How NFTs Influence Society: A Look at Scarcity Mindset, Generational Gaps in Education, and the Impact on the Environment
I propose that non fungible tokens (NFTs) will affect the greater public, and specifically the art market, at an exponential rate due to three factors. The first, scarcity mindset, drives the human sense of urgency for a particular commodity (Garvey, 2021). The next factor is the potential use of NFTs in real world applications or throughout the economy. The attraction of NFTs is that they are indiscriminate and allow anyone from various socioeconomic backgrounds to buy in. As scarcity seemingly increases, NFTs appear to be a good investment; but are there real world applications or do they merely exist within the virtual realm? The last determinant I would like to explore is the environmental impact of NFTs on the physical world. When comparing virtual ‘tokens’ used to fund digital art to paper money exchanged for a piece of physical artwork in concrete space, theoretically the former is much less detrimental to society. However, through practice-led research, I have conducted a six month investigation from May 2021 through October 2021 to uncover the true ramifications NFTs have on the world.