By Kelly Kim
Staff Writer
It comes as no surprise that social media plays a huge role in trends dying hard and fast, leaving people to participate in fads that only last until something trendier comes along.
Social media has the ability to market and announce anything with ease since influencers have the capacity to reach a large audience. Through social media’s influence, a slow and steady trend seems to be forming as with the rise of capitalism. That is, a rise of consumerism, which has drastically changed the ways in which people shop, allowing justification for unnecessary purchases without a second thought.
One of the most evident examples of a powerful social media company exploiting its platform for the sake of capitalism and consumerism is TikTok and its new feature: the Shop tag.
TikTok released what was known as the TikTok Shop this year on Sept. 12. Since then, TikTok has made drastic changes to how it markets to its consumers, one of the more recent efforts being adding a tab at the top of the page that allows one to access the shop with a single swipe.
Controlled by an economic and political system of private enterprises that a country’s trade and industry depends on, capitalism has been a very popular word that has been utilized within the context of consumerism during recent years on social media.
With consumerism, the protection or promotion with the interest of the consumer in mind, platforms like TikTok have only worsened people’s need to want more things simply to have more, rather than judging what they have and utilizing what they can.
The two can be seen going hand in hand with one another as social media platforms like TikTok have gotten more popular and have expanded on its capabilities from just a content sharing app.
Through recent shop addition, people have at their fingertips the ability to purchase whatever they want. This leaves no room to deliberate whether or not they actually need the item, especially because of how cheap the price is set on most of the items.
An item that keeps popping up on my page is for a seemingly spacious leather shoulder bag, titled “1 Piece Women’s 2023 New Stylist Tote Bag as a Christmas Gift, Large Capacity Shoulder Bag for Women, Retro Trendy PU Leather Handbag for Commuting & College Student” that comes in a range of colors such as cream and burgundy. As of right now, prices for this bag range from $3.95 to $4.39 depending on the color you choose.
While this seems like a steal, I can’t help but wonder if the bags are made ethically, with workers receiving a fair pay, a good working environment and benefits from their hard labor. With a price that cheap, I feel as though there has to be some sort of catch, as the benefits of one can be at the expense of another.
While there are many fast fashion companies that sell their items for extremely cheap prices, the fact that items as such are being advertised on TikTok is what interests me. The app was originally just a platform in which people would post their videos, but it has slowly evolved into influencers making money from brand deals to now TikTok itself being able to make money through the simple clicks of a few buttons.
The act of consumerism displayed in TikTok’s decision to incorporate the TikTok Shop shows the dangerous after effects that occur when consumerism meets capitalism appealing to an overwhelmingly young audience.
Capitalism and consumerism depend and thrive off of the contributions made by teens or younger impressionable children, therefore targeting the one place they know will work — social media, while completely disregarding the wellbeing of the younger and current generation at the expense of the company’s personal and economic self benefit.
