On the subway I like to watch people. Most people on the metro have headphones on. A few years ago I remember, seeing a kid with white Apple ear buds that went from his ears into his partially zipped backpack, presumably to an iPod. But as I watched him, he reached into his backpack, revealing that the ear buds did not lead to an iPod but to a cheap CD Walkman. Imagine my shock. At the time, I just thought he was a “poser” now I see that moment as something different.
A person’s choice of media is a big choice. Or at least, we Americans think it is. The music we listen to, the movies we watch, the books we read, if we read at all, says a lot about us, and our personalities. If I take a quick look at most anyone’s facebook page, the information used to describe that person is simply a list of the media they consume. But this media is not the only thing that holds import to that person’s identity. The medium also sends a message about that person. I am saying that not only is the medium the message, but that the medium sends a message, in and of it self.
This is not s new phenomenon, way back in the 1900’s, the newspaper that people read communicated what class they were apart of. Michael Schudson in his article about New Journalism says

“The Times attracted readers among the wealthy and among those aspiring to wealth and status, in part, because it was socially approved. It itself was a badge of respectability.”

The last bit is the key part in my thought. The medium of a newspaper, a particular newspaper, became a badge. The Times and other papers like it wanted to separate themselves from “yellow” journals that were filled with much more sensational and scandalous reporting. These journals were seen as the rag of the lower class, and that it “soiled the breakfast cloth.”
Here we see two kinds newspaper, with different branding, that send two different kinds of messages. And though the content of the papers was important, in a way. It didn’t really matter.

“And yet, while the tastes of different classes remain different from one another in a given period, they change over time. Up until about the Civil War, the most sophisticated elements in the population preferred their literature, and even their journalism, flowery rather than plain, magniloquent rather than straight forward. By 1900, when information journalism was sponsored by an economic and social elite, it was prized.”

So even the style of the content can change, the message of The Times, never changed, regardless of its content, it was a paper for the elite by the elite.
Let’s go back to my previous anecdote. The young man with the false ear buds wanted people to think he had an iPod. Maybe I’m judging his motives, but apple ear buds aren’t that good, the only reason to have them is because they come with an iPod, and they signify to everyone who sees you, that you listen to an iPod. And that sends a message to people. At the time when I saw this kid, the message the medium of an iPod sent was probably different than it is now. Now iPods and iPhones are such an hegemony that it almost doesn’t mater if you have one (I still don’t, but ill get to that later). But a few years ago, listening to an iPod meant that you had money, were tech savvy, got all your music online and that you were cool. Maybe, that kid on the subway wanted to be seen that way, he wanted to be cool. Even though he still had to change compact disks like any loser.
But still, maybe subconsciously, he knew the message of the medium, and didn’t want to be seen as one who used an “out-dated” medium. An iPod might not make someone seem high class, but I know what medium does. Vinyl. If you are the kind of person who scores through thrift stores for old LPs, only listens to records, and despises MP3s for their lack of full sound quality. Then your probably one of my hipster friends. And hipsters know that listening to the warm lossless sound of a vinyl record makes them better than everyone else.
Today it’s the same story as the newspapers from the 1900’s its just a new medium. The content matters some. But even that will change, what was once the overproduced, overlooked pop of the eighties, is now a great find in a thrift store bin by the vinyl-loving hipster.
A similar case could be made for those who made the switch to HD televisions, and those who just got a converter box. Or “Mac” people and “PC” people, Xbox and PlayStation 3, smart phones and dumb phones. We label ourselves with all sorts of mediums. And what makes certain mediums become a status symbol? Do people buy into these mediums because of the status they already have? Or do they use certain mediums to obtain a desired status? The short answer is probably, a little bit of both.