Do I need this or am I just experiencing the essence of ennui? Nowadays, everyone is In dire
need of the comfort of convenience in our daily lives, thus where online retail therapy plays
a big part.
Fast fashion and online shopping; the dangers to mental health
The convenience of fast purchasing through influencer storefronts - with a click of a
button and you too can have all the items shown in said video. Why does it not bring as much
joy to consume anymore?
I have wondered why as a consumer feeling as such. I believe that there’s a sense of
self-soothing as a way to cope with our daily lives. Retail therapy and how this entangles
with our emotions, the Instant gratification from online shopping and the cause of easy
convenience turned to impulsive spending. Online shopping is an easy influence on
impulsivity especially from how saturated the constant advertising and promoting of things
we are told are needed to buy. This is a constant state causing a lack of appreciation for what
has been purchased. Which leads to a lack of specialty in those garments or items that are not
appreciated. The Sense of emptiness when the short-lived happy purchase is not what it
seems, glamorized by the media. This skyrockets the stress levels to overconsumption or
even hyperconsumption. According to an August 15th, 2024 article by ScienceDictect
authors Julia de Koning, Mariangela Lavanga, and Wouter Spekkink, “fashion and clothing
consumption is a Social activity (Briceno and Stagl, 2006). In the social environment of
young adults, purchasing less clothing may not be seen as a normal behaviour”. Fast fashion
and how celebrities and or influencers encourage cheap fashion for paid endorsements rather
than promoting it because they actively enjoy and wear said items. The normalization of
buying garments that are just “ok” when previously it used to be the idea of purchasing
higher quality garments and getting said garment perfectly tailored to your body to be
something you actually love and will wear constantly.
Social media influence on consumerism
The Influence of excess of things furthers the demand for the excess of mass production.
The social media ticket word of categorizing everything to aesthetics, how it comes into play
with overspending when you can’t afford that habit. Social media's constant overexposure to
promotions and advertisements to buying more and more - leads to buyer’s fatigue and no
sense of joy in buying.
The excitement is watered down through the excess of options of basically the same exact
products. Lower-quality items or garments that are not made to be lasting in a way that keeps
having us buying more and more simply because it is not satisfactory in expectation, makes
all sense of a disappointment which leads to trying to find something better to purchase
follow soon after. Hoping that hard-earned money goes to something long-lasting and truly
something to cherish, ends in constant disappointment as many things are made poorly.
The realities of thrifting and its certain cons
Are clothing items being donated because of their cheap quality or because they are not
trendy anymore?
Is donating back cheap clothing that has never been used as an ease to the conscience habit
to keep buying?
There's still a sense of unsustainable practices with constant “thrift haul” videos shown on
social media specifically, YouTube. The outcome of this is still contributing to
hyperconsumption with the added sense of doing this constantly or even daily for
entertainment purposes.
The saying Quantity over quality comes into play as a consumer of second-hand fashion
myself. The pros, buying second-hand clothing is a very sustainable way to consume fashion.
This lessens the chance of over-consuming fast fashion garments and redirects the consumers
to buy clothes that are perfectly good quality clothing that will go to the landfill if the
garments were not donated to second-hand shops. Secondly, consumers can be very creative
with finding clothing that is unique and is possibly made of better quality than fast fashion
items nowadays. Lastly the price. The price of second-hand clothing can be very inexpensive,
which is a better alternative to buying poor-quality fast-fashion clothing, which is
unsustainable and can be expensive.
However, that being said there are some cons to thrifting because of how popular it has
become in the past few years. Firstly the cost has gone up, which makes buying second-hand
increasingly more difficult for people who rely on thifting being very affordable compared to
fast fashion which is not great and still can be expensive to many. Also, because thrifting has
become so popular many consumers will buy pounds and pounds of clothing and then soon
after, return all the items which quite possibly be thrown out into landfills if not purchased
again, creating waste. Lastly, if not careful buying second-hand clothing that is fully synthetic
and cheaply made, will deteriorate quicker, thus having to buy more clothing often and throw
out the old falling apart garments in the landfill later on.
On an ending note, I leave you with a question from an April 18th, 2024 article in Fashion magazine by author Isabel B. Slone: “Over time, as I have negotiated my own impulses, I have begun to wonder, “Is it possible to rid oneself entirely of the desire to consume?
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