Abstract
Digital payment platforms have permeated consumers’ mobile phones and social lives in a marketplace which was once dominated by cash, checks, and credit cards. Sociocultural perspectives of money emphasize sociality and shared meanings; yet, digital payment platforms are often taken for granted in discussions of digital consumption. This chapter presents a culturally contextualized walkthrough analysis of Venmo, a leading peer-to-peer digital payment platform. Analysis highlights how Venmo is positioned in the marketplace as the fun alternative to cash and how “Venmo me” has become linguistic shorthand for catalyzing sociality. Moreover, key features including contact syncing and the Venmo social stream enable three emergent forms of sociality: reinforced sociality, memorialized sociality, and strained sociality. This chapter demonstrates how conceptualizing digital payment platforms as social media opens new pathways for understanding consumer culture and sociality.
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