This week’s trending TikTok hashtag, with over 115 million views according to NBC News, is the novel #deinfluencing slogan. Born soon after the highly controversial video by beauty guru Mikayla Nogueira for l’Oreal, where she was advertising a mascara whilst wearing false lashes to make the effect more dramatic. The public outcry that surged as a result, proves just how fed up young TikTok users, and more broadly social media users, are with the lack of credibility of the content produced by their favorite influencers.
Social media platforms as we know them today, were created to share personal content through photos. Who remembers the wholesome Retrica days where your feed was filled with overly saturated pictures of your dog? Over the years, the scope of these platforms has taken a turn: with the increased number of adverts on social media, some users realized they could capitalize off social media. In came those who brand themselves today as ‘Influencers’ or ‘Content Creators’, managing to rapidly establish fruitful careers, advertising products online. Yes, ‘Influencing’ has become a legitimate career, my grandma born in ’29 would never believe it. Think of it as advertising copywriter, meets model on a tv advert, brought straight to your social media feeds.
As a result, whole new levels of money-spending on social-media advertised products, from fashion to tech, have been reached. But why is this “TikTok made me buy it” mantra so dangerous? The overexposure of ‘Influencers’, constantly promoting new products, sent to them by big brands for six-figure deals, is creating a frenzy of overconsumption. Young people, myself included, are feeling the pressure to keep up with all these products replaced every week
By new ones.
What’s more, the unhealthy obsession with trends just makes matters worse, as the velocity at which new trends are being generated, means that there is a continuous search for new things that influencers can capitalize on to feed their hungry fans. Not to mention the alarming wastage caused by overproducing and overbuying those products. My biggest question is: Where do these influencers keep this constant flow of products being sent to them? I would assume that the product lasts in their cabinet just as long as the 30 second video they make about it.
But back to #deinfluencing, the hashtag used to combat the can of worms opened by Mikayla Nogueira’s video. Using this hashtag TikTok users are making videos highlighting products that are being advertised but aren’t worth your money or can be substituted with a cheaper alternative, in the hopes to reduce overconsumption.
Perhaps this could be the dawn of a new era, following in the footsteps of thrifting and eco-sustainable buying, massively championed by Gen Z’s.
Here are some tips to ‘de-influence’ yourself and not fall for the influencer trap:
1. Ask yourself if the umpteenth influencer-advertised product you want to buy (a piece of clothing for example) can be used in at least three different ways.
2. Do you already have a similar product? Do you absolutely need it, or are you giving in to your impulsivity?
3. Finally, spend at least a day thinking about the purchase before going through with it. Often I find that the excitement dies down and rationality kicks in, telling you its not worth it.