In today’s increasingly digital world, it's hard to escape the omnipresent nature of consumerism. The moment we wake up, we are bombarded with product placement videos and advertisements - from a new cleanser that is sure to give you glass skin to fall wardrobe essentials that you must buy. This raises the ultimate question: how did it all begin? And more importantly, when will it end?
TikTok, originally launched as a lip-syncing app under the name Musical.ly in 2014, was purchased by the Chinese tech giant ByteDance in 2017 for $1 billion. The platform quickly gained popularity due to its implementation of an algorithm driven feed, which was said to give users a personalized content experience which kept them coming back for more. What users enjoyed most about TikTok was its ability to curate a channel of videos similar to those that they had already liked, making it a hyper-engaging and almost addictive experience. Their mission statement is to “inspire creativity and bring joy”.
While TikTok initially seemed like a fun, creative outlet, it has since evolved into something greater and more commercialized. Hauls, unboxings and product reviews dominate the platform, and all of these promote mass consumption to TikTok users. This is just one piece of a much larger puzzle - the broader trend in social media - as platforms like Instagram and Facebook also followed the same route in order to maximize engagement and revenue.
Facebook, which was established in February 2004, became one of the pioneers of targeted advertising when it introduced "Social Ads’’ in November of 2007. This function allows marketers to put out advertisements that were targeted to specific clientele that matched certain criteria. This was revolutionary at the time. Now nearly all social media platforms utilize this same technique and structure for marketing, with features like tiktok shop and instagram shopping. These tools allow users to purchase directly within the app, without needing to transfer to an external site. Along with paid options to boost content and increase visibility, social media apps have become a seamless platform for harboring and driving consumerism.
While most people can appreciate how targeted ads seem tailored to their own preferences, this consumeristic experience also has a darker side. The constant barrage of product promotions and trends leads to a never ending cycle of overconsumption. Social media makes us feel like we need the next big thing, with trends that defeat the purpose of mindful consumerism and encourage people to buy more unnecessary items being heavily promoted and pushed to our feeds. This culture is not limited to material goods either, the platform normalizes the notion that our happiness can be bought. Through impulse purchases sparked by recommendations from our favorite influences or by ads with catchy songs, this cycle feeds into a feeling of inadequacy and a fear of being left behind. FOMO is real, ever present and thriving through social media, often pushing people to consume more in an attempt to keep up with what's popular.
As one TikTok user, Jacob Forste, an 11th grader at Stevenson, recalls, the app has changed a lot since he first downloaded it in 2016; he now receives ads for sports and wellness products almost every 7 videos. The algorithm tracks not only what he engages with, but how long he spends on each video, showing him more ads that align with his interests. TikTok, like many other social media platforms, records user data to maximize engagement and profit, creating a personalized but heavily commercialized feed.
This leads us to ask the question of “how ethical is this?” Where do we draw the line between entertainment and consumerism? This blurry boundary leaves users vulnerable to excessive purchasing and the exploitation of personal data. If you are constantly justifying your purchases by telling yourself it will make you happier, perhaps it is time for a social media detox. All in all, though TikTok and similar apps offer engaging and personalized content, the evolution of these apps into hubs for shopping has highlighted an issue much deeper than just our love for entertainment. What began as simple social networking apps have now become the primary driving force of consumer culture, shaping the ways we interact, our desires and our understanding of personal fulfillment.
The rise of online shopping and social media shopping indicates that we are far from the end of this cycle of overconsumption, and that it will only continue to grow as we move on because of how deeply it is embedded in our world. It becomes increasingly crucial for users to become more conscious and mindful consumers, and to understand the psychology behind content that drives them to make unnecessary and wasteful purchases. We must all learn to think critically about the implications of targeted advertising and its effects not only on individuals, but society as a whole.
So, in a couple of months when your favorite content creator tells you about a new water bottle that you need to buy, look in your cupboard at your Hydroflask, Stanley and Owala bottles and ask yourself. “Is this really necessary?”
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