Existential Isolation…Press Play to Escape

Abstract

While consumer research has frequently visited the fantastical search for escape from everyday life, this story (part autoethnographic, part fiction – all the characters and incidents are the author’s creation) documents a solo consumer’s spirited desire to escape from beyond what quotidian life affords, and society’s sometimes unwelcome gaze, in a more sombre and hermit form than has previously been explored. The story plays on immersion, narrative transportation and parasocial imaginings around a prolonged binge-watch marathon and coping with the existential isolation, a resource in constant need of replenishment.