How TikTok Promotes Unhealthy Consumerism
Written by Sofia Yepes
It’s clear that TikTok has entered the forefront of social media, and its popularity has become unimaginably large during COVID-19. It’s no question as to why – the easily digestible 60-second videos capture everything from dancing to cooking entire meals, and influencers have slowly been shifting to TikTok as their main platform. Any user, not just influencers, can become viral through the app, which is part of its mass appeal. It appears to be the social media that combines the user-friendly aesthetic of Instagram with the personalized interactions of YouTube. But like everything good, there is always a downside.
The virility aspect of TikTok has had enormous impacts, whether it be the now-on-Broadway Ratatouille Musical, or the universal newfound love of skincare. Through my time on the app, I have noticed that product reviews, fashion must-haves, and the “TikTok made me buy it” trend have caused an unhealthy obsession with buying the next best thing. Beauty influencers, for example, use the app to review certain make up products, and have the power to launch a product into fame, or destroy one entirely. Fashion gurus, or even regular users who happened to go viral, have enormous influence on what consumers want and where they are buying from. They post hauls from Amazon, Fashion Nova, and other brands with an exuberant amount of clothes. To sum it up: TikTok has become an e-commerce giant, and it’s affecting how we consume.
This isn’t to say that TikTok’s unintentional effects on product consumption are all bad. TikTok has proven to be the best social media to bring awareness to smaller brands that lack mass audiences. Brands such as Vessi, Kaja Beauty and Starface have reached popularity because of the TikTok algorithm, and even high schoolers who sell aesthetically pleasing slime have a significant platform. The danger lies in the way content creators try to convince their audience to buy products. Take clothing hauls, for example. A content creator will purchase an unusual amount of clothes from a certain brand (usually a fast-fashion company, such as Fashion Nova and Zara), and create a TikTok “try-on haul” to show their clothes. This amount of consumption, especially of fast fashion clothing, only strengthens the social and environmental injustices taking place in developing countries where these garments are being produced. What’s worse, many users are aware of these injustices but prefer to have the trendiest item rather than putting their dollars to better use.
Hauls are not a new form of content, and existed on YouTube for many years before TikTok became a platform. This issue with TikTok lies in the sheer amount of content that is being consumed. The average person spends 46 minutes a day on TikTok, compared to 24 minutes on Youtube. That means at the minimum, 46 videos are being watched per day. In the age of social media where mass amounts of content consumption is the norm, what content is actually being consumed matters. Given that influencers are part of this content creation, I do put the responsibility on them to make wise choices and spread awareness on issues such as fast-fashion.