@cosphereproject
Every morning like many 20 something year olds I start my day on social media. Breaks throughout my day and before I go to sleep at night continue along the same trendline. During the ‘doom scrolling’ I am often shown an vast amount of content on what is “New and Trending” in the world. Often pertaining to clothes, makeup products or even gadgets to make ‘life easier’. It is extremely easy with all the enthusiastic reviews, colors and honestly surplus of posts to not fall into the trap that I will be as happy or look like this influencer if I buy these products. I believe that consumerism has been propelled into a unmaintainable state from social media. I hope that there can reach a point where entertaining content does not require purchase and that sustainable and local brands are granted a higher platform. My plans toward intervention start small with effecting my personal learning via conversations to friends and family. The reality check of “is this something I need” or am I being fed information is harsh however a necessary place to start.
Despite how interesting modern trends in social media may appear, I do feel that it is somewhat unfortunate that it is signalling to society that people need to buy products they do not need in their lives. Rather than exploiting human material desire to fuel consumerism, do you think that one day we will truly be able to make sustainable consumption choices the new trend?
This is really interesting to read about. I dont think people in society actually realize how much of an influence that social media has on their life. I agree that people should not base their purchases on the idea of wanting to look like someone on the internet and that we should be purchasing goods that will last a long time and are sustainable to reduce waste.
Algorithms and data are targeting us with this consumerism guilt on social media and I have had similar experiences. Can we make it possible to use this power of technology to educate while making it entertaining?
I think you brought up some great points here. Social media often paints a "false" fantasy that lures viewers into thinking they can achieve this if they buy what is being promoted. I agree that we need to start holding ourselves accountable about how we are perceiving social media. This can often involve questioning ourselves ("is this product sustainable?" "How much will I really use this product before throwing it in the trash?"), which is uncomfortable but a necessary action to take in order to start taking steps forward towards real change.
This line "entertaining content does not require purchase" really hit home for me. I never realized the majority of videos I watch tend to be focused on "hauls" or trends.