The way we use technology in our daily lives has changed massively over the last decade, most prominently being the introduction of social media into our daily schedule. 52% of the world's population uses social media with an average daily usage of 2 hours and 31 minutes. Trends take over the internet so quickly and we are constantly presented with perfectly curated images that have been styled and edited.
With what you can buy in the shops changing too quickly it causes fashions to change quicker, making us feel that what we bought and wore last summer, isn’t stylish this summer. Like many things these days, I feel that social media feeds into these feelings. You can see people's clothes constantly changing, and this creates a pressure and sense that your clothes aren’t stylish anymore. Aside from all the other concerns related to it, it is costly to the consumer. It is expensive to shop to stay in style. The quality of garments is so poor, that it can give you no choice but to rebuy often, as they deteriorate so quickly.
There is also now a huge bank of people whose job is to literally influence consumers into buying more stuff. Whilst they are generally promoting things other than clothes more, they are sent piles upon piles of PR packages, giving them free clothing constantly. So once again we are being blasted with the idea that we should have new clothes, constantly keeping up with the trends. We also see our peers wearing only new trendy items which makes us think it is attainable to also be like that, but again we forget that this is probably just one item that they have and they are choosing what they put onto social media.
I am very lucky to have narrowly missed being a child and young teenager who grew up with social media the way it is today. I think it is easy to say that you don’t feel influenced or pressured by what you see on social media and that the issue isn’t as bad as it is made out, but I think we are more affected than we realise and I think that if I had been exposed to this from a young age it would have really affected me. I have not grown up looking to influencers and I think that I can now follow along and not be totally hooked on their lifestyles, but I think that I can see in younger girls that the influence is huge. If the people you look up to are never seen wearing the same outfit twice, you will probably aspire to that, and as you are young and don’t have loads of disposable income, you will look to fast fashion websites, feeding the waste of the fashion industry.
I have been making a very conscious effort to think about whether I will like the clothes I am buying in a year or if I am just being sucked into a trend. I am trying to carve out my own personal style that isn’t influenced too heavily by current trends, as then I can spend more money on better quality items that I won't need or want to replace. This is hard though! It is scary how much we change our opinions on styles, there are items of clothes I have that I can’t believe I liked a few years ago, and this isn’t helped by the social media videos stating ‘XYZ is out’.
I think that social media feeds fast fashion consumption most directly because of the age range of their main users. 47.4% of TikTok users are between 10-29 years old and which means the majority of influenced people are young and likely don’t have a lot of disposable income. Paired with the financial aspect, this age range encompasses the parts of your life that you are most susceptible to social pressure. So the outcome is an individual that feels pressure from peers and what they see on social media to constantly keep up with changing trends, but has low income, so is likely to purchase from fast fashion brands such as SHEIN. 53.81% of SHEIN’s market share is between 18-34 years old, suggesting that this concept is correct.
Times are changing though, with the new trend of ‘de-influencing’ doing the rounds on social media. This is where influencers talk about products they didn’t like or talk about how they don’t feel it’s necessary to have 25 lipsticks. It’s certainly not going to change consumerism, but I think it shows a positive shift in the way people view sustainability, and it is becoming cool to want to live a sustainable lifestyle. I hope these positive shifts in social media keep coming and we all make a conscious effort to think about how we consume.
More info on social media usage: https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/#:~:text=Networks%20vary%20in%20popularity%20with,31%20minutes%20(January%202023).
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