Status Games: Blue Ticks, Luxury, and Clout

You refresh Instagram. Someone just posted their holiday in Santorini. Designer sunglasses. Blue verification check next to their name. You notice the check before you notice the sunset.

Then you open X. Another platform, another blue check. But it no longer means the same thing. One person paid for it, while another is a bot. Someone else lost theirs for saying the “wrong” thing. The symbol that used to signify “verified celebrity” now indicates “paid subscriber.”

When did status symbols stop meaning status? And why are we still playing along?

Join over 4 million Americans who start their day with 1440 – your daily digest for unbiased, fact-centric news. From politics to sports, we cover it all by analyzing over 100 sources. Our concise, 5-minute read lands in your inbox each morning at no cost. Experience news without the noise; let 1440 help you make up your own mind. Sign up now and invite your friends and family to be part of the informed.

Subscribe to 1440 today.

The Aché people of Paraguay have been hunting in the rainforest for thousands of years. However, anthropologists discovered something unusual: Aché hunters don't always pursue the easiest prey.

Instead, they target large, dangerous animals that are much harder to kill. A 2015 study found that when Aché hunters returned with large game, their community rated them as stronger, healthier, and more desirable as mates and allies. The size and difficulty of the kill mattered more than the actual calories it provided.

Why risk your life for a more challenging hunt? Because status isn't about what you acquire, but rather what you can afford to waste. The anthropological term is “costly signalling”: showing your value or fitness by doing things that are hard, risky, or expensive, things that only someone with real ability or resources could afford.

The hunt isn't really about the meat. It's about proving you're capable of getting the meat the hard way.

In 1899, economist Thorstein Veblen watched America's robber barons build mansions they'd never fully use and throw parties that cost more than most families earned in a lifetime. He called it "conspicuous consumption", buying expensive things not because you need them, but because other people can see you buying them.

Veblen argued that in societies where class lines blur, people spend money to display their economic power publicly. The goal isn't comfort or utility. It's showing everyone else that you can afford to waste resources.

According to Veblen’s theory, each social class watches the class above it and tries to imitate its consumption patterns. The middle class copies the upper class. The working class copies the middle class. Nobody can afford it, but everyone keeps trying.

The German philosopher Hegel had a different perspective. In his master-slave dialectic, he claimed that true self-consciousness is only achievable through mutual recognition. We recognise ourselves by understanding how others see us.

The Lord–bondsman dialectic demonstrates that the master needs the slave to recognize his mastery. But here's the catch: the master becomes dependent on the very person he dominates, because only the slave's recognition gives his status meaning.

Status isn't something you have. It's something someone else permits you to claim.

In late 2022, X’s (former Twitter) new owner did something unusual: he let anyone buy verification for $8 a month. The blue check, once a symbol that meant "this person is who they say they are”, became a commodity.

Before 2022, verified status was very desirable, and researcher Alison Hearn noted that blue checkmarks created a new social class of Twitter users. Suddenly, verification shifted from something you earned to something you could buy. Now, the blue check indicates that an account has subscribed to X Premium, making it accessible to anyone.

The result? Verification lost its value. Impersonators bought checks. Bots got verified. Real celebrities started hiding theirs. The status symbol lost its meaning the moment it became available.

Meanwhile, luxury brands are experiencing a shift in their status perception. Nowadays, luxury consumers are not merely purchasing status symbols; they also invest in a brand's values, emphasizing sustainability, ethics, and transparency. The change? Status has transitioned from "loud luxury", characterized by prominent logos and obvious branding, to "quiet luxury," which represents understated quality recognized mainly by insiders.

But here's the paradox: studies show 60% of people buy limited-edition items because they fear missing out, and scarcity makes luxury feel like a status symbol. When Louis Vuitton released its limited 2024 "LV By The Pool" collection through influencers and pop-ups, it sold out instantly, not because people needed tropical-themed luxury goods, but because few could afford them.

The game hasn't changed. Only the tokens have.

📜 Quote: "The basis on which good repute in any highly organized industrial community ultimately rests is pecuniary strength; and the means of showing pecuniary strength... are leisure and a conspicuous consumption of goods." —Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)

Study: A 2024 study published in Behavioural Sciences found that people who spend more than three hours a day on social media often compare themselves to others who seem to have better lives. This kind of “upward comparison” makes them feel more anxious about their appearance and causes them to view themselves more negatively.

🎨 Artifact: The blue verification badge used to signal legitimacy and influence. Now it signals "$8 and a credit card." The symbol stayed the same, but the meaning evaporated, a perfect capsule of how status symbols die.

😂 Meme: "Wearing logos is poor people pretending to be rich. Wearing nothing recognizable is rich people pretending to be poor. Wearing whatever you want without caring is the actual flex."

🤔 Prompt: What status symbol did you once care about that now seems silly? A verification check? A brand? A title? When did you realize it stopped meaning what you thought it meant?

I want to hear about your status regrets. What did you buy, pursue, or display because you thought it would signal something about you, only to realize later it signaled nothing at all? Hit reply. The best ones might show up in a future issue.

Status games never end; they change uniforms.

The Aché hunter, the Gilded Age socialite, the verified influencer: all playing the same game across different centuries. What counts as valuable shifts, but the underlying logic doesn't. We signal to be recognized. We spend to be seen.

Here's the thing about status: you can't opt out of the game, because even refusing to play is a move within it. "I don't care about status" is itself a status claim.

The only real power is knowing which game you're playing and deciding whether the prize is worth the cost.

Subscribe to Culture Decoded for weekly insights on modern behavior.