Overconsumption is Consuming Us

Labubus, Stanley Cups, Owalas, overpriced lip balms, and Brandy Melville. These are all trends that seem to be piling and are not going away. Trends are often temporary, but we treat them as a necessity and things we need, instead of want. Why? Because of overconsumption. 

Now I’m not calling you out if you have these items, but the things people consume are excessive. So the real question is: what do we do about it? The truth is, many downplay overconsumption and the effects it has on our society. Now it’s a bad thing, right? The answer is yes, and it is unfortunately part of society’s lifestyle. 

Nowadays, Americans are obsessed with having the newest, best version of the trend in unnecessary amounts. These people are often not aware of the harm materialism causes, such as the waste that accumulates, and being selfish, while they are irresponsibly misusing actually necessary items by giving money to companies that aren’t worth their money. 

How you spend your money is up to you, but I’m solely spreading awareness on how important it is to know your spending limits and use your money wisely, because it should be taken seriously. Considering the consequences of how it will affect you and the world will help you out in the real world of influences, manipulation, and temptations. 

The main danger of overconsumption is that you are not buying things for yourself anymore. There is a major difference between you liking something and buying it, and continuing to buy something else just because it is popular. It’s almost as if people buy things just for display and not as a practical item. It lacks personal style and just goes with the popular crowd when so many of the same people buy the same latest product because of social pressure. This conformity takes away from shopping for our personal self-care. We are so afraid of being ourselves and too focused on being that “basic” person who has outdated items, that we are only hurting ourselves in the process. On the other hand, you could try buying things you need because you’ll end up benefiting more from them. 

As pop culture shapes our world and new trends appear, people buy more of the same things, often with a new sense of urgency from advertisements in all the different kinds of media. This cycle, caused by microtrends that drive our unreasonable shopping impulses—which even I participate in—continues, thus causing overconsumption. We make the huge mistake of thinking the more the better. But really, less is more. You know at heart you’ll only use fewer things than you’ll actually need, so you don’t need every product in every color because that will only contribute to your clutter and cause an inconvenience. The more new, popular things we consume the more we think they’re necessary, which is overall bad for both us and the environment.  

As fast fashion has also grown popular, especially among brands like Zara, Brandy Melville, H&M, Forever 21, particularly in the Gen-Z range, it has become easier to target young audiences with trendy clothing and lower prices. Thus, it is harder not to buy from our favorite stores thanks to outside influences like social media or peer pressure from friends. 

Furthermore, Americans use their bad consumer-spending habits as an excuse to acquire the things they think they “need,” when it could rather be used as a reward instead. When you shop with that mindset and abuse your reward system by shopping too frequently, you’re just buying problems and unwanted stress for yourself. As a result of wasting your money on countless things, it leads to a shopping addiction and, worse, financial stress in the end, which will be no good to you. You don’t want to end up like that, I hope. 

Shopping under our own compulsions also doesn’t help. It’s not every time you walk into Target, see the thing you want, and ask yourself, “Am I really going to use this?” The truth is, most likely not. We just put it in our cart and call it a day without really even thinking about what we just bought for the price it was. But we buy things usually because of having FOMO. And that’s the problem. We spend our money on hundreds of brand-name items—for example, Stanleys, designer bags, or overpriced leggings— but we know at heart we can just buy one or two affordable, long-lasting bags that you will maximize the use of. We don’t have to have that new tumbler that dropped with a new color a few days ago. We would rather want it, and it’s possible to live without it. So it’s crucial to be honest with ourselves.

Social media has been the obvious main force in this. I see countless videos on the internet of influencers stocking up on huge, excessive hauls that are just for views. Take those “Unboxing Over 100 Pop Mart Figures” videos, for example; sure, collecting things is fun until it becomes an obsession, ruining something that is supposed to be an innocent hobby with lavish spending. This is how we fall into a risky trap of watching that material, and therefore being convinced to behave that way too, and have that attitude toward unimportant things like little plastic figures. Why do we need a collection of 100 plastic toys? We simply do not. 

Thinking about the quality of the things we buy and how much of it we’ll actually need and use will make a huge difference in our lives. Just because somebody told you on TikTok that you need to buy some product doesn’t mean that it will fulfill your life somehow. It can be a good-looking product when you see it online, skipping past the real customer reviews and going for the influencer-endorsed or sponsored ones instead, but next thing you know, the moment you buy it, you realize it had bad reviews on all websites and wasn’t of good quality. We can easily make our own decisions, not let others dictate what is better for us—because if you do, you’re risking getting a cheap, substandard product—buy our own things, and less of it too, all while still being content with what we have. 

I get it. I mean, it’s hard not to be influenced in this world of consumerism and constantly be stuck in an endless doomscroll with viral products being thrown at you. I can definitely relate to this dilemma, but as we live in this era of always being influenced by others it’s good to be aware at least of the things we can do as a world to fix that. I won’t say that it’s bad if you have items in style, I do too, but it wouldn’t hurt to be a little smarter and more mindful with how we treat our purchase choices. 

As I mentioned before, not only is this harmful to us, but also for the environment. Overconsumption leads to the damage of economies and the structure of business, being the root of environmental factors such as climate change, pollution, and the expenditure of resources. Companies use lower costs in their products to make them seem cheaper or low-quality than they actually are because they don’t factor in other external prices. When people excessively buy the items of such companies that are just maximizing profit, this may make them seem like not-so-trustworthy businesses, resulting in additional waste created.

In my humble opinion, it is wasteful and toxic to overconsume and keep buying unneeded stocks of things from one certain place that’s all the rage, when you can find it anywhere in just about any store you go to. I'm not saying you can’t buy $150 Ugg slippers, but just don’t buy five more pairs in every other color. Be sensible. I believe everyone should be informed of the outcomes and traps you get pulled into, thinking you need something when you don’t, and buying these things. So before purchasing, keep in mind what really matters and if that may even help the world out a little bit, too.    

  As the holidays are also approaching, it’s important to start thinking about not just your wants, but also your needs since it is easy to get carried away with getting all the things you want, especially if you're not the one buying it. Those $1000 wishlists or budget-free videos you see on social media are great examples of people mindlessly and selfishly going out of their way to waste money on tons of things that will probably go out of style anyways.