From Labubus to boo baskets, a majority of people are hopping onto the newest trends and getting the most viral products from their favorite influencers. Most people, including high school students, desire the products they see on social media.
Gen Z and Gen Alpha are the main generations that have experienced a rise in social media usage, leading to new trends and fads emerging that grab the attention of young people, whether they’re necessary or not. This leads to people buying unnecessary goods that they didn’t even know they wanted until they saw the promotion for them.
These seemingly harmless promotions are one of the largest contributors to overconsumption. This is a product of ads being targeted to certain demographics. Forbes helps further explain this in their article, explaining how social media is used as a source to get more customers. This is making people feel constantly unhappy with what they already have, urging them to purchase more. This is very prominent in all ages, but especially in high schoolers whose brains are still forming and are easily swayed by the media. This leads to young adults with little to no education about contentment.
Social media has a strong hold on society’s sense of contentment. It is always pushing the fact that everyone has more than you and you need to catch up. When asked about how often she feels fulfilled, freshman Juliet Metzler explained that she knows the feelings of satisfaction social media can bring. However, the fulfillment she receives from opening social media quickly vanishes and frequently leaves her wanting more. This helps reveal that a lack of satisfaction and the feeling of gratification is prominent within today’s youth, which can take away from the joys of day-to-day life.
Ads have become so normalized that it can be difficult for teens to differentiate them from normal videos. Since they are so heavily prominent on social media, many companies jump at the chance to work with an influencer to gain more attention. Upon being asked about his daily scrolling habits and how often he gets ads, freshman Dean Copple said that he can get around ten ads after scrolling from an hour to an hour and a half. This helps convey the point that ads are a constant feed of people persuading you to get things that you don’t need.
With the lack of contentment and being bombarded with ads, social media has led to people finding a way to try and obtain these unrealistic standards. Metzler described how she will normally keep tabs open on her phone with the things she has seen, and sometimes writes them down in her notes app. This shows the strong influence that companies have on youth, leading to many of them being loyal buyers.
While many argue that this does not affect all adolescents and that it is uncommon to be affected by these ads and promotions, it still affects a majority of today’s high schoolers who have social media. Ads and open promotions are not the only cause for the rise in overconsumption; it is the hauls and the normalization of getting more than you need and even want. It is the romanticizing of getting the unnecessary for social media and the need for more. Even if you were satisfied a minute ago, seeing a haul or people getting new things can give you a sense of desire that you didn’t know you had before. When being asked about what influences her the most, Metzler explained that seeing others’ hauls and shopping vlogs tended to influence her more than an ad. This helps illustrate the control that influencers can have on a person’s purchases.
People today are buying unnecessary items just to fit in. This has led to a decline in contentment, but this can be changed if we can stop making overconsumption content popular and stop romanticizing overspending. We can restore our youth, contentment and joy.
