If you’ve been on any social media app lately (especially TikTok), you’ve likely noticed a rise in videos catered to cultivating a certain aesthetic. Some of these posts may even include a cheeky affiliate link or product placement that seems to be riding the line of what the FTC considers disclosing a sponsorship. You may be left wondering why a certain product seems like it’s essential to have. The driving force behind this is consumerism.
If you’re a little fuzzy on what consumerism even is, that’s ok! It’s a widely variable concept and its definition depends on its context. For our purposes, consumerism is the acquisition of goods that are considered unnecessary for survival, where the end goal is often some display of social adeptness. To help us understand, let’s look at two examples:
Reusable water bottles
If you had any form of internet connection in 2019, you probably remember the explosion in popularity of the reusable water bottle brand HydroFlask. From VSCO girls to Granola Girls (don’t worry, we’ll jump into this later) reusable insulated metal water bottles were used to proudly display the owner’s eco-awareness, as well as their ability to keep up with the times. So what could possibly be the issue with making an environmentally conscious choice?
The issue is this act is largely a hollow one that sets us up to buy more than we need. Stanley Cups, which have effectively replaced HydroFlasks as the hot new reusable water bottle are the perfect examples. If you have an entire cupboard full of reusable water bottles, which are supposed to cut down on waste, how much can you really use all of them? Every new color you buy is not going to change the effectiveness of the bottle; it’s just going to cause more waste. So in trying to combat plastic water bottle waste, a whole new form of unneeded consumption is born for absolutely no reason other than to signal your ability to participate in trends.
Fast Fashion
The most flagrant consumerism happens in the world of fast fashion. Shien, Zara, Cider and many other online retailers thrive because they provide on-trend items at fractions of the cost of other retailers. They make hundreds of designs a day, with seemingly endless rotations of items that have a shelf life of a couple of months. Their ability to thrive relies on the fact that social media causes so much fluctuation in the fashion world; a certain style can hit its apex and its subsequent downfall in a matter of months, leaving cheaply made and sometimes dangerous clothes to hit the donation bins faster than they were shipped. You may be watching a show and wondering why a certain character feels corny and outdated, and oftentimes that comes down to the fact that what they’re wearing was peak fashion when the show was being filmed but is already way out of the cultural zeitgeist by the time it was released. This constant reorganizing of the fashion world can leave you feeling left behind, out of the loop and desperate to spend hundreds of dollars on clothes that you’ll stop wearing, or maybe even never wear.
These examples have two things in common: 1) they’re wasteful and 2) they’re hollow. You shouldn’t purchase an item because you think it will magically make you something, you should be that something and buy that item because it affirms what you already know about yourself. Lots of these aesthetics rely on people being uncomfortable in their identity, and at the end of the day make it harder for us to settle into something that truly feels like us. My style varies from day to day; some days I dress like a clean girl and the next I dress like a granola girl. Your style is supposed to be YOUR style, not what some multibillion-dollar corporation or social media influencer is choosing to sell you on that particular day. You may be wondering how to combat this – and while I certainly am not perfect in my consumption – here are some rules I try to incorporate into my life.
- Really think about a purchase before you decide on it.
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The term “reduce, reuse, recycle” is in that order for a reason! This is the most crucial step to becoming a responsible consumer. Before you buy something always ask yourself these questions. Do I have something that could already fill this purpose? Is it necessary? Will I be able to use/wear this item for a long time? For things like clothing, you should always think about how a piece will age. Will this be out of style in a month? Will you care that it’s out of style, or will you keep wearing it? You must be honest with yourself here.
- If you decide you really do need or even just want something (which is perfectly acceptable!) think about ways you could get it sustainably.
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My favorite way to save money and make sure I’m reducing my environmental impact is to go to a secondhand store or website and check that they don’t have what I’m looking for. Besides being fun, thrift stores put into perspective how much stuff we have that we don’t need or want. Similarly, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace and other online marketplaces provide a great place to grab cheap second-hand items. If you can’t find what you’re looking for in a thrift store, you could also post to a local “buy-nothing” board (commonly found on Facebook) where people exchange items with each other. These buy-nothing boards offer a place where you could potentially give items you don’t use anymore to someone else! Larger online secondhand retailers like Depop, ThredUp and eBay offer a wide range of products and don’t restrict you to your locality.
- The thrift store and online marketplaces failed you, or maybe buying this item secondhand isn’t possible? It’s time to do a little research on where to buy your items!
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A great place I like to start is good on you. They provide ratings on fashion retailers based on their ethics surrounding their workers, the planet and animals. It’s an easy way to quickly check if the brand you’re buying from is ethical and honest. If the brand you want to buy from isn’t on that website, or you aren’t buying a fashion item, doing some research on the best brands is relatively easy. There are plenty of other websites, YouTube channels and sustainability blogs that concisely offer quality information.
Before you go, I would like to say that I know it’s tough to feel like you’re making any difference. I mean just 90 companies create two-thirds of global emissions, right? That may be true, but you have to think about your role in all of this. Who are these companies supplying? The answer is us. We aren’t blameless in that number, and we all have to do our part to show these companies that we are sick of contributing to climate change. It’s comfortable to just blame a corporation (and they definitely deserve it!) but at some point, we have to reflect on and change our actions. And who knows, maybe you’ll turn a couple of your friends into environmentalists along the way!