Overconsumption: When An Unnecessary Item Suddenly Becomes Trendy

One day, you look at your phone and start scrolling on TikTok or Instagram. Suddenly, you see that everyone’s buying thousands of pretty, cute mugs or a huge makeup collection that seems overpriced, which ends up untouched or eventually thrown away. And have you ever felt the urge to go buy a product just because it’s going viral? If so, you may have been influenced by multiple marketing strategies. It is important to pause and reflect on whether your desire to buy is truly necessary or simply influenced by marketing, which can lead to overconsumption.

Overconsumption is the excessive use of materials that harm our environment and contribute to landfill waste. Overconsumption is commonly found in plastic waste, usually in packaging or in the overproduction and overuse of products. Social media overconsumption is a major problem that promotes the mass purchasing and wastage of these items. It is also found in multiple industrial marketing trends for advertisements and promotions.

A good example of an industry or social media marketing strategy is a haul. Hauls lead to extreme waste and eventually to the hoarding of makeup, skincare, and other cosmetics. Sometimes, social media can heavily influence how we live and our mindset, much like buying a lot of perfumes when you already have one. Excess goods and products are among the biggest drivers of overconsumption, especially through social media promotions and advertisements.

According to the United Nations Environment Program, global material use has tripled since 1920, rapidly increasing from 20 billion tons to 100 billion tons. Overconsumption is an issue that results in plastics filling up landfills with the most needless objects. Social media trends supply overconsumption, creating a cycle of wasteful buying. A great example of a heavily overconsuming and popular trend are “boo or burr baskets.” The thing about most baskets isn’t the intention. Sure, gifting a basket of hand-picked items is sweet, but it's not specifically necessary. A problem is that they start giving objects the person already has just because it’s viral, like loads of candles, which will just turn out to be thrown away. Overconsumption turns out to be extremely terrible after impulse purchases. Filling our environment with piles of plastic is underestimated and overlooked as a major cause of harm to our environment, even though landfills are multiplying exponentially and appear to harm our world.

Ultimately, overconsumption is a continuous, influential, and systematic cycle of overuse in products. It is excessive, unsustainable, and is often caused by consumerism, heavy marketing, fast fashion, and on the internet, fueled by micro trends that rapidly lead to waste generation.