Overconsumption in Media

Vivienne Hong-Harutyunyan

If you’ve ever been online at all, even just staring at the TV watching a football game, you’ve definitely seen products being promoted through commercials. Most people already hate commercials because they interrupt the viewing experience, but since we idolize influencers and content creators so much, we tend to want to buy the products they promote. Many influencers use their wealth and popularity to acquire brand deals, or to purchase an absurd amount of cosmetic products, so viewers see their massive collections and want to buy all of it.
Another topic related to this is something called “doom spending”. Members of the millennial generation and older people part of Gen-Z tend to exhibit a phenomenon called doom-spending. With the current unpredictable and unaffordable economy, people start to realize that they will most likely not ever be able to afford a house. This causes them to make poorer financial decisions, like spending money on luxury goods such as expensive cosmetics or clothing. This, along with the promotion of overconsumption in the cosmetic industry leads to people normalizing wasting money on things that one will never need that much of. Beauty influencers are also starting to reach much younger audiences like Generation Alpha. The “Sephora 10-year-old apocalypse” is a popular topic in the media because very young girls are starting to go to Sephora to spend far too much money on products one could argue they don’t need at all. This might not seem like a big problem, but it represents the underlying issue of how capitalism is constantly controlling America’s people through consumerism. The next time you see a nice makeup product or cool shoes, think about how much you already have, and whether or not you actually need it. Even though it seems more difficult, setting goals to save money for more important things like a car, college, and eventually a house will make life easier in the long run.