Source丨Teacher Liu's Scenario Marketing The Soil of Emotional Value Emotional value has been pursued to an unprecedented degree. Emotions have become fast-moving consumer goods in self-media communication—essential and high-frequency. Some even label all value beyond functional value as emotional value. This is a social phenomenon that must be recognized. Many analyze this phenomenon from generational characteristics such as the post-00s and Gen Z, which makes some sense. However, I believe this transcends generations and requires analysis from three levels—the macro era, China's social transformation, and generational groups—to understand the soil that produces emotional FMCG. I. The Macro Era: Media Attributes, New Alienation, and Platform Instrumentalization of Emotions

  1. Media attributes determine whose voices are amplified. During the industrial age, mass media had "gatekeepers" who filtered information and decided what could be disseminated. These gatekeepers were elite spokespersons; discourse power was held by elites, experts, and institutions, and content production followed a logic of seriousness, rationality, and depth. Internet self-media has granted young people and the broader public unprecedented channels of expression. Their expression is naturally more direct, more emotional, and more based on personal experience rather than systematic knowledge. "Emotion," due to its strong resonance and low comprehension threshold, has become the most effective hard currency for communication. Under the traffic algorithm logic of "quantity justice," emotional appeal—content that can provoke strong emotions (whether anger, resonance, anxiety, or ecstasy)—spreads faster and wider than complex, rational, and neutral factual statements, creating a public opinion environment where "emotion precedes facts, and volume outweighs depth." Seeking "emotional value" is essentially a survival strategy for users in this environment, whether active or passive—since they cannot avoid the flood of emotions, they seek beneficial parts from it.
  2. Emotional FMCG is a placebo for new alienation in the internet age. During the Industrial Revolution, a phenomenon called alienation emerged, where people became "slaves" to their own creations. People created assembly lines but were constrained by their pace. Machines rapidly produced goods, while monotonous and tense work harmed the human psyche. Chaplin depicted this phenomenon. Humanity spent over 200 years healing the wounds of alienation—such as early machine-breaking, strikes, and utopian socialism—until gradually establishing alienation management systems like welfarism, consumerism, and labor unions. Internet new alienation in the digital age profoundly affects our emotions through three core mechanisms:
  • First, information acceleration. Constant connectivity and information overload lead to widespread anxiety, decision paralysis, and dilution of meaning. We remain tense due to fear of missing out and losing control.
  • Second, virtual space. The separation of body and experience, and the performative nature of online identity, exacerbate loneliness, authenticity crises, and self-deprecation from social comparison. The more connections, the thinner emotions become.
  • Third, anxiety from occupational erosion. AI and automation threaten jobs, and the gig economy undermines stability, triggering deep existential anxiety, economic insecurity, and a sense of powerlessness from devalued personal worth. These three intertwine to form a closed loop. Occupational pressure drives us to seek escape in virtual spaces and information flows, which in turn exacerbates our anxiety and alienation. The ultimate result is a diffuse mental discomfort—in a rapidly moving digital society, we drift away from our true selves, stable relationships, and meaningful work, falling into burnout and nihilism.
  1. Emotions are instrumentalized and performance-oriented on platforms. Algorithms convert every user interaction (likes, comments, dwell time) into quantifiable emotional data, making emotions calculable and classifiable "signals." This data is used to precisely push content that triggers strong reactions (such as anger or anxiety), thereby hijacking attention and boosting platform activity and retention. Emotions are thus thoroughly instrumentalized: users' anxiety is sold to educational institutions, and loneliness is matched with social ads. Emotions are no longer private experiences but engines driving participation. This leads to the following issues:
  • First, a crisis of emotional authenticity. We struggle to distinguish whether emotions are spontaneous or algorithm-induced.
  • Second, social polarization. Algorithms continuously reinforce users' existing emotions, forming opposing information cocoons.
  • Third, emotional burnout. Prolonged stimulation leads to exhaustion of empathy. Essentially, this brings alienation in the emotional dimension. The most private emotional activities are dominated by capital and algorithms, and their products become tools that control us and extract profit. II. "Emotional Compensation" under China's Rapid Development China has traversed the long modernization process of the West in an extremely short time, bringing unique collective psychology.
  1. From grand narratives to individual care. After experiencing the "struggle narrative" of rapid economic growth, social focus is shifting from "national speed" to "personal happiness" and small pleasures. When external growth expectations slow, people naturally turn to building and soothing their inner world. "Emotional value" is a compensation for past "emotional suppression" (yielding to collective goals).
  2. A "safe harbor" in a highly competitive society. In highly "involutionary" academic and workplace environments, interpersonal relationships (intimate, friendships, even with merchants/bloggers) are seen as a haven. People are willing to pay for experiences that provide emotional security, belonging, and immediate positive feedback. This explains why "companion culture," healing content, and business models offering emotional support thrive.
  3. The emotional structure of the only-child generation. As digital natives and generally the center of family attention, only-children (post-90s and post-00s) are better at expressing emotional needs and crave deep, nuanced emotional connections outside the family. This prepares soil for both supply and demand of "emotional value." This level explains why emotional value is particularly strong and urgent in China—it is a core way for individuals to seek stability, compensation, and connection in a rapidly changing, competitive society. III. Natural Perception of Generational Groups The post-90s are a transitional generation, while the post-00s are the first generation fully shaped by the first two levels.
  4. Natural perception of digital natives. They have never experienced an era where "emotional value" was unimportant. For them, paying for emotional experiences and evaluating emotional returns in interactions is as natural as breathing—a form of social currency calculation.
  5. Shift in values. Compared to the post-90s' mixed values of "struggle and enjoyment," the post-00s embrace "work-life balance" earlier and more thoroughly, valuing personal feelings, boundaries, and immediate happiness. They dare to say no to jobs that "only provide salary but no emotional value," and they dare to end "draining" interpersonal relationships.
  6. Consumer sovereignty and ironic expression. They use "emotional value" as a yardstick to measure all relationships and consumption. Simultaneously, they use deconstructive methods like "crazy literature" and "meme wars" to dissolve the heaviness of traditional emotional expression, forming a highly reflexive emotional management style—both craving emotional value and playfully viewing the process. The post-00s are not merely "demanders" of emotion but "definers" and "rule-makers" of emotional value. They turn the undercurrents of the previous two levels into explicit, mainstream social interaction norms. Emotional FMCG: Instant Gain, Instant Loss Just as one cannot enjoy youth while young, one cannot alleviate emotions through emotional value. Because shallow emotions are gained and lost instantly. A phrase can interpret the paradox of emotional value: happily creating one's own pain, freely depriving one's own freedom. Because emotions have become industrialized FMCG in the internet age and hard currency for online content, we must correctly understand the commercial value of emotional value.
  7. The shallowness and transience of emotions. The "emotional value" pushed by commercialization and algorithms (such as resonant short videos, inspirational quotes, and satisfying stories) provides immediate, shallow psychological massage. It acts like sugar, quickly relieving current emotional discomfort (loneliness, anxiety, boredom) but cannot address the root of the problem.
  8. The addiction and compensation cycle of emotions. Because this comfort is short-lived and superficial, it cannot bring true satisfaction. After the emotional pleasure fades, the original emptiness or anxiety resurges, sometimes intensified by comparison. Thus, users need more frequent and intense "emotional doses" to maintain the same level of comfort, forming an addictive cycle of "emotional compensation."
  9. Instrumentalization and FMCG-ization of emotions. In this cycle, emotions are thoroughly instrumentalized by algorithms. They are no longer the goal but a means to attract and retain users. To continuously stimulate users for "interactions," platforms must innovate "formulas" for emotional stimulation (new hotspots, more extreme narratives, more precise "pain point" capture) like producing FMCG.
  10. Rapid depreciation and inflation of emotions. The marginal effect of emotional stimulation diminishes. A "meme" that resonated yesterday may be indifferent today. This forces accelerated iteration of emotional content production, leading to "rapid depreciation" of emotional value. Ultimately, the entire emotional market falls into "inflation." Increasingly exaggerated expressions and extreme positions are needed to evoke the same level of emotional response. The Involution of Emotional Value Brings Far-reaching Consequences
  11. Increased emotional tolerance and emotional impoverishment. Individuals become dull to daily, subtle, and authentic emotional experiences, needing stronger "stimuli" to perceive, making real relationships and life seem "bland."
  12. Hollowing out of meaning. When all profound emotions (sadness, anger, love) can be simplified into a "value" for quick consumption and replacement, the meaning, depth, and connective function of emotions are dissolved. We consume emotions but drift further from authentic emotional experiences and self-understanding.
  13. Degradation of social dialogue. Public discussion is easily reduced to emotional alignment and symbolic catharsis (like "I'm broken," "teary-eyed," "angry"), replacing rational debate and complex empathy, making constructive dialogue difficult. This is the spiritual landscape of an "emotional fast food" era. Capital and algorithms conspire to incorporate human emotional needs into an efficient production-consumption cycle, manufacturing a steady stream of emotional FMCG. This seems to satisfy us but actually leaves us in deeper emotional hunger and meaning vacuum after each brief comfort. This is not only a triumph of business models but also a crisis of the emotional ecosystem—it threatens our ability to form deep self-awareness, establish genuine connections, and engage in serious thinking. In the current environment, one must participate in the involution of emotional value. Therefore, in the IP structure, it starts with emotional IP and ends with values IP. 【Moving Toward the C-End】The 11th China FMCG Conference Time: March 16-18, 2026 Location: Chengdu, China