As Long as Social Media Is Around, Can We Really Break Free of Overconsumption?

Social media influences our real-life consumption. From fashion trends to Stanley cups, our so-called “sustainable” buying choices have become a cause of concern in a world where overconsumption seems to be rising exponentially.

A study published by the Journal of Modern Science last year showed that 80 percent of consumers’ buying decisions stemmed from online influences and social media impulse buys that can cost the average consumer up to a massive $754 a year. In a hyper-capitalist world that’s already obsessed with materialism, this influence that social media has on many users—even sustainability advocates—has many people wondering whether it’s at all possible to use social media and not fall into the trap of overconsumption.

Nina Gbor, founder of Eco Styles and the director of the Circular Economy & Waste Program at The Australian Institute, points out that social media trends promote overconsumption because algorithms are trained to pull more of the content than what you are looking at, until it becomes everything your social media is based on.

“We’re very visual creatures, seeing things makes you want things, seeing a lifestyle makes you want a lifestyle,” Gbor told NPQ in an interview.

The Psychology of Social Media and the Dilution of Sustainability

Increasing consumption comes amidst contrasting views from young, digitally savvy consumers who claim to care about sustainability. A study showed that 52 percent of Shein shoppers, for example, view caring for the environment and sustainability to be an important part of their identity and values—a tension with that fact that Shein is one of the biggest contributors to fast fashion.

While average consumers likely do care about the environment, it may not be reflected in where they choose to spend their money. In 2023, Shein generated an estimated  $32.2 billion in annual revenue, which jumped to $50 billion the following year. The annual revenues of similar brands in 2024, such as Inditex, Zara’s parent company, and H&M, landed at $42 billion and  $22 billion annual revenue, respectively.

This is a key example of how online buzzwords and discourse around sustainability aren’t making much of a difference in influencing actions, especially when users can easily increase their consumption. In the 2024 Corporate Responsibility Monitor, there is still a significant gap in the ambitious sustainability and climate goals set by these fashion companies and their measures to support them.

But what is sustainability, and what does it mean to the average consumer?

“Sustainability is one of those words that most people use liberally and a bit sloppily, to mean whatever they hope it will mean for them and their work,” Phoebe Barnard, a professor of Conservation Biology and Environmental and Societal Futures at the University of Washington, told NPQ. In 1987, the United Nations Brundtland Commission defined sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Experts like Gerry McGovern, an author who writes about the negative impacts of technology, believe that the very nature of social media is designed to promote overconsumption. “Their DNA is to create addicts and drive consumption. Ninety-five percent of social media is addiction,” McGovern told NPQ.

The nature of such platforms is also what leads to surface-level conversations that focus on buzzwords and fail to retain people’s attention. With how fast information is consumed and shared on social media, nuance and details often get lost in the process, the focus being on quick results.

Gbor points out that within this instant consumption economy, the details of how those things are being made and their impact get lost. Amazon, she notes, is one example of how you can get products available and delivered to you so instantly that consumers rarely get a chance to think about the product’s supply chain, such as where it’s coming from and who it’s impacting.

“There’s a lot of greenwashing, a lot of people using sustainability buzzwords like eco-friendly, environmental, green, and they don’t know what they mean. [They are] using them as brands to sell products or…to make it seem like they care about sustainability,” Gbor added, highlighting that when brands like Shein or H&M use these words, it can be very misleading for consumers who are not experts on industry practices.

Vulnerable Groups at Risk

We can understand vulnerable groups at risk in two ways. The first is understanding the invisible labor force behind these products and the human rights impact of overproduction. The second is understanding who are more at risk from the advertising campaigns that fuel this overconsumption.

While average consumers likely do care about the environment, it may not be reflected in where they choose to spend their money.

Conversations around sustainability fail to understand and account for the larger human impact fueled by overconsumption through social media. “We have to start understanding that human beings are paying the price,” said Gbor, adding that in many Global North countries, there is a lack of concern for human rights or social justice issues within the environmental movement. She explained that while many of these movements do care about the environment and sustainability, they tend to be silent on issues like garment workers’ rights, supply chains, and modern slavery.

McGovern further explained that lower-income groups are more likely to be consuming such content. For example, a parent from a low-income household may find it harder to afford daycare, making it more likely to allow their child to have longer screen time at an earlier age. This makes the child more susceptible to social media and its addictions. “On the flipside, in a higher-income household, the better support you have, the more educated you are…they find it difficult to target you,” explained McGovern.

Is Changing Social Media Possible?

With a system that has overconsumption in its DNA, changing the way we consume and use social media can be very difficult.

That is why it’s not enough to just be using the right terms or language when trying to raise awareness. Even being an influencer who focuses on sustainable lifestyles can sometimes be misleading. That is because, although most people who do talk about sustainability online preach slower lifestyles, sometimes even consuming “sustainable” products can fall into the trap of overconsumption.

“Sustainable influencing can be unsustainable as well if you’re still pushing for a lot of products,” Dana Zhaxylykova, a microplastics researcher at Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan and sustainability influencer with over 87 thousand followers on Instagram, told NPQ. She manages to stay away from promoting products in her work by staying on topic about her research and raising awareness on the removal of microplastics in water for human consumption.

That is because, although most people who do talk about sustainability online preach slower lifestyles, sometimes even consuming “sustainable” products can fall into the trap of overconsumption.

Barnard refers to the newer social media platform, Bluesky, as an alternative to consumer-focused algorithms like Instagram and Twitter. “I was skeptical of Twitter for years, then built up a community of about 5-6 thousand people over 3 years on the subjects of biodiversity, climate, sustainable futures and community before it became too toxic,” she said.  She was able to achieve the same on BlueSky in 6 months and “have positive, unifying, stimulating conversations there every day.”

“It’s been a big education about the disinformation power of algorithms and the people who control them,” said Barnard.

Growing online communities that encourage trading, borrowing,  clothing swaps, and thrift stores are potentially people-led solutions to overconsumption. Gbor also wants to make more sustainable consumer choices more fun. “I think you can educate people, and education doesn’t have to be formal or boring. You can show people fun ways of consuming that do less damage to people and the environment,” she said. She added that she runs re-styling workshops to show people that secondhand clothes can still be glamorous.

While social media has been geared to create overconsumption, at the end of the day, it is a tool to share information. We can choose whether to accept that kind of online reality or not. For those who choose not to, alternative communities do exist, and it is possible to break free of these patterns.