From Emotional Capital to Digital Nomadism: Unravelling the Consumption Mechanisms of Generation Z’s Counter-Traditional Culture

Abstract

The diffusion of mobile Internet and social media has fostered a generation who grew up online and strive for differentiation. Existing studies describe their shopping habits and media use but seldom examine the mechanisms behind their counter-traditional cultural practices. Drawing on theories from sociology, economics and media studies, this paper reviews emotional capitalism, platform capitalism, cultural hybridity, liquid modernity and global cultural flows. Through case studies of blindbox toys, bullet-comment communities, virtual idols and VR concerts, the “Digital Nomad consumption” model is proposed, and the concept of dynamic “cultural discount rate” is refined. It is found that Generation Z’s counter-traditional consumption operates through four interlocking processes – identity construction, emotional capitalisation, utopian imagination and avant-garde commodification – and that these activities are shaped by global cultural flows and platform algorithms. This study enriches the understanding of Gen Z’s cultural consumption and offers practical insights for marketers and policy makers.