A teen scrolls through TikTok, enjoying the perfectly curated videos that have taken years to build. As they see celebrities and peers raging about the next best ‘can’t live without’ product, they instinctively tap “BUY”. And then again, and again, and one more time. It’s cheap off of TikTok shop! So it’s no big deal, right?
Quite the contrary, according to a study shared by CNN, “humanity is currently consuming nature 1.75 times faster than the planet can regenerate.”
Earth’s natural resources are being abused for those effortlessly accessible products on sites like TikTok, Amazon, and SHEIN. This process of purchasing things in mass excess has been coined as “overconsumption,” and it must stop. However, in order for us as a community to understand the severity of our destructive lifestyles, we need to learn who it is affecting, and how. Learning how this cycle of overconsumption is perpetuated helps to look for ways to solve it.
So, who is the cycle of overconsumption affecting the most? Generation Z.
There is an apparent link between social media use and overconsumption that affects Gen Z the most, given they are the most online out of all generations.
The National Library of Medicine shared that “heavily engaged social media users tend to make purchases that are more driven by emotions and by what other users are doing or showing rather than making a rational purchase decision.”
I asked Avery, a senior at Helix, some questions about her own habits regarding social media and consumption to see if they aligned with this idea.
She expressed, “I 100% believe that social media influences what you buy… a karaoke machine popped up on my for you page and I bought it in two seconds, so I’m definitely a victim [of] social media influencing what I buy.”
Social media is undoubtedly a huge part of our lives today, no matter your age or personal opinions about technology. It is where ideas are shared, where we look for information, talk with others, and ultimately spend a lot of our time. But with these practices comes drawbacks, and the significance of how powerful and persuasive these apps can be is never truly emphasized. Gen Z is the most susceptible to these tactics due to them having the largest screentime rates out of all generations. These higher than average times spent on social media sites goes hand-in-hand with the amount of ads and persuasive rhetoric youth is subject to.
Marley, a senior at Helix, in response to the question of whether trends are perpetuated by social media, states, “Oh absolutely, I think with social media nowadays it’s made it a lot easier to market things towards specific audiences. Since the media we see nowadays is more catered to people’s individual views, social media is giving companies the ability to market to a specific demographic and the ability to do it very effectively.”
To combat overconsumption, we as a society must make a conscious effort to keep in mind the motives of social media. Through this process, we will gain better self-awareness, not be so heavily influenced, and give our Earth a break.