What is Flexing?
Urban Dictionary defines term flexing as an act of flaunting wealth to gain attention. If you look at it from the point of view of marketing science, flexing can be related to the Conspicuous Consumption theory, which is the act of purchasing a product to show a person’s level of wealth.
This behavior often appears through social media. That’s why in the end the term social media flex.
Flexing perpetrators wants to create an image to signal others to see they are at a certain level, even though they are not.
The Role of Social Media
There are two explanations for why social media has a connection and a role in facilitating behavior flexing.
First, social media facilitates users to create private profiles that can be seen by other users.
Users also have the freedom to form their own identity and show what they want to show to the virtual world. Fellow users can also find out information about each other’s users’ lives.
Second, social media help facilitate user interaction.
As the name implies, social media is a medium for socializing. This facilitation allows social media to contribute to the production and circulation of popular cultural expressions, including behavior flexing.
How to solve it
The behavior of others is not under our control.
So, when we encounter similar conditions, we must try to avoid being affected by their behavior.
According to the Psychology Today book, the first way to deal with the situation is to not give appreciation to the attention seeker. We try to be as neutral as possible or if possible, stay away from the person.
Even if it’s annoying, try not to embarrass the perpetrators flexing in public. Social rejection will invite more anger and aggressive behavior of the perpetrator.
Topics that divert the conversation from the context of ‘showing off’ will be a good option rather than having to ‘compete’ with the actors.
So instead of responding to what they’re showing off, you’ll be making the situation more neutral by asking other things like the weather or the latest news stories.
Learn from the situations that flexing behavior, it is very possible that we meet them in the internet world, so the attitude we can take regarding prevention or how to deal with them is that we try to limit ourselves in using social media.
Indirectly, this will reduce exposure to similar content. Policies for using social media and regulating responses are the responsibility of each individual.
So, if you feel any discomfort from being exposed to similar content that people you meet on social media might encounter, ignore them.
Read more:
What is a medium?
