Addy Woodbury ‘29
One of the most defeating feelings has to be excitedly walking into your favorite shop only to find that exactly what you drove twenty-plus minutes for is nowhere in sight. The remnants of torn open boxes and crooked signs obnoxiously mock you and ridicule your efforts to snag the product that is deemed TikTok’s hottest commodity. Well, I’m here to tell you that, unfortunately, you might be waiting a while to get whatever it is you put aside this week’s paycheck for, because, in an outbreak of overconsumerism, you have become collateral damage.
At its core, overconsumption occurs when one purchases goods at a rate that exceeds what is actually necessary for one individual. The practice of extravagant buying has become so ingrained into the lives of some that the process itself has become romanticized, especially within the media. I mean, it’s not difficult to stumble across a micro-influencer’s back to school haul in which they have purchased one style of a shirt in every color, five different brands of tumblers and nine high-end facial serums that are supposedly recommended by the best skin care specialists. While frivolous spending on nonessential items is entirely up to the buyer, promoting it as something habitual online can pose problems for viewers, and more extensively, the environment.
As I’ve logged onto social media and noticed hauls, collecting, and home restock videos become more extreme and costly, I’ve truly wondered what the obsession is with buying so much of everything. I understand that trending items can be mesmerizing to a general audience and make us feel compelled to acquire them ourselves; that’s basically how the entire seller-consumer system operates. But what I remain perplexed by is peoples’ incessant inclination to have it all. Nothing ever seems to be enough and the public is always chasing the next big thing.
The cycle essentially goes like this: a major consumer discovers the next life-altering, environmentally friendly body wash that has been advertised all over Instagram. They go to a store or online and buy one of every scent—but wait, just one’s not enough, because since they’re popular, everyone will want one, so why not just buy an extra of each to have for later. Great, into the drawer designated for unopened products they go. Next, it’s crucial to film a quick video showing off the fact that they got this body wash in every scent to keep their feed aesthetic and their viewers engaged, leaving their general audience envious. Awesome, but what happens next?
Once the hype dies down and the buyer realizes they were victimized by yet another fad, there are a couple of different directions to go in. One results in glorified hoarding, which involves the consumer not putting an item to use while also refusing to throw it away. In this time, products may expire or no longer have a purpose, but ultimately, keeping them for personal preferences or for no reason at all is the buyer’s choice.
The other direction is arguably the more detrimental one, as its effects extend to an issue greater than that of any individual consumer. Once the excitement about something subsides, many consumers become dismissive and forget the items they were once raving about. When there’s simply no need for them anymore, they are thrown out and either sent to secondhand stores or landfills. Fortunately, secondhand stores fuel the idea that “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” but landfills actively accumulate in size as more people discard things they see no longer fit for their needs. Our landfills are simply not sustainable for the amount of overproduction and overconsumption that exists in our world today, yet the exploitation of them is becoming increasingly normalized in the name of convenience.
What may seem like the public merely exercising their free will and buying whatever their heart desires realistically stirs problems for our modern society. Overconsumption has done nothing but encourage obsessive spending on mass-produced goods that will eventually be left behind. As an individual, excessively buying and throwing away things may not seem like a big deal, but when we zoom out, we discover that accepting this practice as a way of life actually presents bigger issues for our environment than we can even comprehend.
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