Introduction:
Etsy is a very unique place. The website is like a huge flea market, where sellers of homemade goods -- everything from jewelry to furniture to candles and cookware -- can set up virtual "stores" and sell their things to interested buyers. The site has everything an artisan would need. It also has everything a buyer would need, functioning like an enormous virtual catalog, or an "online craft fair, or art show," as the New York Times described it in a 2007 article. You can take a "taste test" and Etsy will provide scores of options that you might like -- or you can search for something (e.g. "retro lamps," "woven rugs") and options will come up.
The most interesting part of Etsy, though, is when you are neither buyer nor seller. There seems to be a third function of Etsy, and that is curating and displaying your taste. You can make things called "treasuries" - a list of sixteen items that you like that fall under a certain theme. The way people use Etsy in this way raises a lot of interesting themes. It recalls George Simmel's idea of "object affiliation," and, as Goffman describes, underscores the way people assert themselves virtually in the "information game" (Goffman, 8).
Method
To become a part of Etsy, you first have to make a profile. My username was mosie33, and my icon was a little Keith Haring baby.
I tried to project the same kind of image I saw all over Etsy -- that of a sort-of alternative, funky, bohemian city dweller with a love of vintage-y things. This was part of my attempt to fit in on the site. Although I'm not really like that -- as Goffman would put it, I'm a "performer" who is "not taken in at all by my own routine" (Goffman, 17) -- I wanted to give off the impression of being a real Etsy person so that the Etsy community wouldn't suspect that I was anything but authentic.
Next, I had to make connections. At first, I found this immensely confusing. Etsy is not as intuitive for users as one would hope, and I couldn't figure out at first how to interact effectively with other users. First, I "favorited" a number of different items for sale on the site, hoping that the sellers would notice that I favorited their goods and reach out to me. Nothing happened. Then I discovered circles. Circles are the equivalent of lists on Twitter, or friend lists on Facebook -- a way to organize other Etsy users you have some kind of connection with. I added a few people to my circle, but nothing really came of it -- no one really noticed me or interacted with me. No-one was taking note of my so-called unconventional, DIY taste.
Then, after a few days of wondering why no one would notice me despite how many I discovered Treasuries and Teams.
First, I joined the Etsy Treasury Hunter "team" (like a Facebook group -- teams range from "NYC Knitters" to "Vintage Lamp Lovers" to beyond) because I liked the idea of a treasure hunt. I wasn't quite sure how teams worked, but I checked the team's boards once a day to see what the other members (of which there were more than 300) were doing. The Treasury Hunter team consisted of people linking to their treasuries and commenting on other people's treasuries.
But what's a treasury?
A treasury is a collection of items chosen by a user, under a certain theme. For example, "Summer Siesta" or "Urban Pad." A user picks out 16 items that fall under their theme in some way, and posts them. Other users can comment on the treasury; views, Facebook and Twitter shares, and comments are all visible on the post. Here's my treasury right after I made it:
For a while, nothing happened. Then I posted my treasury to the Treasury Hunters board and also commented on four or five other treasuries so that people would notice my comments and interact with me. It worked! Here's what my treasury looked like after a day:
I laid off for a while, then checked back a few days later:
As you can see, the number of comments didn't increase drastically with time. But, I did manage to interact directly with an Etsy artisan, simply by showcasing his or her work. Etsy allowed me to "cut out the middleman," as it were.
Analysis:
In George Simmel's essay on adornment, he explores the tension between using fashion as a way to distinguish oneself from the group as opposed to using it to blend in: "the aesthetic phenomenon of adornment indicates a point within sociological interaction - the arena of man's being-for-himself and being-for-the-other - where these two opposite directions are mutually dependent as ends and means" (Simmel, 81). For the purposes of my experiment, adornment refers to the act of creating and curating my online presence on Etsy, specifically my treasury. Since my presence on Etsy was not, of course, the same as being out in the real world, Simmel's terms will have to be tailored to the virtual world.
On Etsy, as on any other online community, Hannah Arendt's notion that "appearance constitutes reality" (7) is even more true than it is in real life. Appearance is literally everything online, and so appearance is everything on Etsy. Especially in my case, since I was neither buyer nor seller and was formulating my ersatz Etsy persona out of thin air. In order for the experiment to work, I needed other Etsy users to view me as a legitimate member, one who was participating meaningfully in the Etsy community for purposes other than my real purpose, research.
Etsy's "space of appearance," to use Arendt's term, is varied and ever-changing . That's part of why I found Etsy so confusing at first - there are so many options and ways to participate and interact with other Etsy users that the space of appearance is overwhelming. I kept thinking that those who build a strong presence on the site must have to devote large portions of their time and energy to doing so. The Etsy space of appearance is also (I found) extremely friendly and non-judgmental, in keeping with the site's DIY ethos. If you put in the time, I can see how Etsy would be a rewarding place for buyers, sellers, and even people like me who just want to participate.
However, Etsy's usability is inscrutable at first, and is not intuitive like real-life interaction even though it mirrors real-life interaction, specifically that of shopping (in a market, vintage store, etc). The tug between "being-for-himself and being-for-the-other" (Simmel, 81) is especially strong on Etsy, as it's similar to the difference between being a buyer and being a seller. Etsy, then, takes the theatrics of everyday interaction and systemizes them; by putting the process of buying, advertising and selling online, Etsy lays bare the processes behind the way we choose to curate our social presences.
Works Cited:
Arendt, Hannah. The Human Condition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1958.
Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Double Day, 1959.
Simmel, Georg. "Adornment." In The Rise of Fashion. Edited by Daniel Leonhard Purdy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 1908 (1997).
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