Over the last decade, popular influencers have been promoting products that is resulting in overconsumption for many of their followers.
by Caroline Swillen, Camden Carter and Henry McInerny
Darcy McQueeny has a lot of STUFF.
And she'd like you to buy all of it.
Because she's a popular influencer who's being given all this stuff to promote daily to her more than one million followers.
And if we buy this stuff, she gets paid. And then gets more stuff to convince us we need.
It's all part of a vicious overconsumption cycle that's been around since the beginning of time.
But thanks to popular social media sites like TikTok and Instagram that target young consumers, Gen Z can't seem to stop buying all this stuff.
Teagan Litten notes how easy it is for her followers to get drawn into this overconsumption.
“100%, I think that everybody sees stuff online and as we have TikTok now, anything you see, you could just buy it with a tap. It's super convenient and easy," said Litten. "So it's easier just to buy things, use it for a week, then throw it away and then move on to the next thing. And I think that's a huge issue that's only getting worse and worse at the moment.”