400% more clothing is consumed today than 20 years ago, according to the University of Alabama Institute for Human Rights Blog. It has become very apparent that people feel the need to buy more clothes now than ever before. Marketing tactics and social media have made it unavoidable to overconsume trendy products and clothes, but keeping up with trends can affect much more than your wardrobe. Overconsumption is leading to unhealthy spending habits as well as trouble investing and saving for the future.
“When I’m sad, it makes me happy to buy more clothes, especially because I have income from babysitting. I am convinced to buy something when I see things on TikTok or see someone I like wearing it, especially in school or at dance. I’ll typically ask people where something is from, and I’ll be influenced to buy it,” junior Cecelia Nelson said.
Like Nelson, plenty of students feel happier after shopping. Shopping can serve as both an emotional outlet and a temporary escape from stress and anxiety. Over more recent years, popularity in shopping online has sparked significantly more interest. Teens and young adults are easily influenced by apps like TikTok and Instagram to buy the latest trending clothes or products. The feel-good sensation of buying something that a person of admiration is selling compels people to continue to make online purchases based on other people’s opinions. According to Overconsumption.org, online sales are projected to grow by 16% yearly due to apps like TikTok and Instagram influencing young people.
“I think this generation is more at risk for overconsumption because before there was social media, you could escape marketing if you wanted to; you didn’t have to turn on the TV and listen to a bunch of commercials. But now you cannot escape it, whenever you open your phone, it’s like another ad,” incubator student Fiona Leion said.
Phones are constantly overflowing with ads, and most people hardly even notice it. Product reviews and paid sponsorships are hidden in what seems like normal influencer videos. This social influence convinces people that they need to live the same lavish lifestyles of people on the internet. This often creates a sense of FOMO, giving people a desire to buy the product being displayed even if they do not necessarily “need” it. Retail therapy can provide an immediate relief of stress and a sense of happiness, but it can also lead to guilt and other negative outcomes. Leion is on the team of the incubator brand, Sala Blends. Sala blends is a healthy dissolvable chai blend that is marketed to women in their 30s-50s. The team markets their product to fit the healthy-workout promoting lifestyle of women with busy lives who still want to have a fit appearance.
“We market our chai as very healthy. We list all the benefits of all the spices in the chai. We make sure that it’s either no sugar or natural sugars. We also use attention grabbers to appeal to our target market,” Leion said.
Marketing a product to a specific group of people is a vital part of getting people to buy an item. In order to attract people who want to live a healthy lifestyle, Leion and the Sala Blends team use attention grabbers and make sure to include keywords like “no sugar” to market their product. This tactic is how influencers on social media get followers to buy into a product they are being paid to sell. Using terms like “it-girl” and “clean girl”, online sellers appeal to young girls similarly to how incubator students appeal to their target consumers. To avoid the trap of good marketing, buyers should wait two weeks before buying something that they want. This anti-overconsumption tactic assures that the desire for the product is actually there and not just due to marketing schemes.
“If you just impulsively purchase and don’t keep track of where your money’s going, you won’t have any money left to invest, cause you’ll spend all your money. That’s why more than 50% of Americans have no money saved for retirement,” Investment Club Sponsor Bob Calder said.
With ads constantly popping up on social media tailored to the posts people interact with, it can be difficult to turn away from impulsive purchases. Impulse spending is a repetitive cycle of buying products, losing interest in them, and then buying new products to fill the satisfaction. This often distracts from financial goals such as investing and saving for retirement. Although it can be scary to think about big financial decisions as a young person, starting a savings account and keeping track of purchases can stop the ongoing cycle of impulsive spending and will lead to successful saving and investing in the future.
Phones are constantly overflowing with ads, and most people hardly even notice it. Product reviews and paid sponsorships are hidden in what seems like normal influencer videos. This social influence convinces people that they need to live the same lavish lifestyles of people on the internet. This often creates a sense of FOMO, giving people a desire to buy the product being displayed even if they do not necessarily “need” it. Retail therapy can provide an immediate relief of stress and a sense of happiness, but it can also lead to guilt and other negative outcomes. Leion is on the team of the incubator brand, Sala Blends. Sala blends is a healthy dissolvable chai blend that is marketed to women in their 30s-50s. The team markets their product to fit the healthy-workout promoting lifestyle of women with busy lives who still want to have a fit appearance.