Consumerism and Marketing in the Digital Age

Abstract

Advances in telecommunication technology have contributed to the popularity of smartphones and social media websites worldwide. There are 196 million smartphone users in the U.S., and worldwide, smartphone users were estimated at 1.75 billion in 2014. These increases are signs of how widely social networking companies have penetrated the lives of ordinary people and, in turn, transformed the ways in which people communicate and businesses operate. In essence, social media sites and smartphones have become very useful and integral tools for marketing and consumerism. This paper explores trends, challenges and opportunities in social media marketing and its benefits to consumerism.