Last Tuesday afternoon, I noticed my dry lips and searched for a lip balm. Instead of grabbing a tube of Aquaphor or reaching for one product, I found myself staring at an obnoxiously large collection of lip balms, glosses, and masks. A quick scan of my bathroom revealed around fifteen of them, over half of which I rarely used.
“Fifteen,” I thought to myself “and I just ordered another!”
I was oblivious to how many lip products I owned, making my realization shocking and upsetting. Purchasing new makeup with every “limited-time offer” or “new flavor,” has become so routine for me. Without realizing it, I accumulated a horrific amount of products that collect dust in my drawer. Moreover, I often felt overwhelmed and subconsciously reached for the same products time and time again. But how could this possibly happen?
While one might be quick to blame popular brands, fast fashion, or microtrends, the root of all of these issues is social media. Overconsumption habits are expensive, poor for the environment, and destructive for mental health. It is essential to deglorify overconsumption and work to combat excessive purchasing to prevent this harmful cycle.
Unfortunately, with the growth of social media came the growth of overconsumption. Each day, new products are pushed upon impressionable tweens and teens, encouraging them to overspend and over consume “trending” products. Beauty trends travel so much faster with social media, causing many to experience FOMO (fear of missing out) and even feel embarrassed for not engaging in overconsumption. Social media often acts as a barrier between reality and fantasy, warping people’s minds into believing a false and harmful narrative.
So what is reality then? Purchasing cosmetic products can expose you to toxic chemical ingredients, fund inhumane animal testing and irresponsible sourcing practices, and drastically increase water consumption, plastic waste, and air pollution. Overconsumption is not only harmful to our minds, but it also can glorify habits that have direct impacts on our planet.
As Arnaud Plas, co-founder and CEO of Prose, a sustainable hair care brand, told Vogue Business, an estimated 20-40% of cosmetic products, depending on beauty categories, end up in waste. Social media plays a large role in encouraging these wasteful habits.
With 7.1 million followers and 1.1 billion likes on Tiktok, influencer Alix Earle appears to be living the dream life. Many Tiktok users follow Alix for her “relatable” content, ranting about trivial issues or filming GRWMs (Get Ready With Me) — videos in which influencers tell stories while applying makeup. Upon scrolling through Alix’s media feed, you can find a multitude of brand-sponsored posts, in which she praises a certain product. According to Fox News, Alix Earle charges between $40,000 and $70,000 per sponsored video. Influencer’s sponsored content is often unauthentic and can easily trick people into believing a glorification of consumerism.
Nowadays, however, most social media users are aware of sponsored videos and able to recognize when they are being manipulated or influenced. Yet, one issue that many fail to recognize is non-sponsored influencing.
A popular trend recently surfaced on TikTok: influencers filming “PR hauls,” in which they unbox new products sent to them for free by brands. While they claim to be “unsponsored” and promise that they will give their “honest review,” I have yet to see a video of an influencer speaking negatively about a product. Influencers’ constant praise of brands is unlikely to be genuine, but rather arising from a want to receive free luxury gifts, travel with companies to exotic locations, and gain media traction.
Influencers have learned that posting overconsumption videos, regardless of its impact, receives more views, likes, and comments than down-to-earth videos. Hence, unboxing videos, “shop with me” posts, and shopping hauls have become the new normal. This harmful trend causes social media consumers to feel anxious and frantic, believing they need what everyone else is buying.
Acknowledging the impact of influencer marketing and brand placement is the first step of action, and reducing your susceptibility to these influences is crucial. Here are a few of my favorite ways to combat over consumption: only purchasing a new item when you run out of it, deleting or limiting your screen time on TikTok and other platforms, or even choosing sample-size products.
image source: UTOPIA The Edit
Indresh Chandel