Consumerist Significance

Our 21st century American culture is not neutral about what it means to be significant. In commercial and social media, significance is defined as success; success in turn is all about doing or having things that impress people who are strangers to you.

Furthermore, commercial and social media-promoted success is a) in the context of the marketplace, and is b) quantifiable by the marketplace.

So “significance” means you have a six-figure follower count; it means you have dollars in the bank (preferably millions or billions); or it means you have dollars you’ve turned into something almost no one else can afford (say, your own space ship).