic

For the consumer he only has this to say: "What will make us happy is spending our time and our money satisfying the desire for authenticity."