Hello Sunny Siders, today I wanted to talk about something that I have been noticing with the changes in my social media habits.
About half a year ago, I made a real conscious decision to limit my time on social media. I didn’t like knowing that most of my free time was being spent scrolling on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube, and I wanted to put my energy into things that fueled me like new hobbies.
There has been lots of positives to a lower amount of time on social media, but the one I want to talk about today is engaging in massive amounts of capitalism, as this is something I had no idea just how good social media was at subliminally getting me to do.
In the months since I have stopped scrolling, my desire to buy everything new and trendy has diminished significantly, to the point where I have actively deep cleaned and made massive donation bins multiple times since I am embarrassed by the amount of random stuff I own. Being off social media really made me want to be more intentional with what I have in my home and I have moved away strongly from buying things that are trendy.
Another area I’ve noticed big changes is in my personal style. I always felt I had personal style, but I was so wrong! Social media was subtly influencing what I was wearing and decor I was buying even if I thought I wasn’t following a trend. In spending less time seeing other people over consume, I have started to find the items and clothes that I actually really love and appreciate and have started to get rid of the rest.
I’ve paired back on shoes, bags, clothes, and even coffee mugs in the months I haven’t been online.
Now, I am sure you are wondering how I can attribute all this change to lack of social media presence? Well, last month I re-downloaded TikTok to make a page for my small business to help it grow. In doing that I started spending time scrolling again and within days I was already finding myself wanting a new tote bag for work, to hop on the blind box Labubu trend, and to buy tons of little trinkets from small business owners.
Genuinely, it was scary how quickly my mind reverted to wanting to start buying things again and I wanted to share this experience with all of you as I thought it was highly important to make it aware that social media is likely encouraging you to constantly spend your money on things you don’t need or sometimes even want!
Naturally, as I was discovering this for myself, I wanted to see if there was any research to back my claim up. I found quite a few articles that talked about how social media encourages us to overspend and it boils down to the way that social media portrayals luxury as something that is far more affordable that it truly is. Additionally, services like by now, pay later encourage people and fuel this fantasy by allowing purchases to be made even when we might not have all the money to do so1. Since the adoption of the buy now button on Facebook in 2014, social media has become a marketers dream. Brands are flooding to social media sites to promote their products both in the traditional advertisement way and in ways that feel like content that was designed for the platforms via influencers. 78% of consumers on social media find that posts by a company encourage them to buy something, and that percentage is even higher when they see something that a friend has2,3.
1Source: InCharge.org
2Source: Forbes
3Source: Forbes
So the next time you are feeling like you want to buy just about everything to see on social media, know that it isn’t your fault the apps are designed in a may to encourage spending and it might just be time to put the phone down and do something else for awhile.
Sunny Side Up With Siri 