And when the rich get bored with cosplaying poverty and it becomes "unfashionable" again, it being an "outdated trend" becomes just another insult added to the repertoire to use against the poor.
@@clareb111 rich people have absolutely called me trashy for mixing water into an almost empty shampoo bottle to get a few more uses out of the product stuck at the bottom
@@user-rz9rq7pp2b omfg i always do that even though i have the money to not do it 😭 it just feels too wasteful, like i know theres at least SEVERAL showers worth of product in there
Oh the decluttering on beautytube is nuts. There are no major consumerist TH-camrs because they all get massive amounts of PR, but they tend to downplay how outrageous their consumption is. It is part of their job, but I’m not sure we need hundreds of reviewers who all cover the same products.
@@Chotibunder77nope, decluttering is meant to show responsibility & good organization even tho they don’t stop buying, they just throw out as much as possible. A lot of people go crazy for these vids, they don’t realize that the influencer is saying “don’t over consume” but the visuals used are known to trigger covetous desire - if humans see a pile of anything good, we tend to want something from it. Where I live, people steal flavorless beets (they turn into the same sugar as cane) that have no value outside processed sugar, because they pile them up all over to go to the factory, and sometimes we can’t help ourselves. Even tho there is absolutely nothing you can do with a sugar beet, other than get a stomachache. They are gmo, no beet flavor at all. But it shows how strong the visual abundance trigger is.
@@cassinipaninioh they go way further than that. I used to work next door to a food bank and my coworkers would sit there and stare out the windows ok food box days and list off how many "lazy scammers" were in line and the reasons these people didn't need help was anything from "their car looks too new" (which was hilarious because half the cars they insisted were new, were 10 years old they were just clean and in good condition) to "they look like they work in an office" meaning they have clean clothes on and their hair and makeup are done. So basically if you're not a cartoon caricature of a hobo from from 50s, then you don't deserve help
@@ivoryhenson1285 I have nice clothes and a 2019 car. Collected food from a food bank because my apartment was damaged by a fire and lost all my food and was between hotels trying to find a new place to live. It would really suck if those coworkers go through a difficult time and not have access to community resources because they appear undeserving.
Absolutely wild, especially because growing up in an "underconsumption core" (read: low income, scrimping and saving, frugal) household, food was the main essential. Clothes and toys were hand me downs, holidays were staying with family, technology was outdated and got repaired when it broke, but my parents always made sure we had enough food and the right nutrition. We were lucky to grow up in the time (just) before both parents would have had to work full-time to keep afloat, so cooking from scratch cheaply was possible. Our fridge would have looked similar to what they're complaining about, but they don't see that all the products might be off brand or reduced price, every shop consisted of counting pennies (literally, mum took a calculator out to make sure she could afford the shop) and all the special offers/coupons that you could find in magazines! Back when it actually made it a cheaper option, rather than now when it's something branded being reduced to 'only' twice the price of the generic version 😂
My old roommate got mad at me for 'using too much plastic' and hoarding snacks in my room. I'm diabetic and need medical supplies that unfortunately, are often made from plastic and are for one-time use, and the food is very much needed in case of blood sugar emergencies. Some people can be incredibly judgmental and don't bother to educate themselves on individual circumstances and expect everyone to live the way they think is best
Oh my god I knew zero waste zealots who would have broken into a burn ward and lectured everyone on using plastic and single-use items. I got it for needing epinephrine which I was told you can "anarcho-hack" a used diabetic insulin pen and dose your own epinephrine which is... no.
Ya .. I have life threatening food allergies and blood sugar issues so when I am not cooking everything from home grown and scratch to keep from bring sick it's single serve snacks. I get comments and you would think my medical issues are the sole contribution to climate change.
Diabetic too-and yeah like as much as I hate how wasteful my medical supplies seem (my Dexcom CGM sensors always include the same huge introduction booklet in oversize boxes whenever I get a new one for example) , it's not like I can do much about it. It's the company who's making the choice to keep including the unneeded extras they could easily have as a PDF online or shipping supplies in unnecessarily oversized packaging. And for my other medical devices there aren't really any alternatives to them besides using plastic.
It's a great thing but has ended up backfiring in some ways because of course it has 😤 I'm in the UK so we're not bound by it but are affected by it, and when a small part of our oven stopped working (literally a loose connection behind the display screen) it was cheaper to get a whole new oven because manufacturers have increased the cost of replacement parts so much, and labour too if that's a factor! They need to clamp down on that "loophole", it's an absolute joke. There are community repair cafes popping up more commonly which I hope is a step towards regaining that mindset of fixing before replacing, and relearning the skills to do so
Yep, I had to replace a phone I had for almost 3 and a half years not because it was slowing down but rather because it just stopped responding and my phone provider literally said the only option was to get a new one, I decided to switch providers and have always used my phones until they become expensive paperweights
@@pavlovs-wugI'm going to buy a new dryer because it's $600 cheaper than the parts and labor for my broken dryer. I live in a rural area and Lowe's will give me free delivery and only charge $15 to haul my old one away, but 3 repair companies quoted me $250 travel expense, even though I could drive to them in 45 minutes.
@@pavlovs-wug we need to clamp down on artificially inflating white goods parts. The point was we were supposed to be able to affordably repair our own things.
13:26 I would like to invoke this meme: "People on Twitter: Having decorative pillows makes you part of the bourgeoise People in Real life: Hey man how's it going"
@@marocat4749 no matter where it comes from, having home decor, a home that represents you, isn't bourgeois. Even if it's not second hand decor. I think it becomes bourgeois when it's excessive, and is about showing wealth or status, rather than self expression, comfort and functionality.
My mom favorite phrase when anything breaks is "concept of throw away society" which sometimes yes, it's planned obsolescence, but sometimes the coffee maker is just 20 years old and a fire hazard and needs replaced😂
Planned obsolescence was actually created by advertising companies in the 1930s to encourage people to start buying more. It stated off small and has obviously grown over the decades.
As on older person, we used to call it planned obsolescence. Making products to break so you must replace them. I have had 30 year old irons that still worked - given to me by older relatives - that lasted another 15 years. We don't expect that anymore & we should.
My parents had a microwave that they got from a couple that was used back in 88 or so, when I was just barely being born. It only just now failed and I am 34; we used that thing our whole childhood, teen years, and even through my 20s. It's insane how stuff breaks nowadays in comparison to the past.
Women are encouraged by companies/advertisers to overconsume, but society encourages us to underconsume. Women are expected to own plenty of things to look stylish and attractive (jewelry, shoes, clothes, makeup, etc.) but we're judged for it because that is an exclusively feminine expectation. So the guy who can get away with owning two suits and two pairs of shoes sees a woman with twenty work tops and thinks she's frittering away her money on clothes. We're supposed to overconsume but always feel bad about it.
Honestly, I genuinely hate both trends, funny how men aren't shamed for the things they own. It has always felt more like a lets find more things to attack women with less of a lets do this to save the planet thing.
YES and not only can he get away with two suits and two pairs of shoes, he owns like four pocketknives, a table saw he used twice, and a bookshelf full of figurines. Which is all fine, but he feels comfortable calling women’s expenditures frivolous without looking at his own AND without considering the societal expectations she has to meet in order to be taken seriously at work.
I looked into the anticonsumption subreddit and every once in a while there's someone posting about an expensive quality thing, like $200 work boots, only for someone to explain to them that anti-consumption doesn't mean to not buy expensive things, but to not buy excessive amounts of unnecessary things
The sustainability sphere of reddit is actually quite a balanced space. Zerowaste is another one where people are just doing their best and there isn't much shaming happening.
Exactly!! My husband works in an industry where he HAS to wear special work boots to protect his feet. They are about $200-250 and we buy them only when his boots are starting to show wear (seams starting to come undone, metal coming through the inside to rub his sock/toe, etc). He keeps the old ones to work around the house or help friends/family move or make repairs, so they don't go to waste, but we don't mess around when it comes to his safety at work!
Also buying more expensive clothes for example can (doesn’t have to if you’re buying designer ofc) also mean better quality and well paid employees. Especially fair fashion and the like
Have they never heard of the 'Sam Vimes "boots" theory of socioeconomics?' Buying quality, if you can afford it, means you only have to buy the product once! That's anti consumerism, as opposed to buying 10 pairs of speciality work boots for the look, or buying a pair of cheap boots that wear out in a year because that's all you can afford, which will ultimately cost more than the one-time investment in boots
@@ElizaGlide DVDs, VHS, CDs etc are also extremely cheap now so if you have the space I don't see how it's worse than constantly using phone data or server space or whatever. Despite my large collections of physical media it feels much simpler than having everything streaming through my phone! I think it's due to it all being 'offline' - no interruptions, just my things that I own being used for their one purpose.
@@pavlovs-wugI also love having physical items, for artworks or nostalgia reasons. It’s just something I can appreciate, it has value to me. I guess it’s the 90s in me.
And! And!!! You can watch movies whenever you want, without some company just straight up saying "actually we're deleting that movie now"!!! You actually OWN things!!!
4 หลายเดือนก่อน +26
Yes! I started to buy CDs and DVDs not long ago for my favorite movies and shows in thrift stores and I feel so much better knowing that I own it and it’s accessible whenever I want.
You also retain ownership of a cd. People can borrow it and you dont have to pay monthly. You also dont risk the location you purchased it from removing your property because they lost a liscense. Yes that has happened. If you own digital media, download a copy.
Same. Not to mention how flip floppy the trends are. One minute it’s over consumption and the next it’s under consumption. And no matter what there are extremists on both sides ready to fight the choices you make. I left so fast
I deleted TikTok 2.5 years ago and have not regretted it in the slightest. It is just brainrot. TH-camrs like swell are the only connection I have with TikTok although I don’t know of connection is the right word for it 😂
TikTok is a disaster. It does nothing but make me paranoid and angry. The few good videos it does have are usually promo for someone's online business and are dispersed among the many ads, sponsored posts, and rage bait videos
That annoyed me so much especially since I grew up in a low income, single parent home. You bet my mom worked her ass off to make sure we had food in the fridge! The point of underconsumption isn't to have as little as possible, it's to make sure you're spending your money wisely and getting the most out of everything you do buy. It means buying food in bulk while it's on sale and freezing it for later. It means finding creative ways to reuse leftovers. It means creating recipes that use make that cheap brand of mac and cheese taste good. It's learning how to can produce. Underconsumption is learning what items you actually need, and filling your fridge with that.
@@t1dotaku exactly!! Buying in bulk is exactly what I thought of. I get so frustrated at the moment because having less money means I'm in a small place and don't have storage space to buy in bulk, so I'm constantly aware I'm spending "extra" on smaller amounts more frequently 😅 It's really irritating when people assume more stuff = more consumption, when in these cases it's the exact opposite.
some of the objections to this are also why it's a good thing. 'that's just living normally' for the majority of us, yes, but influencers have been doing these awful wasteful hauls for years on end because they get views. personally i feel that that it may actually be really beneficial for big influencers to look at this even just as a trend for views, because forgetting about relatability and whatever, these people can stop doing as much harm with their shopping habits and less advertising FOMO for regular watchers/consumers. it would be so nice to see the end of the restock content farms, fast fashion hauls and amazon storefronts!
I agree! On the one hand, I understand why people are exhausted by 'trend culture'. On the other hand, I've seen people who aren't influencers also buy hauls from fast fashion companies and then return what they don't like. That's not getting resold, that's getting dumped. So influencers *have* genuinely had an impact on the culture where normal people find it acceptable to be wasteful when it's affordable, and I appreciate the opposition this trend provides.
yeah I think the people complaining about underconsumption being a trend don't realise how powerful trends are to the younger generation. If we can do anything to make buying less seem cool why not do it? Isn't that what we want??
I just fear that people aren't really getting "underconsumption" and are going to see living as bare bones as possible as the best way to live. I see it a lot with decorating your living space, lately. But maybe it's just my maximalist self lol.
I think the issue is calling it "underconsumption" because it implies that tiktok hoarding culture is "normal consumption" when that shouldn't be the standard.
"literally cutting your tubes open" I was so scared about what "product" you could possibly wring out of your fallopian tubes for the sake of underconsumption
People are taking the trend way too seriously lol, this trend was most certainly to stem the flow of purchasing useless junk from temu Amazon and other online junk sellers for things like “kitchen items you need” so underconsumption core was “kitchen items I already had” 😂
I believe a lot of it has to do with the lack of media analysis. Like first people were saying "it's just living normally" like it's clearly not a trend for you then but for youngsters who are normalising overcomsumption because of influencers and capitalism. Now people are taking it too far and instead of people and everyone acts like core essence of the trend wasn't very important.
More expensive dog food saves you a shit ton money on vet bills. Buying better food costs more up front but buys you extra YEARS with your pet and puts off the inevitable heartbreak that comes from loving animals that don't live longer than we do.
This is so true. When I adopted one of my dogs the first thing I did after taking her to the vet was to change her food and her health went up very quick. A month later her mood was up, she had way more energy, her fur was shinny, the poop was normal. Just because I changed her food. It's expensive, yes, but their health and the extra years with them we can get out from it is worth that and much more.
@@akamba2133 Same! My dog was diagnosed with Cushing's disease (symptoms = drinking WAY too much water and peeing constantly (in the house!) between normal breaks/walks, developing a distended pot-belly, high cortisol and stress)...The vet told me to switch to raw food and her symptoms almost instantly disappeared. She's now on a low dosage of meds to manage the remaining internal stuff (liver levels etc), but I'll keep paying hundreds every month for this raw stuff because the change was undeniable. (I feed her smallbatch freeze dried)
True everyone thinks I'm spoiling my dogs cause I buy expensive dog food. The truth is my dog just have their scheduled shot & that is it they are very healthy & I saw a huge change when I upgraded their food. Especially if you have purebred ( they are more susceptible to poor health) you need quality food.
As someone who buys the more expensive dog and cat food - it has in fact saved me a tonne of vet visits. It also corrected my (adopted) cat's sensitive stomach issue. Literally, as soon as I transitioned her to the good stuff he poop stop stinking and was solid plus she has a less sensitive stomach. Also, less is more too with the both of them due to the quality they don't need as much. I'm Aussie, I feed them Frontier Pets.
anecdotal, but my last dog got terrible diarrhea from expensive dog food brands, I found that a cheap Purina dog food cured this. My pit/rot lived to be 16 years old , outliving all of her siblings by 7 to 8 years. so your assertion isnt necessarily true here
thanks for pointing out the disabled stuff. the only way i can manage to get fresh food is via meal delivery, i cant cook or meal prep and if i get anything fresh to put in the fridge, it will likely expire before i manage to even eat half. the "people who get food delivery are a curse on society" crowd are so horrible
Having to remind people that all of those "useless" kitchen gadgets were originally designed for disabled people but marketed to the masses so they would be more accessible is getting tiring. Yes, YOU could just use a knife to cut a bagel, but this product isn't meant for YOU it's meant for people that don't have the same mobility as you. It's become a fun little game for myself to figure out who might actually need those items and why or if it really is just a cash grab (calling out those avocado knives that can't even break through the skin to begin with).
This is a very important point! It’s also important to recognize that people shopping at the grocery store aren’t immune to being “horrible” (under their definition). How did that produce get to the store? Just because you picked it up off the shelf yourself doesn’t mean you’re “any better.” And lots of it is packaged in plastic that able bodied people do not need for the food to fulfill its function 🙄
@@t1dotaku a great way to test that is by putting oil on your hands and then trying to use the product! the ultimate test is one oily hand using the product and if it passes that one you know it was 100% made for the disabled originally. Two oily hands passing the test is also a product likely made for the disabled but it is slightly less accessible. It is a test used by a retired product developer who posts on youtube but I can't remember his channel name. it takes into account people with low dexterity, low hand strength, coordination issues, etc... so it is a great test. If you pass the one hand + oil test then the product is extremely accessible since even people with a missing limb AND hand issues can use it. There is sadly no easy test for people without arms and hands that can be done by people with both limbs
@@t1dotakuI hate how people think something is useless because it’s not made for them. So many people think certain stuff is for stupid or lazy people but it’s just made for someone disabled
This ties in with what is called the Sam Vimes "Boots" theory of socio-economic unfairness: "The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles. But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet." from: Men at Arms (Terry Pratchett - Truth teller, saint, writing god)
I know that story, I was raised that way too... now even expensive products are absolute junk. I am more than happy to pay good money for a good product, I hate spending a lot of money on junk because I need a product/service
Gods, the extreme drop in clothing quality is killing me. I mostly buy second hand or make my own stuff anyway, but some things (like socks and underwear) I just don't want to buy used. I'm use to underwear lasting me 2-4 years, but it seems like I'm throwing away underwear I bought recently while my older pieces hang on. I don't really like sewing form-fitted or elastic pieces because I'm really bad at it, but I think I'm going to have to learn. I bought a few pairs of underwear late last year and the elastic around the waist is already unraveling. One of them is coming apart at the seam and the material is too delicate to mend it without just replacing the whole panel. It's just so annoying. I buy clothes because I want to wear them regularly, not because I thought they'd look pretty untouched in my wardrobe.
I thought I was the only one with the undergarments and clothes quality. A NEW pack I bought looked so flimsy and ridiculously see-through. I was going to return them, but all the other pairs were the same. I desperately needed new ones, but I hate them so much. Same thing with my office clothes. I have a shirt from 10 years ago that still feels new, while the one I bought 2 years ago feels so cheap. I'm lucky a pair I got 6 months ago still feels fine, but the stitching is coming loose...
I completely understand this, I never really understood the whole thing of "new pieces just falling apart" (I don't really buy clothes often and usually it's secondhand) until I bought new underwear recently. Immediately after putting them on the elastic tore from the fabric. On MULTIPLE pairs.
I have underwear from a certain store that are over 5 years old and still looking great. Newer underwear from this same store last maybe 2 months before the seams start coming out and holes form. Quality in undergarments has for sure gone downhill.
Thank you for saying this actually because I've been noticing a severe drop in the lifespan of underwear I've been buying in recent years (whereas the pairs I was replacing had held up many years longer), and had actually been wondering if I was just imagining it somehow.
My brain broke a little at the part where people are yelling at a guy for being a passionate collector of VHS tapes. When did preserving media that is no longer being produced and has little monetary value to the average person become bad? So much media is lost because no one thought to save it for future generations or active acts of censorship destroyed it. I've started collecting vinyl recently because it sounds better than spotify. I like background noise when I sew (yes Amanda, I one of those subscribers). Most people in the hobby are also nice, fun people to be around.
Fr, idk what people are doing that destroys their fast fashion items so quickly. I throw that shit into one load and put it all in the hot dryer and it's fine years later with near weekly use
@@TH0KH Ok lol my fast fashion jeans rip after 2-3 years. And I don't mean anything repearable. The Thigh or Crotch are so worm out that the whole jeans split and the fabric is so thin at that point that I can't repair it
My grandfather exclusively wears clothes from the mid-1970s- I’m not sure the last time this man went shopping. Clothes lasting a good 5-10 years is good and “normal” now, but when compared to how clothes used to be made, its a downgrade. I know for a fact that my wardrobe will not survive another 50 years for me to continue wearing it into my 70s- because if it did, I wouldn’t have a need to buy more clothes. Ergo these companies get more money.
I always thought H&M clothes lasted fairly long. I have cardigans, dresses, 2 pairs of pants, and one skirt, all from H&M, that I bought from 2011-2013 (so 11-15 years old). One of the dresses is my go to funeral/interview dress
I’ve noticed that in the past two years, jeans have been SHREDDING on me. Even on my husband too. It used to be I bought a pair of jeans and it lasted 3-5 years. Now I can’t even get them to last more than 3 months before they split in the thigh or the crotch! We even got my husband $100 jeans to see if expensive ones would work better and they split too! And he has a desk job! It’s gotten absolutely ridiculous.
My husband goes through jeans like wildfire. He has big thighs, so his jeans rub together a lot, but it only takes a couple months for them to wear out. Jeans are supposed to be some of the most durable clothing out there!
Where the heck are you buying jeans like that? My jeans still look as good as the day I bought them a year or two ago by now. And they were no more than 60 bucks tops.
I was okay with that first clip until the shoes part. Shoes need to be replaced long before they totally fall apart, the loss in support is hard to notice until you get a new pair, and it can really mess up your joints. Being thrifty is great, but there are definitely things you shouldn't skimp on.
You can get some shoes repaired. It's not worth it for most shoes because manufactured products are just so cheap nowadays that it's almost always cheaper to buy new than pay high labor costs to fix them. But you could get them regularly repaired because it's the bottoms that get worn out. The part of the shoe that isn't between you in the ground can be attached to a new bottom every six months like they did in the Victorian era, assuming you're using durable leather like they used to.
I've been a big advocate for Right to Repair for a long time now. I hate how tech companies have forced overconsumption by making their electronics more difficult and in some cases impossible to repair. It's so wasteful.
i broke my phone screen last year and brought it in for repair. done it multiple times before years prior and they always just replaced the screen and that was that. this time around they took it to the back and returned with a BRAND NEW MODEL. just transferred the data from the broken one, chucked it in the garbage, and gave me an entirely new device. the old one worked PERFECTLY! i just didn't want glass on my fingers! never would've taken it in if i knew they would do that. i knew that apple got rid of the ability to repair at home years ago, but my other two experiences they only replaced the screen. just... an entirely new in-box phone. to "fix" a little screen crack on a perfectly good one. i was livid. it being a completely different phone also logged me out of all my apps which was annoying. and probably the only part of my complaint that the company would consider a problem.
I used to live above a computer repair store. One day my printer died and I asked the owner if he fixed them too and he said he'd have a look and if he could fix it he'd do it parts only for me because we were neighbours. Brilliant. The manufacturer wanted £50 for the broken part. The same printer cost £50 new and came with £20 worth of ink cartridges.
It reminds me of when ppl blew up at Marie Kondo for saying "hey, you should be more concious about things you surround yourself with and make sure things around bring you nice feelings" and people heard "you should throw all of your shit away". Overconsumption for me is FOMO everywhere. For someone with anxiety I'm always scared that things I like will disappear, that gets compounded with everything getting worse in quality so if I don't buy it now in a couple years it will get worse, and that also gets compounded with war economy, since ruzzia invaded the economy obviously hasn't been doing great and stuff that cost $10 might cost $20 tomorrow. Literally bought some embroidery floss in March it cost $16, wanted to get some additional colours- same amount cost $21 in July, it's crazy. Food costs up to 5 times what it did in January 2022 and wages have obviously barely gone up. Only remaining grace besides obviously us being alive is that our house/car have not yet been damaged by the missiles, but since ruzzia has destroyed so much of our energy infrastructure we need to upkep the generator, and obviously when the whole country is under outages the prices for generators and fuel skyrocket.
@@contentsdiffer5958 I mean, I don't think it was ever that radical to begin with?? Sure, it's a hassle, but any deep cleaning/global reorganization is. And you don't have to do it that often, like once every decade or so is fine as long as you stay mindful of things you bring into your home 🤷♀️ I don't say it as someone who keeps at it, I'm living in my family home with 2 other family members, all 3 of us stressed, depressed and horribly ADHD. We would LOVE to get rid of like half of the stuff we own and don't use and reorganize the other half, but that does require the energy+time capacity we just don't have 😬
Really grateful that you point out the difference between underconsumption for able bodied people vs disabled people. I know that I’ve felt/been guilted over ordering food and stuff but for me, as a disabled person, I sometimes physically can’t avoid paying for a taxi over the bus or ordering food because I’m too weak to cook. So for me it’s like taking as few taxis per month as possible, limiting ordering in and intentionally ordering foods that I know will last and reheat well in the air fryer or oven or microwave etc. it’s just nice to be seen
Due to a few life events I went through a period of depression. It was hard to get out of bed and even cook for myself. I ordered takeout a few times and was able to get several meals out of it each time. Gotta do what you need to do sometimes.
No they wouldn't because they still think using the same pair of shoes for 2 years is "low consumerism" 😅 God you people have such a skewed view of what low consumption is.
@@ghostoflazlotwo years on a pair of shoes seems very reasonable. Depends on the shoe. Running/ walking shoes last about 400-500 miles before the foam compresses and stops offering support for your feet.
@@brette7118 it's a different story when it depends on your finances, not the shoe. I've had shoes for over a decade with holes in the bottom, and when I needed more support insoles were cheaper than a new pair of shoes so that was the option I had. What you described I'd still call regular consumption/consumerism
my grandma lived through the great depression and ended up hoarding yoghurt and sour cream containers and stuff. however, she also bought like, bleach and canned goods in bulk on sale, and after she died we had to throw away a bunch of spoiled and broken crap. literally all of my mom’s siblings (and her) are still mild hoarders/bulk buyers, and i even have to check myself to make sure i’m not buying/holding on to stuff for stuff’s sake (siblings and cousins are also the same way). the great depression had repercussions, man…
My Grandad taught us to buy the best quality to what we could afford at the time and how to garden. My Gran taught me to knit. My Mum taught me to sew. I now have the furniture that was in my Mum's childhood bedroom from the 60s in my daughter's bedroom after my grandparents passed. I can sew and mend clothes. We have our own herb garden and grow some of our own fruit and veg. I can unravel an old jumpers and make new hats and scarves out of the yarn. I also am an amazon prime customer and use it as I see fit. I breakdown the cardboard amazon packaging and tear it up to mix with the grass cuttings from my lawn and fruit and veg scraps to make a supberd compost that feeds my garden next year. You don't have to be 100% anything. Just do your best.
I've been saving every box I get to add onto my ferrets box maze. Pet toys cost so much that I figured if I saved enough boxes to glue together I could make something he enjoys. Lo and behold he loves it. His favorite place to sleep isn't his nice little hammock I bought him. Nope! It's the old shoe box with a flappy lid.
I'm so grateful to have been brought up in a similar way, even when I can't hold myself to it often nowadays. Just having the mindset of thinking of simple ways to make things last, save money, do things yourself etc, makes such a difference even in the tiniest things. I think it's a really hard thing to pick up later on. It feels intuitive for me but my partner struggles with it as his family didn't have to scrimp in the same way. Like, it's a no brainer for me to always keep some cardboard boxes and packing materials back from deliveries to re-use, but he thinks it's a waste of space and would rather just buy the stuff when needed. So we've compromised and anything that doesn't fit in a designated 'packing supplies' box is excess and thrown 😂
Please tell me you have an upholstery cleaner because even if the old furniture holds up it will be dirty. i am not a clean freak either but just would want to make sure something that old is cleared if it has fabric on it. wood is easy to clean though and not an issue for obvious reasons.
As someone who always uses the same cheap clothes, I always thought it was ok to not spend much money on clothes. I've always hated Temu or Shein, but I did buy usual retail clothes on sale and used them until I couldn't anymore. But guess what? At the beginning of the year (summer here in the south hemisphere) I had TWO jeans I had for years rip apart right at my ass ON THE STREET. Like two weeks apart. Now I appreciate good quality clothes a bit more. And I pay more attention to when my clothes feel more thin. It hurts to spend more money on clothes, but once in a while for things that feel better quality is worth it. I'm still learning what good quality even is, but at least I want to do it. Before I only wanted to do it for things I cared about.
@@j.munday7913 The saddest part: I'm not even caked up 😭 I'm not extremely flat either, but at least if I had more I would have a reason beyond my stupid (flat) ass not realizing the jeans were uncommonly thin twice lmao
I learned this lesson the hard way too. I bought some really cheap shoes and I wore them twice and they started disintegrating in the streets (thankfully on my way back home). A kid even asked his mom why I was carrying my shoes instead of wearing them 😂
Something that I did this year that helped is I got a prepaid debit card and give myself $75 a month for an allowance. I don't include groceries or house necessities in it, it's just if I want clothes or to paint my cabinets or eat fast food. It's really helped keep me in check. Just remember to delete any other cards from online shopping sites lol
Also my main issue with “underconsumption” is that it does romanticize things that lower class people have done for ages. I remember being bullied in elementary school for not having new clothes, for having leftovers for lunch, for having the same backpack every year, etc. I didn’t have the money some of my classmates had and now it’s those same people who are glamorizing the things that people like me got bullied for
And why is that a bad thing? On the off chance this doesn't completely blow over in a week, it might mean future child yous are seen as savvy rather than deprived.
@@merrymachiavelli2041 it’s only the rich people who made it “trendy” who are seen as savvy, the rest of us don’t get any credit or anything over things that we’ve been forced to do for ages. It’s like how rich kids are praised for knowing multiple languages while immigrant kids are made fun of for that. We’re still treated as less than for doing things out of necessity and not because it’s the new trend
Not to mention the whole extra level of the STRESS that is a part of it when poor. It's all well and good to have the choice to do it as a "core" "aesthetic" thing when you *already have the nice things*, and completely another thing when it's because you'll have to skip meals if you want a new pair of shoes of good enough quality to last longer (insert the Terry Pratchett boots quote), or are fixing old hand-me-downs instead of clothes you bought new more recently. I think that's more of why it's an issue - they can still live comfortably while "under" consuming- which is just regular consuming and living off what remains of their previous overconsumption - without knowing what it really is to have to underconsume to get by when you don't have anything in the first place
it is pretty upsetting how much tik tok has increased the speed of reactionary trends,, i cannot fathom how many drop shipped single use micro trend impulse purchases have been discarded in attempt to jump on this "trend" and they will be replaced as soon as the "but i miss maximalism )):" trend picks up
Yep. I remember back when a bunch of highly privileged women I knew all jumped on the minimalist bandwagon and started tossing everything in their houses that didn't "spark joy." It turned into a competition of who could get rid of the most possessions and live with the least. They were showing off photos of their newly purged homes and gloating over their clear surfaces and bare walls. Pointing out the fact that they now had empty cabinets and drawers and how empowering it was to see nothing where there once were things. Gushing over about how much more meaningful and serene life was with only one cup, one plate, and one bowl per person in their household. And bragging about how freeing it was that their carefully curated capsule wardrobes could fit into one suitcase. And then after a while, the feel-goodies wore off, and the bandwagon came to a halt. So, they all went on massive shopping sprees at TJ Maxx and Home Goods to replace everything they had gotten rid of.
Yeah, people are not jumping over "underconsumption core" because they a suddenly aware of consumerism and waste. They are doing it because it's a tiktok trend. There is no conversation being had, just "aesthetics".
this took me a minute because i was thinking "am i THAT annoying for saying offhand that X is stupid and i refuse to call twitter that?" before i realized that you were referring to people that get legitimately upset if you don't call it X. i mean it would be equally annoying if i got mad at someone for not calling it twitter, but i don't see a world where i would care to do that
I have a skirt I found at goodwill that I've been wearing since jr high, and recently looked up the brand to see if I could find where they sell it for when it breaks (I've re-hemed it and re-liend the pockets since getting it) and I found out it was made in the 80s and isn't made anymore. A second hand skirt from the 80s has lasted me almost 10 years and is still going strong.
The closest thing for me was getting off of booktok and forcing myself to stop buying books. I'm a mood reader, I know there's no way I can keep up with how many books are coming out, and yet part of me still wanted to keep up even though I knew I couldn't. So I forced myself to go on a no buy and be like "You've gotten more than enough books for the moment. Read these. Finish off the ones you've started. You don't need to keep on top of every release."
Yess!!! I am the same! There were times where I was about to buy a book but then found a way to get it for free (like library, kindle unlimited, or borrowing) and then realize that I hated the story. Not buying books right away or even taking a break has helped me so much to not i waste money.
Send them to me. 😭😭😭😭 Please. I'm so scared of waisting money on books I will hate. If I do not read a quarter of the book in one sitting I'm never finishing it.
A large portion of the shirts I own are beginning to become so thin they're developing holes. I have had some of them for 6+ years. Now I'm purchasing new shirts from high quality companies that i know I like, that I know last a long time, and usually on sale.
Do you have any recommendations for where to buy high quality shirts? I occasionally find a good quality button up, but I haven't been able to find a decent quality tee shirt in ages.
@@emeryeladrenThis is a little farther from regular shirts but I like thrifting sweaters specifically because if they are preowned, but clearly used, and haven’t pilled or worn out too poorly then they will likely continue to hold up! You really can’t tell for sure how brand new sweaters will wash and wear. :)
don’t forget you can can cut up your unusuable shirts and use them as cleaning rags around the house! or even as stuffing for pillows or stuffed animals if you’re the type to make/modify those yourself
And that’s a great point. People say “wear your clothes out,” but honestly that doesn’t fly in most work or social settings. We absolutely can buy good quality, but once you get a few holes, most items have to be discarded in some way. If you get light basement flooding where you live, I highly recommend a couple bags of junk clothes for when you need lots of fabric!
my grandma was born in the great depression. we just called this "being broke". its honestly so strange to me how tiktok and such will make anything a trend or a -core
is it a bad thing though? like, yes, not having a lot of money makes you have to repair your only pair of jeans or whatever, but why is it a bad thing to do it even if you could afford another pair of jeans? even if you have the money to be able to consume a bunch of stuff it doesn't mean you should, that's what's fucking up the planet so much
This feels like it's probably the main reason why. You get so sick of seeing "Trend this! Trend that!" every few days that even when it's a positive thing like underconsumption or deinfluencing. Hopefully they can come to realize that it's overall a benefit that we all save both our wallets and our planet.
There are some things I like about TikTok, but the way that everything is labeled and repackaged into a trend is not one of them 😂 I find it silly sometimes so labeling normal life as underconsumption is funny/weird to me. I’m not stopping anyway from doing it though
It seems like it is also tied to the exhausting cycle that pressures people to have a "hot take" stance. It seems to result in more knee-jerk reactions that go intense and aggressive before people have a chance to sit down and break things apart, think about a new concept, etc. In some people, I think it creates a weird pressure to find the "Well, *actually...*" crack in the newest trending subjects, dive in, and entrench before they even give themselves a fair chance to think about it. To be fair? Like referenced just in this video - sometimes if you DON'T have a hot, emotionally entrenched take on something trending ASAP you can get dragged for it. And when you've been part of the dragging crowd I can't help but feel you're always glancing over your shoulder a little, even subconciously. At least for me, I like how the solution to all that is as easy as the app being deleted and forgotten about, but it isn't that easy for everyone.
i personally find it So annoying every time tiktok repackages stuff that's been done for years under a new label. with this trend for example i'm just. annoyed. like YES that's just living normally/low income why does everything have to be something-core. why do we need everything to be glamorized for chronically online people to empathize? 😭 edit bc i don't even consume tiktok, everytime i sporadically see videos about abt their trends it sounds kinda ridiculous lmao
18:26 I’m so glad you’re talking about how some Disabled people will “under consume” in a very different way. In a lot of environmental activism, Disabled folk get looked down upon when we need to buy pre cut fruit & veg, for example
Unrelated to the topic, but have you heard that there is apparently going to be a Tumblr Dashcon Two? If this actually happens please go. Please. I beg.
@@Shoulderpads-mcgee no, you should only use your towel for half the week especially if its not drying 100%. You don't want to know what is on your towel after not long.
This trend hits different as someone who grew up poor and in a hoarder house. I was never allowed to throw anything away ever. Once I moved out I underconsumed because I didn't have a choice, I had no money. And even now that I'm financially secure I won't buy anything unless it's replacing something that is now unusable. My first encounter with underconsumption content was someone criticizing the cheap plates and plastic cutlery from target. I use my 40 cents plate and plastic cutlery every day. I have sensory issues and can't handle metal scraping together. And I'm not going to thrift a set of plates and cups from goodwill. It grosses me out. You can still under consume if you use things wisely and not buy just for the sake of buying
@@Tazzie1312 if you have a fridge full of rotten food with any sort of regularity, that’s generally not a “life happens” thing. That’s usually a “I buy way too many perishables compared to what I need” thing, or a “I cook way more than I need but refused to eat leftovers” thing or an “I’m lazy and can’t be bothered to throw out any of this moldy crap until I run out of room” thing. All of which are reasons I will judge for, including judging people I love. When it’s a “life happens” thing, people don’t let it sit there. They clean it immediately so their fridge can be usable again (like if the power went out), or they chuck stuff as they notice it’s bad (such as when life happening is just a busy stressful couple weeks).
@@m1k3y48I used to think YT had the worst comments section but now I know it’s absolutely TikTok. Just unprecedented levels of brain rot happening on that app.
The under consumption trend will absolutely lead to some ableism just like the zero waste trend did. Someone will be shamed publicly for needing a lot of bits and pieces to function and needing meds and other medical stuff that comes in a lot of packaging. As if we truly have a choice in this and some things just have to be packaged a certain way to be sterile and safe. Low waste is the much better option for most and a lot more attainable so people will actually try it out instead of being immediately scared off.
Trust me, we feel bad that we have to use single use products to live and live safely. I’ve been shamed for having individually wrapped snacks as a diabetic. Or my pump supplies. I’ve had to change my pump and gotten dirty looks for how much plastic I have to throw away. I’m sorry, single use plastic is required for sterile purposes! So yeah, it has an impact on us disabled people daily. We just get ignored when we speak up because a lot of people see us as less than.
Collecting DVDs isn't "wealth hoarding." If you have a problem with people collecting DVDs, then you'll be in for one heck of an experience when you learn what a library is.
It's so weird to hear about it from a perspective of a person who struggles with buying anything that isn't essential. Serotonin boost after buying sounds like fun. I always feel guilt. I don't think that should be a new normal, because I feel like this is what we try to do here. Guilt people into beeing sustainable. Yes, you should think about beeing sustainable but if something makes you happy you don't have to completly give it up for some good person points. Guilt from just living your life is exhausting and will make people sick
I definitely think as a society (esp on the internet) we have a guilt and shame problem. Instead of acknowledging what u need or don't need in life, people will be more scared of being weird or not "100% morally ethical" whatever that could mean.
I’ll be honest I feel like I’m going crazy- I’ve directly bought some fast fashion items, and thrifted a lot more fast fashion items, but not a single one of them have fallen apart/disintegrated/been torn apart from multiple washes or multiple wears. I’m still wearing fast fashion pieces from 6+ years ago with no issue and no need to mend them at all. I genuinely feel like I’m going insane when I hear people talk about how quickly their fast fashion clothes fall apart. Obviously I’m not saying that they aren’t cheaply made, they 100% are! And I believe if you do have to buy fast fashion items, you should care for them and want to keep them as long as possible instead of hoarding/doing hauls/tossing them the second the micro trend is over. But I’ve literally never had the issue of the clothing items themselves failing me and I have no idea why
Same - I buy basics in very small quantities occasionally and I take care of them carefully. I can make them last forever it seems. I think it is mostly people abusing cheaply made products because "it only cost 5 dollars!" and then complaining about their items falling apart (granted sometimes they probably do just fall apart). If the same shirt cost 50 dollars, they might treat it differently.
@@ktshaffer9602 can I ask what you do to care for them? I’m not like meticulous about my clothes-sometimes they do end up in a doom pile lmao, but I’m wondering what “care of clothing” means to you personally so I can tell if I’m doing the same thing and it’s the common denominator
@@milkteabbie The biggest for me is washing with only the detergent I need (less than what the bottle recommends) and then air drying only! No dryer! I find the dryer to be really hard on clothes. I use the natural sunlight from a window in the summer or a fan/heating vent in the winter. I also put delicate items in pillow cases when I wash them to protect them from snagging on anything in the washer. Other than that I treat them as though they were nice (avoiding getting grease or dirt on them) and fold/hang them when not in use. Nothing crazy, but the dryer makes the biggest difference I think. I really hate spending money so I'd rather do a little extra to keep the clothes I have in good condition.
agreed! I shop at Old Navy because the deals and clearance are worth it imo, not necessarily the regular priced stuff, but for sizing and fit their jeans are really good imo. I've definitely had stuff thread immediately after buying it and wearing it once (or finding a rogue thread off the rack lol) but care of clothing matters too. Fast fashion is hit or miss, I've noticed the quality in some brands and even at Old Navy has gone down, but other stuff is fairly sturdy. I want to normalize a middle ground here because this whole "you're either underconsuming aka living a normal lifestyle or overconsuming" and "fast fashion is the devil and you're horrible for buying fast fashion" stuff isn't it. Reducing consumption and being more conscientious is realistic, not this black and white, one way or another thinking!
I have a hoodie from middle school that I wore every day up into college that only has one hole in it. ONE HOLE. Of course I put a fun patch over it and kept wearing it. I have shirts that I buy that only last a year at best before they become riddled with holes. A majority of my clothes growing up were thrifted and the sad reality now is that thrifting is becoming "high end" in the way of pricing. I would LOVE to thrift all of my clothes but when they're starting to charge like these items are brand new then that's a major problem.
the price increase for thrifted stuff is not a universal issue. As in in some areas they're still cheap but others mark things up a ton. I moved from NC to TX and the increase in cost at a goodwill (so owned by the same people) was absurd. ALL pants used to be 4.20 and now they're cheap if they're only 5.99. Sure, there were a few select items that cost twice as much but they were a tiny circular rack in the store and you could often find expensive brands on the normal racks at normal prices. If an item was marked too high for a month and didn't sell you could ask an employee to mark it down and they would. (a tip an employee told me)
that and thanks to resellers, half the time you go in and the only things that are left - are shien and wallmart clothes.. at the same price or higher than they sell new on Shien/wallmart. at least in my area. I've seen people from other places show prices being HIGHER then new at the goodwills and such....
Just wanted give some insight on underconsumption outside the US. I’m visiting my family in Liberia (Africa) and we have (less than the us) but a lot of waste. Plastic bottles are reused for oil, knives are used even when they’re broken,etc. There just aren’t the resources to be able to over-consume and easily throw it away. Everything we cook has to been eaten and if it’s not we throw it out because we don’t have a fridge. And people have to burn their trash because there’s no trash bins/gov trash. On top of this there’s less choices/ accessibility to different and new products. So this places people in a position where they are forced to underconsume and others are persuaded into overconsumption . I think it’s important to realize that even the fact we have to romanticize having to underconsume to do it is a privilege in itself.
Yep, its performative, its one thing to like to reuse older stuff because yiou like it, like its fine to like older mobeliar and, are practical. thrift store, whatever Bzur grr doing so performative?! You just kinda make fun of poor people who have no choice? Waste less , fine, but you dont have to show off, if you have other choices especially, people have no choice dont signal virtue????
Same. Some random instagram influencer got pissed off at me because she recommended some "sustainable" clothing brands and literally everything was expensive as fuck and I told her that sometimes the cheap, shitty option is all you can afford, and she went: "You don't NEED to buy new clothes every season!" and like... half of my wardrobe is made of stuff I bought between 2004 and 2009. I don't buy clothes 'every season', I'm just poor as shit lmao
Have shirts my mom bought for me 20 years ago. Quality is definitely not the same & now I have to spend 3x the price for quality that will last half that long.
I have at least one T-shirt that I've had since middle school, and I am now 35. XD Part of this does come down to taking good care of clothing, but it must be acknowledged that a lot of it has to do with whether and how your body changes sizes over time. Most of my friends' torsos don't fit the same shirt size they were wearing at age 12 anymore.
Due to some financial hardships, I've been learning to be more purposeful with where and what I spend money on. I've been learning to mend my own clothes and alter pieces that I no longer enjoy. I also crochet and create my own pieces. When I do buy items, I try to go with handmade products. My goal is to eventually have a wardrobe of things only I or others have created. Also, getting involved in farmer markets, artist colalitions, and other groups make things more accessible. My dad rents his bees in exchange for peaches, pears, and veggies. My mom creates her own jewelry by buying stones at gem faires. Usually sold by the people who found them. I crochet in exchange for having a nightstand repainted. Under-consumption should be getting corporations out of our pockets as much as possible.
I think your lifestyle is better described as a low buy and high barter style. Which is a great way to do things! it is something most people disregard since it is no long needed to get by like it used to be. I wish it was used more often these days and wasn't something people look down on
@mandas_wild_world It doesn't have to be! TH-cam has been my teacher for years. Check local events and groups as well. There's always classes or groups that have low cost or no cost entry. Take advantage of garage and estate sales. Crafting and hobby supplies are usually in surplus . I use Facebook to find groups as well as specialized market events. Don't be afraid to reach out to others. Making and crafting is a community learned skill.
@zebraloverbridget I think the barter system is coming back in force. Especially when it comes to what people want, but can't find in store. My dad has bees, and the peach growers need pollinators to increase their crop yield. My dad receives as many windfall peaches as he wants. It's still good, still edible, but just a little bruised. My dad gave a jar of honey to each of our garage truck men to have them take an extra few bags of trash. I think the barter system is definitely coming back in use, but the name has changed.
i think it's relevant bc as amanda said, tiktok gameifies so much stuff?? i think there IS value in saying out loud that this is kind of what normal, low/medium income people do, not a trend. like irl people don't care that much about what you do and not everything has to be 'performed' and easily digestible for the internet
I'm glad that people are rethinking consumerism and capitalism. I have unfollowed several TH-camrs who are always doing Temu hauls just because they don't have any other ideas for video topics.
Me with makeup influencers. I often look for people who are reviewing more affordable products, or just products I can buy in my country without extra a waste. Like even when ordering stuff online I’m always like I’d rather just find this in person
That DVD store sounds amazing! It could be framed as a time capsule experience. Because it is in someone's home being invited, there is being welcomed into someone's sacred space to interact with their cherished objects. Video rental places no longer exist. If you didn't get to go to a video store before, you will only ever get to experience someone's attempted recreation, like a museum.
my birthday is near halloween, so my mom gets me spooky socks as a gift every year. i’ve sewn up almost every pair, as i’ve worn a hole in almost every heel. now that i’m working full time, i wear them to the office with no shame and happily tell my coworkers why i have ghosts and pumpkins on my socks in the middle of summer (:
woah i never thought of sewing up my socks that have holes in them!!! i'll have to do that for a couple of mine that have just one little hole but are in otherwise great condition. hate throwing away socks unless they're absolutely destroyed. i too wear halloween socks year round, but that's just 'cause they're good socks and i like them. your reason for doing so is really sweet :)
As an artist I do have a decent amount of products across my different hobbies (sewing, makeup, ceramics, etc) but when I buy something I use it until it’s gone. Growing up my family was lower class (and both my parents come from low class families) so we’ve always used things to their fullest. we’ve found a good balance between overconsumption and underconsumption. We just consume and reuse
I love going to thrift stores, antique shops, local auctions, etc and finding stuff I can reuse in my daily life. I furnished almost my entire house on second hand furniture. I'm currently working on making a headboard with two giant canvas prints and some thrifted curtains. I have all of this stuff in my house, but it's all being used and would have ended up in a landfill if I didn't repurpose it. Consumption of goods isn't always bad, especially if it's reusing things.
At what point does underconsumption begin to intersect with extremely frugal content? Like TLC’s Extreme Cheapskate show. I can imagine some people taking this “trend” too far and falling into this pit.
Tl;dr get perspective I usually put the "this has gone too far" line at: Is this interfering with my family's functioning, my mental or physical health, or is stopping me from being able to experience things that are healthy and fun? Ofc gotta look at it in context. What does your family think is normal? What do your friends think is normal? What is normal in your community or online space? And then after all that, take a step back and ask WHY you are doing the thing/want to do the thing. Disconnect it from an emotional response if necessary (emotional response is hella needed for like voting for your rights, or sensory/trauma issues but not so much for whether you should get the better trash bags that smell nice or the plain ones). Really figure out what is driving the thing to be so important. Getting perspective really helps.
The concept of “underconsumption” or “going on a no buy” is so bizarre, for most people we buy ONLY what we NEED ever (“need” as food, beauty products there are done or expired, medicine, so… a board definition). There’s no disposable income to buy multiples of the same product, which is what I feel these trends focus on: I’m not buying 5 red lipsticks this month = no buy/underconsumption
Yeah by some of these perspectives most of us have probably been doing this 'trend' up til now without realising. I think that's regular consumption tbh; and they're out of touch with just how much they overconsume (or have done) as a way of life
@@Tazzie1312 but that makes part of something that you like specifically which you spend money “regularly”, different from “I’m going on a no buy” and not buying items that weren’t a necessity or an interest from the begin like: many reusable straws, many tumblrs, lots of “house gadgets” and so on just because someone on TikTok said so. Edit: in contrast with like if you are low on money and go on a “no buy” maybe will stop buying books, something that you really wish you could buy because is something important to you but making an effort and choice not to in a way to adjust you financial life. These “no buy” and “underconsumption” are not giving up in buy something important to them just superfluous things and stuff
@@tassisgustavonot really, tons of people go on makeup/skin care no buys because it is a hobby that they care a lot about, but you can only use so much. I've actually never heard of someone going on a no buy for things they don't care about because typically, those aren't the things that people overpurchase.
@ 9:07 One of the reasons why the "Clean Girl Aesthetic" skews white is because a lot of the features of that aesthetic: slicked back bun, gold jewelry, bare/clear skin with groomed brows and lashes, and glossy lips are just things that have long been done in the Black and Latin American communities. So for us, it's not an aesthetic that we think to monetize, it's just what we looked like in high school/college lol.
Yes! I remember going to school in a pony tail or bun with a scrunchie/bow/hair clips/claws, clean eyebrows and gloss because tha was the only thing school let us do on our faces or wear. I'm 33 now so that was like 20 years ago and I remember my 2 oldest sisters doing so
I think another one of my issues with the "trend" aspect of this is that there are people underconsuming and like. acting like they're the first person ever to do this. they're living what's a normal life to most people and acting like they invented rewearing clothes and not buying a new outfit for every day (exaggerating) like some people are just so tone deaf about it and it's annoying
It does worry me because every time this trend comes, people find a way to monetize it and hide consuming as underconsumption. Like when minimalism became popular, people sold reusable food containers, bar shampoo, bamboo tooth brushes, bullet journals, cloth produce bags, etc and I know few people who still use that stuff now if they weren’t already living minimalist before. I think that’s how things like 5 minute crafts got popular and we’ve seen what influence they have had on our culture. Their whole thing started with the idea that you could diy using stuff you already had lying around but in a couple videos they exhausted all the legitimate ideas and so now they either have to fake content or make god awful crafts that require consumption under the guise of diy. So once people get tired of the same dozen “life hacks” now branded as underconsumption core, influencers are going to find some new way to monetize underconsumption
I had a content creator I used to watch, and then stopped watching, because all her content became Amazon/dollar store haul content, but yet, declutter and reuse? I'm not out here to spend a bunch of money on junk I don't need. I get that it's content, but you can't say 'store your food in old pop bottles' then recycled the same '20 must haves from amazon' for the next vid
I'm so glad you mentioned people with disabilities, because it can be frustrating as one with extra waste it can consume. Even just all my pill bottles and blister packs feels wasteful
I like watching your videos because it gives me a peek at the completely opposite side of the internet and social media I just never see. my side of the internet is just videogame stuff, building cars, engineering, camping, building cabins, prep stuff, etc. I never see any of this stuff lol its soo odd to me that this side of the internet exists where people are watching other people do stuff like... drink coffee?
One thing that people often forget, is that influencers aren't the only source of influence to buy thing. Family, friends and coworkers are also strong influencer in the things we buy. I hadn't realize this until this summer where I forced myself to pack my lunches everyday instead of buying food. I have a bunch of coworkers who only buy lunches and that puts pressure on doing the same. And yet, this year, I have been able to save more than 2000$ just by making my own lunch. Underconsumption starts with small things and I don't think it needs to be a tik tok trend.
Omg lunch culture at work can be sooo expensive. I can easily be persuaded lol, but currently, my boss is the only one who ever goes out for lunch, and has to for certain meetings. Our brown bag lunch culture is so strong that there are often rice cookers & mini crockpots in the kitchen with homemade food cooking, which def helps me avoid needing lunch money. It makes our old western museum (where I work) smell like curry, which is a great combination!
T-shirt quality has gone down since the 2000s. I still have free shirts from my old job that have survived 100s of washes and yet the Wet Seal cute shirts I wore in college couldn't last the year (as well as their denim). I blamed the college washing machines, but I learned about improper fabric cutting, and that's what caused my shirts to warp 😢
I love my pair of Okabashi sandles that I didn't even buy. My future sister in law ordered the wrong size, and I have the smallest feet in the family. I've gotten a decade of use out of them, and they are still going strong.
As someone with ADHD and autism, I recognize this seems like a rant comment - it’s just me over sharing my own experience as it relates to the topic at hand. Then it got a little carried away as my own history with the topic has created a sensitive topic. Lol Growing up around the era when consumer recycling became a thing that was pushed out as a way for US to fix the planet - I feel this “model” of life can become harmful. Thinking that you are individually responsible for doing less damage or creating more garbage in the end is what companies want you to think. They want to push it off onto consumers and away from their own responsibilities. Same with taxes and crisis funding. YOU donate because we won’t. YOU recycle everything we produce because we won’t. I have a niece who is 10 and I hope she doesn’t grow up with the same complex that I had thinking I was responsible for fixing the earth. I recycle as much as I can. I collect styrofoam and drop it to a facility that makes styrofoam containers and they recycle it. I collect glass and drop it at a glass recycling facility. I know where to drop textiles locally for reuse or recycling. This takes effort - but I know it is barely a drop in the bucket when I drive down my street and see all the piles of trash on garbage day. Wanting to buy less and use more of what you own is great, but it shouldn’t also incorporate guilt into it for those that don’t have the means to use what they have or the money to buy things that last. Every issue in the world is an equity issue. Don’t buy processed foods. But it’s what people can afford. Don’t buy fast fashion, but it’s what is easiest to obtain and afford.
As a plus size human it’s basically impossible to get anything that’s not way outside my price range or cute. Go to say, target or torrid and my jeans last for a few *months*.. insane. Or they fit weird, have stupid patterns on them etc. can’t go get a top that’s not a cold shoulder top, floral, or just plain unwearable. It took me 13 stores to find a pair of plain black shorts the other day. 13. I found them at Walmart. 🙄 washed them once and the seam fell apart in the leg. meanwhile my shein curve stuff has lasted me years. I can get actual basics that look nice and fit me how I want. I have jeans from them that are 4 almost 5 years old. I don’t really buy “trendy” nonsense or whatever just things a 33 year old would wear. I don’t treat them super kindly either. Just in the washer in the dryer on my body 🤣 Do I like sheins ways? No I don’t. But do I like any corporation? No. I just need clothes 😢
I get so sick of people turning over/underconsumption into a trend, the VHS collection guy you mentioned reminded me specifically of myself, I have a comic collection and a hatsune miku figure collection, they’re things I’m fairly passionate about (especially comics) and I’ve been steadily growing my collections over several years, making sure not to buy outside of my price range, to ask for new figures and comics for birthdays and holidays, and to focus on collecting one specific series as opposed to multiple series at a time (Ms Marvel 1977 atm), I think there’s a big difference between having a hobby or a passion like that and overconsumption and one of the few times I’ve ever felt shame for my interests was when I was showing off a new comic to my family and my sibling, parroting tiktok, told me I’m “such an overconsumer”, having things isn’t the end of the world and there’s a difference between buying something you know you’ll cherish and love and buying an over abundance of things you don’t care about and know you’ll throw away in a week
most collectors are definitely way more healthy for the earth than typical consumers. collecting requires often buying 2ndhand & incredibly intentional purchasing. i love collecting stuff, and that means i'm not going to throw it away.
I’m totally with you, I’d love to see that VHS collection room. I’ve been collecting records for years now and most of my collection is secondhand from antique stores. For me looking for them in person is part of the fun. This weekend I finally found of copy of Signals by Rush which I’ve been wanting for a while, and I could’ve ordered it online a while ago, but it wouldn’t have been as exciting as finally finding it in person
I've recently gotten into comics and am evaluating how much I buy/consume for my collection as well! My biggest question now is buying digital single issues vs. physical ones for new/monthly/ongoing releases. A lot to think about for me like weighing what space I have, what best supports the artist, etc.
I feel like there's a huge difference in collecting something because you have a passion for it and collecting something because other people have it. Also, to me there's a difference between collecting reusable products like Stanleys and makeup with expiration dates, and something like media. The thing taking up a lot of space in my room is a rock and fossil collection. I have minerals, shells, a few teeth, a small geode, and just rocks you can pick up off the ground. I have them from every continent (and many countries) I have been to. If someone is travelling I will ask them to bring me back a rock or a postcard. When I am 80, I can check the labels on my boxes and see when and where each rock came from. I don't think of it as overconsumption, it's adding in something to a collection I love.
Its interesting to me to hear what trends are popular because I just block and/or click "I'm not interested" whenever I see a trend or an ad, so my feed is mostly trend free.
Some people didn't grow up with Grandma and Grandpa's Great Depression trauma and it shows 😂 I was raised to save and reuse literally everything possible. Doesn't mean I haven't had moments of overconsumption (I'm lookin at you beauty trends of the 2010s 😬). But reduce and reuse lives somewhere inside all of us! Gotta tap into it
I used to impulse buy yarn. Now I only by yarn for a new project and try to finish the project before I get more. I'm making a big blanket right now so I have a pile of yarn but it's all going in the blanket. I think just yesterday I saw a video in my recommended of some one sorting their yarn collection in a room that had shelving coervering every inch of the walls all stuffed full of yarn. 😅 I have sooo many other craft supplies too.
I FEEL YAA!! It's SO difficult to not overstock on craft supplies! If you find something cute in stores and fear you'll never see it again. Then there's the "well I'm already here I might as well make this trip efficient by buying 5 instead if the 1 I need" impulse. 😢
REAL. Overconsumption is so common in crafting groups/realms. One lady in my local craft group had wall-to-wall bins of yarn. She gave me three full garbage bags - I kept one bag's worth, and the rest I give away free at my art markets!
Everyday I'm so grateful to my old aunt's and grannies that found out I knit and give me garbage bags worth of yarn. When I was first learning I bought one skein, after they found out I didn't buy yarn for years until someone finally asked for a color I didn't have XD. It's great cause I got free yarn and a pretty good selection at that and the yarn wouldn't sit in a room for years until they die and it gets tossed.
“Buying tons of things is wealth hoarding” I don’t think that word means what people think it means… ‘wealth hoarding’ refers to hoarding excessive amount of MONEY (wealth) instead of spending it! Generally for billionaires who could spend money on investment projects, businesses, donations, NGO’s, etc but instead just keep it so they stay billionaires. It’s a problem because that money could go back into the economy and help fund businesses, salaries, projects to improve people’s lives, etc instead of just sitting there. Overconsumption is not wealth hoarding by definition because you’re putting that money back into the economy by buying stuff. (That doesn’t mean overconsumption or hoarding objects is good, it’s just not wealth hoarding.) Not to mention the average person is not capable of wealth hoarding because they just don’t have money that’s considered great wealth. Like even if you have a healthy savings account, retirement account, etc. that’s still not wealth hoarding that’s just being in good financial health. The state of the economy has gotten so bad that it’s distorted our perception of what is ‘normal upper middle class, lower upper class’ versus ‘extremely wealthy’.
For all of these "cores" it's always the virtue signaling for me. No one person is better than the other for living their lives. Everyone has different requirements and needs to get by. Would you praise a medical team for reusing one time items during surgery? No. Reusing Tupperware you already have instead of buying new? Fine. Making a movie room because you have a hobby you enjoy? Also fine. We should not shame people for living their lives.
Planned obsolescence in clothing is insane and not something I’d thought of but makes so much sense. I bought a pair of sandals from one of the pricier high street shoe shops here and within a month or so they’d collapsed and were unwearable. I was so annoyed, I spent the extra money expecting it to last longer and it was no better than fast fashion shoes I could have bought from Vinted
i repair a lot of my clothes like socks and sweaters and honestly it made me more aware of how bad clothes nowadays are made. I have decided that once I can't fix stuff anymore they will be scraps for like rags and stuff because the quality has gotten so bad, but also if I have to replace stuff that I now go to sustainable clothing, although lately I feel like it has become normal to just stuck it on everything even though it is not really sustainable. So finding actual good stuff has gotten harder, specially if you don't have a lot of money. But yeah saving for it has been easier because I fix my other clothes until they really fall apart.
I have a tshirt hanging my in closet that my mother wore in highschool in the 70s. It's very thin, but it isn't *cheap* so it doesn't have a single hole in it and I can wear it everyday if I want to. I have other shirts hanging beside it that I got 10 years ago that have holes in the armpit seams but the print on them still looks pristine. I have 2 shirts that I've gotten in the last 3 years that have giant holes in the stomach area just from me standing against counters and the designs on them is completely broken and starting to fall off. Being an adult in this world and watching this enshitification in real time is very disheartening.
Hey, just wanted to send love to your final anti- Shein/ Temu sentiment! I like that you called out that you're not talking to the broke people. When I started my job I needed a business casual wardrobe and shein was a godsend because I could afford 5 days worth of dresses and a pair of shoes. Now that I'm making the paycheck I'm buying real leather shoes and quality shirts/ skirts, but it was there for me when I needed it. I just started donating all my shein clothes to the local shelter, and I think you made a great point: these companies are useful to people who need them, but you shouldn't be using them unless you're in that slump.
I am a little guilty of over consumption, but it comes from years of psychological damage from brands ceasing to make the products that I loved. For example, I have a ton of spare pairs of the exact same kind of shoe, because I fully expect the manufacturer to stop making it soon. At the rate that I cycle them out, I fully expect them to last the rest of my life, lol.
be careful with the shoes make sure you check up on them every once in a while apparently shoes not worn for a long time will just start to disintegrate lol
@@dylanjones3430 Oh I am very aware. I used to have a backup pair of another kind of shoes for winter that completely disintegrated on the inside between seasons. 😂
Also companies like Bath and Bodyworks tend to influence you to buy more because they have those sales where if you buy multiple items you get a better deal than just buying one.
I use a 3 day rule, if I put something on a wish list and I still think about it three days later, I buy it. I think consciously about how each item I'm purchasing fits into my life, spending mindlessly and hoarding things is just that, hoarding. Not everything needs a purpose but what is the items purpose to you in your life.
Im part of the panning community aka using your makeup enough to hit the metal pan at the bottom of makeup. It's very gameafied, but particapating in it has made me realize how long things take to finish. This I buy a lot less makeup. All this to say, just like you said, underconsumtion core, without the name, has been around a long time.
i did the 3 month no buying clothes bc of you and it lasted 6 months! what you said at the beginning was so true, i could feel so clearly how practicing not spending changed my mindset and has had a lasting impact (so far) on my spending and how i justify purchases on clothes. think ill definitely do it again after christmas, good advice
I think even a better example over forever 21 is just the participation t shirts you would get growing up. I’m currently folding laundry and all of my older shirts are thicker material than the ones I’ve received in the past years. Including the “free t shirts”
I see "underconsumption core" as marketing for the average person (influencer). It's similar to "de-influencing" as a way to use terms that are usually connected to capitalism (because of influencing). And white supremacy always rears its ugly head with any trend- people who want to make it something about "doing it the best or the most". I think the solution is always gonna be talking back to people within a trend who try to add hierarchies into it. I've liked how de-influencing seems to have less "I'm better than other people" comments and i hope they continued
Growing up low income/poor and now having my own money and enough money to shop for things that are not needs, I find the underconsumption trend a bit hard because in my mind, scraping the bottom of a jar meant I did not know when I was going to even get more of something. I was sewing bras because I could not afford another one. I never want to go back to that scarcity mind set. I have been recently working on scaling back my shopping but also letting myself have room to buy things because going cold turkey isn't going to do anything but make me want to buy even more dumb stuff. I hope this makes sense. People do need to stop the over buying off of tiktok and amazon but the reason people like to shop might be more than just being influenced. For me, its a sense of power but also panic and that scarcity mindset haunting me. It is a work in progress for sure doing the best I can :)
Also it is for sure on a larger scale now, but for centuries our species has been obsessed with buying and trinkets and collections and surrounding ourselves with art and beauty. It is just a delicate balance and also depends on the item being sought over.
Something that works for me is doing a semi no spend month where I try to only spend money on half of the days. This includes groceries and bills. It makes me have to think before spending and also to strategically plan my spending on what I need/want
This also feels like a “classy if you’re rich, trashy if you’re poor” situation.
& rich people cosplaying at being poor 🙄😳🙄
And when the rich get bored with cosplaying poverty and it becomes "unfashionable" again, it being an "outdated trend" becomes just another insult added to the repertoire to use against the poor.
@@clareb111 rich people have absolutely called me trashy for mixing water into an almost empty shampoo bottle to get a few more uses out of the product stuck at the bottom
@@user-rz9rq7pp2b omfg i always do that even though i have the money to not do it 😭 it just feels too wasteful, like i know theres at least SEVERAL showers worth of product in there
I really don't get this critique. Why is it a bad thing for people of any income to practice frugal living and using the stuff they already have?
i saw a tiktok of a girl throwing away dozens of skincare and makeup products to follow the underconsumption core. i wanted to claw my eyeballs out
That’s gotta be rage bait 🤯
Oh the decluttering on beautytube is nuts. There are no major consumerist TH-camrs because they all get massive amounts of PR, but they tend to downplay how outrageous their consumption is. It is part of their job, but I’m not sure we need hundreds of reviewers who all cover the same products.
@@Chotibunder77nope, decluttering is meant to show responsibility & good organization even tho they don’t stop buying, they just throw out as much as possible. A lot of people go crazy for these vids, they don’t realize that the influencer is saying “don’t over consume” but the visuals used are known to trigger covetous desire - if humans see a pile of anything good, we tend to want something from it. Where I live, people steal flavorless beets (they turn into the same sugar as cane) that have no value outside processed sugar, because they pile them up all over to go to the factory, and sometimes we can’t help ourselves. Even tho there is absolutely nothing you can do with a sugar beet, other than get a stomachache. They are gmo, no beet flavor at all. But it shows how strong the visual abundance trigger is.
Yes decluttering only to post a haul is just for clicks
i mean if it was used it can’t be donated…
Saying that you're not doing this underconsumption thing correctly because you have a full fridge is the most insane take I've heard in a while.
its giving "you cant be poor, you own a smartphone" which is an actual argument people use to try to deny folks welfare
@@cassinipaninioh they go way further than that. I used to work next door to a food bank and my coworkers would sit there and stare out the windows ok food box days and list off how many "lazy scammers" were in line and the reasons these people didn't need help was anything from "their car looks too new" (which was hilarious because half the cars they insisted were new, were 10 years old they were just clean and in good condition) to "they look like they work in an office" meaning they have clean clothes on and their hair and makeup are done. So basically if you're not a cartoon caricature of a hobo from from 50s, then you don't deserve help
@@ivoryhenson1285 I have nice clothes and a 2019 car. Collected food from a food bank because my apartment was damaged by a fire and lost all my food and was between hotels trying to find a new place to live. It would really suck if those coworkers go through a difficult time and not have access to community resources because they appear undeserving.
@@cassinipanini Not to get political, but that is LITERALLY what JD Vance tries to say in Hillbilly Elegy. Absolutely absurd
Absolutely wild, especially because growing up in an "underconsumption core" (read: low income, scrimping and saving, frugal) household, food was the main essential. Clothes and toys were hand me downs, holidays were staying with family, technology was outdated and got repaired when it broke, but my parents always made sure we had enough food and the right nutrition. We were lucky to grow up in the time (just) before both parents would have had to work full-time to keep afloat, so cooking from scratch cheaply was possible. Our fridge would have looked similar to what they're complaining about, but they don't see that all the products might be off brand or reduced price, every shop consisted of counting pennies (literally, mum took a calculator out to make sure she could afford the shop) and all the special offers/coupons that you could find in magazines! Back when it actually made it a cheaper option, rather than now when it's something branded being reduced to 'only' twice the price of the generic version 😂
My old roommate got mad at me for 'using too much plastic' and hoarding snacks in my room. I'm diabetic and need medical supplies that unfortunately, are often made from plastic and are for one-time use, and the food is very much needed in case of blood sugar emergencies. Some people can be incredibly judgmental and don't bother to educate themselves on individual circumstances and expect everyone to live the way they think is best
fr. i get mad at myself for all the plastic i consume but uh what am i supposed to do here? get glass syringes instead?? wooden test strips??
Oh my god I knew zero waste zealots who would have broken into a burn ward and lectured everyone on using plastic and single-use items. I got it for needing epinephrine which I was told you can "anarcho-hack" a used diabetic insulin pen and dose your own epinephrine which is... no.
Ya .. I have life threatening food allergies and blood sugar issues so when I am not cooking everything from home grown and scratch to keep from bring sick it's single serve snacks. I get comments and you would think my medical issues are the sole contribution to climate change.
Are you Jason Momoa’s ex roommate
Diabetic too-and yeah like as much as I hate how wasteful my medical supplies seem (my Dexcom CGM sensors always include the same huge introduction booklet in oversize boxes whenever I get a new one for example) , it's not like I can do much about it. It's the company who's making the choice to keep including the unneeded extras they could easily have as a PDF online or shipping supplies in unnecessarily oversized packaging. And for my other medical devices there aren't really any alternatives to them besides using plastic.
I think "right to repair" would allow for underconsumption to be more viable. And not just how often can I reuse my trash before I no longer can.
It's a great thing but has ended up backfiring in some ways because of course it has 😤 I'm in the UK so we're not bound by it but are affected by it, and when a small part of our oven stopped working (literally a loose connection behind the display screen) it was cheaper to get a whole new oven because manufacturers have increased the cost of replacement parts so much, and labour too if that's a factor! They need to clamp down on that "loophole", it's an absolute joke. There are community repair cafes popping up more commonly which I hope is a step towards regaining that mindset of fixing before replacing, and relearning the skills to do so
Yep, I had to replace a phone I had for almost 3 and a half years not because it was slowing down but rather because it just stopped responding and my phone provider literally said the only option was to get a new one, I decided to switch providers and have always used my phones until they become expensive paperweights
@@pavlovs-wugI'm going to buy a new dryer because it's $600 cheaper than the parts and labor for my broken dryer. I live in a rural area and Lowe's will give me free delivery and only charge $15 to haul my old one away, but 3 repair companies quoted me $250 travel expense, even though I could drive to them in 45 minutes.
@@pavlovs-wug we need to clamp down on artificially inflating white goods parts. The point was we were supposed to be able to affordably repair our own things.
I love right to repair. I choose to buy items that can b repaired. They’re becoming more rare.
13:26 I would like to invoke this meme:
"People on Twitter: Having decorative pillows makes you part of the bourgeoise
People in Real life: Hey man how's it going"
EXACTLY
How, how the hell do they know where pillows come from, maybe it was even a gift. Or a leftover from someones emptying the flat, who knows.
@@marocat4749 no matter where it comes from, having home decor, a home that represents you, isn't bourgeois. Even if it's not second hand decor. I think it becomes bourgeois when it's excessive, and is about showing wealth or status, rather than self expression, comfort and functionality.
yep, its just socialist cringe all the way down
My dad died in 1997 and I can still hear his "rant" about planned obsolescence.
I want my kids to think back on my like this but with the subscription model. Teen me would be proud that I'm still pissed about it XD
My mom favorite phrase when anything breaks is "concept of throw away society" which sometimes yes, it's planned obsolescence, but sometimes the coffee maker is just 20 years old and a fire hazard and needs replaced😂
He would be completely livid in these times 😔
Planned obsolescence was actually created by advertising companies in the 1930s to encourage people to start buying more. It stated off small and has obviously grown over the decades.
Well it's actually a thing so at least he was right.
As on older person, we used to call it planned obsolescence. Making products to break so you must replace them. I have had 30 year old irons that still worked - given to me by older relatives - that lasted another 15 years. We don't expect that anymore & we should.
My parents had a microwave that they got from a couple that was used back in 88 or so, when I was just barely being born. It only just now failed and I am 34; we used that thing our whole childhood, teen years, and even through my 20s. It's insane how stuff breaks nowadays in comparison to the past.
My dads girlfriend has her moms toaster. Her mom is in her 90s. Still works.
I’m all for underconsuming TikTok
Amen to that xD
I'm for it, I get it, but I'm still mad they're making lower middle class life a "core".
Sometimes I really wish the TikTok ban succeeded
@@TwattWaffleWhitneyI think they meant underconsuming the app itself, as in getting off of TikTok
@@edenofhearts Oohhh okay, I see now
Women are encouraged by companies/advertisers to overconsume, but society encourages us to underconsume. Women are expected to own plenty of things to look stylish and attractive (jewelry, shoes, clothes, makeup, etc.) but we're judged for it because that is an exclusively feminine expectation. So the guy who can get away with owning two suits and two pairs of shoes sees a woman with twenty work tops and thinks she's frittering away her money on clothes. We're supposed to overconsume but always feel bad about it.
This. 100% this.
Honestly, I genuinely hate both trends, funny how men aren't shamed for the things they own. It has always felt more like a lets find more things to attack women with less of a lets do this to save the planet thing.
You hit the nail on the head.
This. This is THE TAKE
YES and not only can he get away with two suits and two pairs of shoes, he owns like four pocketknives, a table saw he used twice, and a bookshelf full of figurines. Which is all fine, but he feels comfortable calling women’s expenditures frivolous without looking at his own AND without considering the societal expectations she has to meet in order to be taken seriously at work.
I looked into the anticonsumption subreddit and every once in a while there's someone posting about an expensive quality thing, like $200 work boots, only for someone to explain to them that anti-consumption doesn't mean to not buy expensive things, but to not buy excessive amounts of unnecessary things
The sustainability sphere of reddit is actually quite a balanced space. Zerowaste is another one where people are just doing their best and there isn't much shaming happening.
Exactly!! My husband works in an industry where he HAS to wear special work boots to protect his feet. They are about $200-250 and we buy them only when his boots are starting to show wear (seams starting to come undone, metal coming through the inside to rub his sock/toe, etc). He keeps the old ones to work around the house or help friends/family move or make repairs, so they don't go to waste, but we don't mess around when it comes to his safety at work!
Also buying more expensive clothes for example can (doesn’t have to if you’re buying designer ofc) also mean better quality and well paid employees. Especially fair fashion and the like
Have they never heard of the 'Sam Vimes "boots" theory of socioeconomics?' Buying quality, if you can afford it, means you only have to buy the product once! That's anti consumerism, as opposed to buying 10 pairs of speciality work boots for the look, or buying a pair of cheap boots that wear out in a year because that's all you can afford, which will ultimately cost more than the one-time investment in boots
My boots are $150. I cannot do my job without them. I literally work in site preservation/restoration.
Buying physical media is not wealth hoarding, it's a way to not have 80 streaming services. That's just financial responsibility
@@ElizaGlide DVDs, VHS, CDs etc are also extremely cheap now so if you have the space I don't see how it's worse than constantly using phone data or server space or whatever. Despite my large collections of physical media it feels much simpler than having everything streaming through my phone! I think it's due to it all being 'offline' - no interruptions, just my things that I own being used for their one purpose.
@@pavlovs-wugI also love having physical items, for artworks or nostalgia reasons. It’s just something I can appreciate, it has value to me. I guess it’s the 90s in me.
And! And!!! You can watch movies whenever you want, without some company just straight up saying "actually we're deleting that movie now"!!! You actually OWN things!!!
Yes! I started to buy CDs and DVDs not long ago for my favorite movies and shows in thrift stores and I feel so much better knowing that I own it and it’s accessible whenever I want.
You also retain ownership of a cd. People can borrow it and you dont have to pay monthly. You also dont risk the location you purchased it from removing your property because they lost a liscense. Yes that has happened. If you own digital media, download a copy.
I deleted TikTok because every single trend just wore me down over a period of years
Same. Not to mention how flip floppy the trends are. One minute it’s over consumption and the next it’s under consumption. And no matter what there are extremists on both sides ready to fight the choices you make.
I left so fast
I deleted TikTok 2.5 years ago and have not regretted it in the slightest. It is just brainrot. TH-camrs like swell are the only connection I have with TikTok although I don’t know of connection is the right word for it 😂
@@destined_to_be our bridge ✨ swell and DWKT are my tiktok bridges 😭
Sarah Mingon
TikTok is a disaster. It does nothing but make me paranoid and angry. The few good videos it does have are usually promo for someone's online business and are dispersed among the many ads, sponsored posts, and rage bait videos
Tiktok really said to a mother that if she doesn't starve her kids, she is overconsuming 💀
I guarantee the people saying that don’t have kids either lol
@@m1k3y48I fucking pray they don't
That annoyed me so much especially since I grew up in a low income, single parent home. You bet my mom worked her ass off to make sure we had food in the fridge! The point of underconsumption isn't to have as little as possible, it's to make sure you're spending your money wisely and getting the most out of everything you do buy. It means buying food in bulk while it's on sale and freezing it for later. It means finding creative ways to reuse leftovers. It means creating recipes that use make that cheap brand of mac and cheese taste good. It's learning how to can produce. Underconsumption is learning what items you actually need, and filling your fridge with that.
@@t1dotaku exactly!! Buying in bulk is exactly what I thought of. I get so frustrated at the moment because having less money means I'm in a small place and don't have storage space to buy in bulk, so I'm constantly aware I'm spending "extra" on smaller amounts more frequently 😅
It's really irritating when people assume more stuff = more consumption, when in these cases it's the exact opposite.
Most of these groups high no awareness of life @@pavlovs-wug. It's sad
some of the objections to this are also why it's a good thing. 'that's just living normally' for the majority of us, yes, but influencers have been doing these awful wasteful hauls for years on end because they get views. personally i feel that that it may actually be really beneficial for big influencers to look at this even just as a trend for views, because forgetting about relatability and whatever, these people can stop doing as much harm with their shopping habits and less advertising FOMO for regular watchers/consumers. it would be so nice to see the end of the restock content farms, fast fashion hauls and amazon storefronts!
I agree! On the one hand, I understand why people are exhausted by 'trend culture'. On the other hand, I've seen people who aren't influencers also buy hauls from fast fashion companies and then return what they don't like. That's not getting resold, that's getting dumped. So influencers *have* genuinely had an impact on the culture where normal people find it acceptable to be wasteful when it's affordable, and I appreciate the opposition this trend provides.
yeah I think the people complaining about underconsumption being a trend don't realise how powerful trends are to the younger generation. If we can do anything to make buying less seem cool why not do it? Isn't that what we want??
I just fear that people aren't really getting "underconsumption" and are going to see living as bare bones as possible as the best way to live. I see it a lot with decorating your living space, lately. But maybe it's just my maximalist self lol.
I think the issue is calling it "underconsumption" because it implies that tiktok hoarding culture is "normal consumption" when that shouldn't be the standard.
@@yunim6563yes absolutely! and it's completely fine to feel disgruntled by that
"literally cutting your tubes open" I was so scared about what "product" you could possibly wring out of your fallopian tubes for the sake of underconsumption
let’s go girlies here’s how to make your own vegan face masks 💅🔥🧖♀️ first you’ll need a scalpel
@@waywardplanetplease never comment again 😭 /silly
@@sweetiepuffs99 I am stealing and running away with the “/silly” tag thank you for adding it to my vernacular
Me too 😂
SAMEEE literally had a "what are we talking abt?!" moment lmaooo
People are taking the trend way too seriously lol, this trend was most certainly to stem the flow of purchasing useless junk from temu Amazon and other online junk sellers for things like “kitchen items you need” so underconsumption core was “kitchen items I already had” 😂
I kinda hate that people jumped on hating on under consumption faster than hating on consumption.
I believe a lot of it has to do with the lack of media analysis. Like first people were saying "it's just living normally" like it's clearly not a trend for you then but for youngsters who are normalising overcomsumption because of influencers and capitalism. Now people are taking it too far and instead of people and everyone acts like core essence of the trend wasn't very important.
More expensive dog food saves you a shit ton money on vet bills. Buying better food costs more up front but buys you extra YEARS with your pet and puts off the inevitable heartbreak that comes from loving animals that don't live longer than we do.
This is so true. When I adopted one of my dogs the first thing I did after taking her to the vet was to change her food and her health went up very quick. A month later her mood was up, she had way more energy, her fur was shinny, the poop was normal. Just because I changed her food. It's expensive, yes, but their health and the extra years with them we can get out from it is worth that and much more.
@@akamba2133 Same! My dog was diagnosed with Cushing's disease (symptoms = drinking WAY too much water and peeing constantly (in the house!) between normal breaks/walks, developing a distended pot-belly, high cortisol and stress)...The vet told me to switch to raw food and her symptoms almost instantly disappeared. She's now on a low dosage of meds to manage the remaining internal stuff (liver levels etc), but I'll keep paying hundreds every month for this raw stuff because the change was undeniable. (I feed her smallbatch freeze dried)
True everyone thinks I'm spoiling my dogs cause I buy expensive dog food. The truth is my dog just have their scheduled shot & that is it they are very healthy & I saw a huge change when I upgraded their food. Especially if you have purebred ( they are more susceptible to poor health) you need quality food.
As someone who buys the more expensive dog and cat food - it has in fact saved me a tonne of vet visits. It also corrected my (adopted) cat's sensitive stomach issue. Literally, as soon as I transitioned her to the good stuff he poop stop stinking and was solid plus she has a less sensitive stomach.
Also, less is more too with the both of them due to the quality they don't need as much.
I'm Aussie, I feed them Frontier Pets.
anecdotal, but my last dog got terrible diarrhea from expensive dog food brands, I found that a cheap Purina dog food cured this. My pit/rot lived to be 16 years old , outliving all of her siblings by 7 to 8 years. so your assertion isnt necessarily true here
thanks for pointing out the disabled stuff. the only way i can manage to get fresh food is via meal delivery, i cant cook or meal prep and if i get anything fresh to put in the fridge, it will likely expire before i manage to even eat half. the "people who get food delivery are a curse on society" crowd are so horrible
Having to remind people that all of those "useless" kitchen gadgets were originally designed for disabled people but marketed to the masses so they would be more accessible is getting tiring. Yes, YOU could just use a knife to cut a bagel, but this product isn't meant for YOU it's meant for people that don't have the same mobility as you. It's become a fun little game for myself to figure out who might actually need those items and why or if it really is just a cash grab (calling out those avocado knives that can't even break through the skin to begin with).
This is a very important point! It’s also important to recognize that people shopping at the grocery store aren’t immune to being “horrible” (under their definition). How did that produce get to the store? Just because you picked it up off the shelf yourself doesn’t mean you’re “any better.” And lots of it is packaged in plastic that able bodied people do not need for the food to fulfill its function 🙄
@@t1dotaku a great way to test that is by putting oil on your hands and then trying to use the product! the ultimate test is one oily hand using the product and if it passes that one you know it was 100% made for the disabled originally. Two oily hands passing the test is also a product likely made for the disabled but it is slightly less accessible.
It is a test used by a retired product developer who posts on youtube but I can't remember his channel name. it takes into account people with low dexterity, low hand strength, coordination issues, etc... so it is a great test. If you pass the one hand + oil test then the product is extremely accessible since even people with a missing limb AND hand issues can use it. There is sadly no easy test for people without arms and hands that can be done by people with both limbs
@@t1dotakuI hate how people think something is useless because it’s not made for them. So many people think certain stuff is for stupid or lazy people but it’s just made for someone disabled
Does your area have a "Meals on Wheels" program? Might be useful for your needs.
This ties in with what is called the Sam Vimes "Boots" theory of socio-economic unfairness: "The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet."
from: Men at Arms (Terry Pratchett - Truth teller, saint, writing god)
I know that story, I was raised that way too... now even expensive products are absolute junk. I am more than happy to pay good money for a good product, I hate spending a lot of money on junk because I need a product/service
Thank you!! I was hoping someone mentioned this. I have to buy boots for work and am literally living this.
Yes!! RIP Terry Pratchett, one of the best writers of all time.
He really was a saint too :P , rip
It’s expensive to be poor, unfortunately.
Gods, the extreme drop in clothing quality is killing me. I mostly buy second hand or make my own stuff anyway, but some things (like socks and underwear) I just don't want to buy used. I'm use to underwear lasting me 2-4 years, but it seems like I'm throwing away underwear I bought recently while my older pieces hang on. I don't really like sewing form-fitted or elastic pieces because I'm really bad at it, but I think I'm going to have to learn. I bought a few pairs of underwear late last year and the elastic around the waist is already unraveling. One of them is coming apart at the seam and the material is too delicate to mend it without just replacing the whole panel. It's just so annoying. I buy clothes because I want to wear them regularly, not because I thought they'd look pretty untouched in my wardrobe.
I thought I was the only one with the undergarments and clothes quality. A NEW pack I bought looked so flimsy and ridiculously see-through. I was going to return them, but all the other pairs were the same. I desperately needed new ones, but I hate them so much.
Same thing with my office clothes. I have a shirt from 10 years ago that still feels new, while the one I bought 2 years ago feels so cheap. I'm lucky a pair I got 6 months ago still feels fine, but the stitching is coming loose...
I completely understand this, I never really understood the whole thing of "new pieces just falling apart" (I don't really buy clothes often and usually it's secondhand) until I bought new underwear recently. Immediately after putting them on the elastic tore from the fabric. On MULTIPLE pairs.
@@Radhaun I just stopped wearing underwear. 😅
I have underwear from a certain store that are over 5 years old and still looking great. Newer underwear from this same store last maybe 2 months before the seams start coming out and holes form. Quality in undergarments has for sure gone downhill.
Thank you for saying this actually because I've been noticing a severe drop in the lifespan of underwear I've been buying in recent years (whereas the pairs I was replacing had held up many years longer), and had actually been wondering if I was just imagining it somehow.
My brain broke a little at the part where people are yelling at a guy for being a passionate collector of VHS tapes. When did preserving media that is no longer being produced and has little monetary value to the average person become bad? So much media is lost because no one thought to save it for future generations or active acts of censorship destroyed it. I've started collecting vinyl recently because it sounds better than spotify. I like background noise when I sew (yes Amanda, I one of those subscribers). Most people in the hobby are also nice, fun people to be around.
I'm still wearing cardigans I bought at H&M 15 years ago and I think they'll outlive me at this point.
I still wear a hat and scarf my wife had to beg me to buy (I only bought used clothes) from the GAP, back in 2009.
Fr, idk what people are doing that destroys their fast fashion items so quickly. I throw that shit into one load and put it all in the hot dryer and it's fine years later with near weekly use
@@TH0KH
Ok lol my fast fashion jeans rip after 2-3 years. And I don't mean anything repearable. The Thigh or Crotch are so worm out that the whole jeans split and the fabric is so thin at that point that I can't repair it
My grandfather exclusively wears clothes from the mid-1970s- I’m not sure the last time this man went shopping. Clothes lasting a good 5-10 years is good and “normal” now, but when compared to how clothes used to be made, its a downgrade. I know for a fact that my wardrobe will not survive another 50 years for me to continue wearing it into my 70s- because if it did, I wouldn’t have a need to buy more clothes. Ergo these companies get more money.
I always thought H&M clothes lasted fairly long. I have cardigans, dresses, 2 pairs of pants, and one skirt, all from H&M, that I bought from 2011-2013 (so 11-15 years old). One of the dresses is my go to funeral/interview dress
I’ve noticed that in the past two years, jeans have been SHREDDING on me. Even on my husband too. It used to be I bought a pair of jeans and it lasted 3-5 years. Now I can’t even get them to last more than 3 months before they split in the thigh or the crotch! We even got my husband $100 jeans to see if expensive ones would work better and they split too! And he has a desk job! It’s gotten absolutely ridiculous.
Have you thought about secondhand? I find that older pants last better too.
My husband goes through jeans like wildfire. He has big thighs, so his jeans rub together a lot, but it only takes a couple months for them to wear out. Jeans are supposed to be some of the most durable clothing out there!
Where the heck are you buying jeans like that? My jeans still look as good as the day I bought them a year or two ago by now. And they were no more than 60 bucks tops.
That's disgraceful!!!! Jeans used to last for DECADES!
I have cheap jeans from Bershka, 100% cotton. They are 5 years old and still look like new.
I was okay with that first clip until the shoes part. Shoes need to be replaced long before they totally fall apart, the loss in support is hard to notice until you get a new pair, and it can really mess up your joints. Being thrifty is great, but there are definitely things you shouldn't skimp on.
Nope, I'm wearing my shoes till they fall off my feet, get bent
You can get some shoes repaired. It's not worth it for most shoes because manufactured products are just so cheap nowadays that it's almost always cheaper to buy new than pay high labor costs to fix them. But you could get them regularly repaired because it's the bottoms that get worn out. The part of the shoe that isn't between you in the ground can be attached to a new bottom every six months like they did in the Victorian era, assuming you're using durable leather like they used to.
@@Badusername2000knee/hip/foot issues are much more expensive than new shoes
real it's not good to wear stuff that can give you foot and knee injuries
@@Hailey-bz2ym my feet have been fucked my whole life, new shoes wont fix that
I've been a big advocate for Right to Repair for a long time now. I hate how tech companies have forced overconsumption by making their electronics more difficult and in some cases impossible to repair. It's so wasteful.
i broke my phone screen last year and brought it in for repair. done it multiple times before years prior and they always just replaced the screen and that was that. this time around they took it to the back and returned with a BRAND NEW MODEL. just transferred the data from the broken one, chucked it in the garbage, and gave me an entirely new device. the old one worked PERFECTLY! i just didn't want glass on my fingers! never would've taken it in if i knew they would do that. i knew that apple got rid of the ability to repair at home years ago, but my other two experiences they only replaced the screen. just... an entirely new in-box phone. to "fix" a little screen crack on a perfectly good one. i was livid.
it being a completely different phone also logged me out of all my apps which was annoying. and probably the only part of my complaint that the company would consider a problem.
I used to live above a computer repair store. One day my printer died and I asked the owner if he fixed them too and he said he'd have a look and if he could fix it he'd do it parts only for me because we were neighbours. Brilliant.
The manufacturer wanted £50 for the broken part. The same printer cost £50 new and came with £20 worth of ink cartridges.
It reminds me of when ppl blew up at Marie Kondo for saying "hey, you should be more concious about things you surround yourself with and make sure things around bring you nice feelings" and people heard "you should throw all of your shit away".
Overconsumption for me is FOMO everywhere.
For someone with anxiety I'm always scared that things I like will disappear, that gets compounded with everything getting worse in quality so if I don't buy it now in a couple years it will get worse, and that also gets compounded with war economy, since ruzzia invaded the economy obviously hasn't been doing great and stuff that cost $10 might cost $20 tomorrow. Literally bought some embroidery floss in March it cost $16, wanted to get some additional colours- same amount cost $21 in July, it's crazy.
Food costs up to 5 times what it did in January 2022 and wages have obviously barely gone up.
Only remaining grace besides obviously us being alive is that our house/car have not yet been damaged by the missiles, but since ruzzia has destroyed so much of our energy infrastructure we need to upkep the generator, and obviously when the whole country is under outages the prices for generators and fuel skyrocket.
As an aside, Kondo herself has said that she has toned down her philosophy since becoming a mother.
@@contentsdiffer5958 I mean, I don't think it was ever that radical to begin with?? Sure, it's a hassle, but any deep cleaning/global reorganization is. And you don't have to do it that often, like once every decade or so is fine as long as you stay mindful of things you bring into your home 🤷♀️
I don't say it as someone who keeps at it, I'm living in my family home with 2 other family members, all 3 of us stressed, depressed and horribly ADHD. We would LOVE to get rid of like half of the stuff we own and don't use and reorganize the other half, but that does require the energy+time capacity we just don't have 😬
Really grateful that you point out the difference between underconsumption for able bodied people vs disabled people. I know that I’ve felt/been guilted over ordering food and stuff but for me, as a disabled person, I sometimes physically can’t avoid paying for a taxi over the bus or ordering food because I’m too weak to cook. So for me it’s like taking as few taxis per month as possible, limiting ordering in and intentionally ordering foods that I know will last and reheat well in the air fryer or oven or microwave etc.
it’s just nice to be seen
Due to a few life events I went through a period of depression. It was hard to get out of bed and even cook for myself. I ordered takeout a few times and was able to get several meals out of it each time. Gotta do what you need to do sometimes.
Underconsumption core people would have thrived during the Great Depression
my grandma who rinses out and reuses plastic bags would THRIVE on underconsumption tiktok
No they wouldn't because they still think using the same pair of shoes for 2 years is "low consumerism" 😅
God you people have such a skewed view of what low consumption is.
@@ghostoflazlotwo years on a pair of shoes seems very reasonable. Depends on the shoe. Running/ walking shoes last about 400-500 miles before the foam compresses and stops offering support for your feet.
@@brette7118 it's a different story when it depends on your finances, not the shoe. I've had shoes for over a decade with holes in the bottom, and when I needed more support insoles were cheaper than a new pair of shoes so that was the option I had. What you described I'd still call regular consumption/consumerism
my grandma lived through the great depression and ended up hoarding yoghurt and sour cream containers and stuff. however, she also bought like, bleach and canned goods in bulk on sale, and after she died we had to throw away a bunch of spoiled and broken crap. literally all of my mom’s siblings (and her) are still mild hoarders/bulk buyers, and i even have to check myself to make sure i’m not buying/holding on to stuff for stuff’s sake (siblings and cousins are also the same way). the great depression had repercussions, man…
My Grandad taught us to buy the best quality to what we could afford at the time and how to garden. My Gran taught me to knit. My Mum taught me to sew. I now have the furniture that was in my Mum's childhood bedroom from the 60s in my daughter's bedroom after my grandparents passed. I can sew and mend clothes. We have our own herb garden and grow some of our own fruit and veg. I can unravel an old jumpers and make new hats and scarves out of the yarn. I also am an amazon prime customer and use it as I see fit. I breakdown the cardboard amazon packaging and tear it up to mix with the grass cuttings from my lawn and fruit and veg scraps to make a supberd compost that feeds my garden next year. You don't have to be 100% anything. Just do your best.
I've been saving every box I get to add onto my ferrets box maze. Pet toys cost so much that I figured if I saved enough boxes to glue together I could make something he enjoys. Lo and behold he loves it. His favorite place to sleep isn't his nice little hammock I bought him. Nope! It's the old shoe box with a flappy lid.
I'm so grateful to have been brought up in a similar way, even when I can't hold myself to it often nowadays. Just having the mindset of thinking of simple ways to make things last, save money, do things yourself etc, makes such a difference even in the tiniest things. I think it's a really hard thing to pick up later on. It feels intuitive for me but my partner struggles with it as his family didn't have to scrimp in the same way. Like, it's a no brainer for me to always keep some cardboard boxes and packing materials back from deliveries to re-use, but he thinks it's a waste of space and would rather just buy the stuff when needed. So we've compromised and anything that doesn't fit in a designated 'packing supplies' box is excess and thrown 😂
Please tell me you have an upholstery cleaner because even if the old furniture holds up it will be dirty. i am not a clean freak either but just would want to make sure something that old is cleared if it has fabric on it. wood is easy to clean though and not an issue for obvious reasons.
Lovely advice!
As someone who always uses the same cheap clothes, I always thought it was ok to not spend much money on clothes. I've always hated Temu or Shein, but I did buy usual retail clothes on sale and used them until I couldn't anymore. But guess what? At the beginning of the year (summer here in the south hemisphere) I had TWO jeans I had for years rip apart right at my ass ON THE STREET. Like two weeks apart.
Now I appreciate good quality clothes a bit more. And I pay more attention to when my clothes feel more thin. It hurts to spend more money on clothes, but once in a while for things that feel better quality is worth it. I'm still learning what good quality even is, but at least I want to do it. Before I only wanted to do it for things I cared about.
Why do they always die in pairs? The same thing happened to me a few years ago. At least we're caked up?
@@j.munday7913 The saddest part: I'm not even caked up 😭 I'm not extremely flat either, but at least if I had more I would have a reason beyond my stupid (flat) ass not realizing the jeans were uncommonly thin twice lmao
I learned this lesson the hard way too. I bought some really cheap shoes and I wore them twice and they started disintegrating in the streets (thankfully on my way back home). A kid even asked his mom why I was carrying my shoes instead of wearing them 😂
Something that I did this year that helped is I got a prepaid debit card and give myself $75 a month for an allowance. I don't include groceries or house necessities in it, it's just if I want clothes or to paint my cabinets or eat fast food. It's really helped keep me in check. Just remember to delete any other cards from online shopping sites lol
Also my main issue with “underconsumption” is that it does romanticize things that lower class people have done for ages. I remember being bullied in elementary school for not having new clothes, for having leftovers for lunch, for having the same backpack every year, etc. I didn’t have the money some of my classmates had and now it’s those same people who are glamorizing the things that people like me got bullied for
And why is that a bad thing? On the off chance this doesn't completely blow over in a week, it might mean future child yous are seen as savvy rather than deprived.
@@merrymachiavelli2041 it’s only the rich people who made it “trendy” who are seen as savvy, the rest of us don’t get any credit or anything over things that we’ve been forced to do for ages. It’s like how rich kids are praised for knowing multiple languages while immigrant kids are made fun of for that. We’re still treated as less than for doing things out of necessity and not because it’s the new trend
@@Sing_A_Rebel_Song It’s the difference between have to and want to.
Not to mention the whole extra level of the STRESS that is a part of it when poor. It's all well and good to have the choice to do it as a "core" "aesthetic" thing when you *already have the nice things*, and completely another thing when it's because you'll have to skip meals if you want a new pair of shoes of good enough quality to last longer (insert the Terry Pratchett boots quote), or are fixing old hand-me-downs instead of clothes you bought new more recently. I think that's more of why it's an issue - they can still live comfortably while "under" consuming- which is just regular consuming and living off what remains of their previous overconsumption - without knowing what it really is to have to underconsume to get by when you don't have anything in the first place
@@Username0467 exactly
it is pretty upsetting how much tik tok has increased the speed of reactionary trends,, i cannot fathom how many drop shipped single use micro trend impulse purchases have been discarded in attempt to jump on this "trend" and they will be replaced as soon as the "but i miss maximalism )):" trend picks up
Yep. I remember back when a bunch of highly privileged women I knew all jumped on the minimalist bandwagon and started tossing everything in their houses that didn't "spark joy." It turned into a competition of who could get rid of the most possessions and live with the least.
They were showing off photos of their newly purged homes and gloating over their clear surfaces and bare walls. Pointing out the fact that they now had empty cabinets and drawers and how empowering it was to see nothing where there once were things. Gushing over about how much more meaningful and serene life was with only one cup, one plate, and one bowl per person in their household. And bragging about how freeing it was that their carefully curated capsule wardrobes could fit into one suitcase.
And then after a while, the feel-goodies wore off, and the bandwagon came to a halt. So, they all went on massive shopping sprees at TJ Maxx and Home Goods to replace everything they had gotten rid of.
Yeah, people are not jumping over "underconsumption core" because they a suddenly aware of consumerism and waste. They are doing it because it's a tiktok trend. There is no conversation being had, just "aesthetics".
"and no one likes you at parties" lmao, facts. I immediately think that about anyone who corrects someone about Twitter's name.
I _will_ deadname Twitter (and Twitter only)! X is just a shit name lol
this took me a minute because i was thinking "am i THAT annoying for saying offhand that X is stupid and i refuse to call twitter that?" before i realized that you were referring to people that get legitimately upset if you don't call it X.
i mean it would be equally annoying if i got mad at someone for not calling it twitter, but i don't see a world where i would care to do that
I have a skirt I found at goodwill that I've been wearing since jr high, and recently looked up the brand to see if I could find where they sell it for when it breaks (I've re-hemed it and re-liend the pockets since getting it) and I found out it was made in the 80s and isn't made anymore. A second hand skirt from the 80s has lasted me almost 10 years and is still going strong.
The closest thing for me was getting off of booktok and forcing myself to stop buying books. I'm a mood reader, I know there's no way I can keep up with how many books are coming out, and yet part of me still wanted to keep up even though I knew I couldn't. So I forced myself to go on a no buy and be like "You've gotten more than enough books for the moment. Read these. Finish off the ones you've started. You don't need to keep on top of every release."
Yess!!! I am the same! There were times where I was about to buy a book but then found a way to get it for free (like library, kindle unlimited, or borrowing) and then realize that I hated the story. Not buying books right away or even taking a break has helped me so much to not i waste money.
Send them to me. 😭😭😭😭 Please. I'm so scared of waisting money on books I will hate. If I do not read a quarter of the book in one sitting I'm never finishing it.
I didn't know I was a mood reader til I read your comment thank you!
Thanks for bringing up the disability aspect - it can be difficult to engage with topics like this when they moralise choices you don't actually have
A large portion of the shirts I own are beginning to become so thin they're developing holes. I have had some of them for 6+ years. Now I'm purchasing new shirts from high quality companies that i know I like, that I know last a long time, and usually on sale.
Do you have any recommendations for where to buy high quality shirts? I occasionally find a good quality button up, but I haven't been able to find a decent quality tee shirt in ages.
@@emeryeladren thrift stores, tbh. Also check the materials, cotton or wool will typically last as compared to plastic.
@@emeryeladrenThis is a little farther from regular shirts but I like thrifting sweaters specifically because if they are preowned, but clearly used, and haven’t pilled or worn out too poorly then they will likely continue to hold up! You really can’t tell for sure how brand new sweaters will wash and wear. :)
don’t forget you can can cut up your unusuable shirts and use them as cleaning rags around the house! or even as stuffing for pillows or stuffed animals if you’re the type to make/modify those yourself
And that’s a great point. People say “wear your clothes out,” but honestly that doesn’t fly in most work or social settings. We absolutely can buy good quality, but once you get a few holes, most items have to be discarded in some way. If you get light basement flooding where you live, I highly recommend a couple bags of junk clothes for when you need lots of fabric!
my grandma was born in the great depression. we just called this "being broke". its honestly so strange to me how tiktok and such will make anything a trend or a -core
is it a bad thing though? like, yes, not having a lot of money makes you have to repair your only pair of jeans or whatever, but why is it a bad thing to do it even if you could afford another pair of jeans? even if you have the money to be able to consume a bunch of stuff it doesn't mean you should, that's what's fucking up the planet so much
Honestly it feels like a small few of the people criticising “underconsumption” are probably too online and are suffering trend fatigue
This feels like it's probably the main reason why. You get so sick of seeing "Trend this! Trend that!" every few days that even when it's a positive thing like underconsumption or deinfluencing. Hopefully they can come to realize that it's overall a benefit that we all save both our wallets and our planet.
There are some things I like about TikTok, but the way that everything is labeled and repackaged into a trend is not one of them 😂 I find it silly sometimes so labeling normal life as underconsumption is funny/weird to me. I’m not stopping anyway from doing it though
It seems like it is also tied to the exhausting cycle that pressures people to have a "hot take" stance. It seems to result in more knee-jerk reactions that go intense and aggressive before people have a chance to sit down and break things apart, think about a new concept, etc.
In some people, I think it creates a weird pressure to find the "Well, *actually...*" crack in the newest trending subjects, dive in, and entrench before they even give themselves a fair chance to think about it.
To be fair? Like referenced just in this video - sometimes if you DON'T have a hot, emotionally entrenched take on something trending ASAP you can get dragged for it. And when you've been part of the dragging crowd I can't help but feel you're always glancing over your shoulder a little, even subconciously.
At least for me, I like how the solution to all that is as easy as the app being deleted and forgotten about, but it isn't that easy for everyone.
i personally find it So annoying every time tiktok repackages stuff that's been done for years under a new label. with this trend for example i'm just. annoyed. like YES that's just living normally/low income why does everything have to be something-core. why do we need everything to be glamorized for chronically online people to empathize? 😭
edit bc i don't even consume tiktok, everytime i sporadically see videos about abt their trends it sounds kinda ridiculous lmao
AGREE. Including this video 🙄
18:26 I’m so glad you’re talking about how some Disabled people will “under consume” in a very different way. In a lot of environmental activism, Disabled folk get looked down upon when we need to buy pre cut fruit & veg, for example
Unrelated to the topic, but have you heard that there is apparently going to be a Tumblr Dashcon Two? If this actually happens please go. Please. I beg.
We need to have a pic of you next to the ball pit
BALL PIT. BALL PIT.
Not the 'using a towel multiple times before washing it' shade 😭😭😭
it's moments like these where I feel seen. Not in a good way 😂
Look if I’m clean out of the shower and I’m drying my clean self, the towel is still clean
@@Shoulderpads-mcgee no, you should only use your towel for half the week especially if its not drying 100%. You don't want to know what is on your towel after not long.
@@MegaJohnnycage half the week is still multiple uses tho, no?
Esp w all the germs flushing emits
This trend hits different as someone who grew up poor and in a hoarder house. I was never allowed to throw anything away ever. Once I moved out I underconsumed because I didn't have a choice, I had no money. And even now that I'm financially secure I won't buy anything unless it's replacing something that is now unusable. My first encounter with underconsumption content was someone criticizing the cheap plates and plastic cutlery from target. I use my 40 cents plate and plastic cutlery every day. I have sensory issues and can't handle metal scraping together. And I'm not going to thrift a set of plates and cups from goodwill. It grosses me out. You can still under consume if you use things wisely and not buy just for the sake of buying
LMFAO judging the girl who had food in the fridge is a whole new level of gate keeping. xD
Those commenters are absolutely rabid!
You should only judge people if they have tons of rotting food in their fridge.
@@SS-xr7jf No, you really shouldn't judge people then, because life happens.
@@Tazzie1312 if you have a fridge full of rotten food with any sort of regularity, that’s generally not a “life happens” thing. That’s usually a “I buy way too many perishables compared to what I need” thing, or a “I cook way more than I need but refused to eat leftovers” thing or an “I’m lazy and can’t be bothered to throw out any of this moldy crap until I run out of room” thing. All of which are reasons I will judge for, including judging people I love. When it’s a “life happens” thing, people don’t let it sit there. They clean it immediately so their fridge can be usable again (like if the power went out), or they chuck stuff as they notice it’s bad (such as when life happening is just a busy stressful couple weeks).
@@m1k3y48I used to think YT had the worst comments section but now I know it’s absolutely TikTok. Just unprecedented levels of brain rot happening on that app.
I didn't know Hermes was a dog and thought Hermes the brand, that your no-buy year doesn't include the luxury hand bags and scarves...
The under consumption trend will absolutely lead to some ableism just like the zero waste trend did. Someone will be shamed publicly for needing a lot of bits and pieces to function and needing meds and other medical stuff that comes in a lot of packaging. As if we truly have a choice in this and some things just have to be packaged a certain way to be sterile and safe. Low waste is the much better option for most and a lot more attainable so people will actually try it out instead of being immediately scared off.
You know, it isn't that deep that you need to mine for victimization.
None of these people are remotely even talking about that.
As anything on the internet, there’ll be extremists. But the idea overall is great, buy it if you really need it, not bc “tiktok made me buy it”
And then when disabled people speak up and say "Hey this behaviour is hurting us", we'll be criticized for "making it about us".
Trust me, we feel bad that we have to use single use products to live and live safely. I’ve been shamed for having individually wrapped snacks as a diabetic. Or my pump supplies. I’ve had to change my pump and gotten dirty looks for how much plastic I have to throw away. I’m sorry, single use plastic is required for sterile purposes! So yeah, it has an impact on us disabled people daily. We just get ignored when we speak up because a lot of people see us as less than.
@@xandercruz900 Yes they are, sorry you just don't pay attention.
Collecting DVDs isn't "wealth hoarding." If you have a problem with people collecting DVDs, then you'll be in for one heck of an experience when you learn what a library is.
Just hoard a bunch of epubs. You can fit like an entire library on one.
It's so weird to hear about it from a perspective of a person who struggles with buying anything that isn't essential. Serotonin boost after buying sounds like fun. I always feel guilt. I don't think that should be a new normal, because I feel like this is what we try to do here. Guilt people into beeing sustainable. Yes, you should think about beeing sustainable but if something makes you happy you don't have to completly give it up for some good person points. Guilt from just living your life is exhausting and will make people sick
I definitely think as a society (esp on the internet) we have a guilt and shame problem. Instead of acknowledging what u need or don't need in life, people will be more scared of being weird or not "100% morally ethical" whatever that could mean.
I’ll be honest I feel like I’m going crazy- I’ve directly bought some fast fashion items, and thrifted a lot more fast fashion items, but not a single one of them have fallen apart/disintegrated/been torn apart from multiple washes or multiple wears. I’m still wearing fast fashion pieces from 6+ years ago with no issue and no need to mend them at all. I genuinely feel like I’m going insane when I hear people talk about how quickly their fast fashion clothes fall apart. Obviously I’m not saying that they aren’t cheaply made, they 100% are! And I believe if you do have to buy fast fashion items, you should care for them and want to keep them as long as possible instead of hoarding/doing hauls/tossing them the second the micro trend is over. But I’ve literally never had the issue of the clothing items themselves failing me and I have no idea why
Same - I buy basics in very small quantities occasionally and I take care of them carefully. I can make them last forever it seems. I think it is mostly people abusing cheaply made products because "it only cost 5 dollars!" and then complaining about their items falling apart (granted sometimes they probably do just fall apart). If the same shirt cost 50 dollars, they might treat it differently.
Oh and like you I've also thrifted a lot of fast fashion basics too. They are still going strong, sometimes 10+ years later, with care.
@@ktshaffer9602 can I ask what you do to care for them? I’m not like meticulous about my clothes-sometimes they do end up in a doom pile lmao, but I’m wondering what “care of clothing” means to you personally so I can tell if I’m doing the same thing and it’s the common denominator
@@milkteabbie The biggest for me is washing with only the detergent I need (less than what the bottle recommends) and then air drying only! No dryer! I find the dryer to be really hard on clothes. I use the natural sunlight from a window in the summer or a fan/heating vent in the winter. I also put delicate items in pillow cases when I wash them to protect them from snagging on anything in the washer. Other than that I treat them as though they were nice (avoiding getting grease or dirt on them) and fold/hang them when not in use. Nothing crazy, but the dryer makes the biggest difference I think. I really hate spending money so I'd rather do a little extra to keep the clothes I have in good condition.
agreed! I shop at Old Navy because the deals and clearance are worth it imo, not necessarily the regular priced stuff, but for sizing and fit their jeans are really good imo. I've definitely had stuff thread immediately after buying it and wearing it once (or finding a rogue thread off the rack lol) but care of clothing matters too. Fast fashion is hit or miss, I've noticed the quality in some brands and even at Old Navy has gone down, but other stuff is fairly sturdy. I want to normalize a middle ground here because this whole "you're either underconsuming aka living a normal lifestyle or overconsuming" and "fast fashion is the devil and you're horrible for buying fast fashion" stuff isn't it. Reducing consumption and being more conscientious is realistic, not this black and white, one way or another thinking!
I have a hoodie from middle school that I wore every day up into college that only has one hole in it. ONE HOLE. Of course I put a fun patch over it and kept wearing it. I have shirts that I buy that only last a year at best before they become riddled with holes. A majority of my clothes growing up were thrifted and the sad reality now is that thrifting is becoming "high end" in the way of pricing. I would LOVE to thrift all of my clothes but when they're starting to charge like these items are brand new then that's a major problem.
To be fair, hoodies tend to be expensive and well made.
the price increase for thrifted stuff is not a universal issue. As in in some areas they're still cheap but others mark things up a ton. I moved from NC to TX and the increase in cost at a goodwill (so owned by the same people) was absurd. ALL pants used to be 4.20 and now they're cheap if they're only 5.99.
Sure, there were a few select items that cost twice as much but they were a tiny circular rack in the store and you could often find expensive brands on the normal racks at normal prices. If an item was marked too high for a month and didn't sell you could ask an employee to mark it down and they would. (a tip an employee told me)
that and thanks to resellers, half the time you go in and the only things that are left - are shien and wallmart clothes.. at the same price or higher than they sell new on Shien/wallmart. at least in my area. I've seen people from other places show prices being HIGHER then new at the goodwills and such....
Just wanted give some insight on underconsumption outside the US. I’m visiting my family in Liberia (Africa) and we have (less than the us) but a lot of waste. Plastic bottles are reused for oil, knives are used even when they’re broken,etc. There just aren’t the resources to be able to over-consume and easily throw it away. Everything we cook has to been eaten and if it’s not we throw it out because we don’t have a fridge. And people have to burn their trash because there’s no trash bins/gov trash. On top of this there’s less choices/ accessibility to different and new products. So this places people in a position where they are forced to underconsume and others are persuaded into overconsumption . I think it’s important to realize that even the fact we have to romanticize having to underconsume to do it is a privilege in itself.
Yep, its performative, its one thing to like to reuse older stuff because yiou like it, like its fine to like older mobeliar and, are practical. thrift store, whatever
Bzur grr doing so performative?! You just kinda make fun of poor people who have no choice? Waste less , fine, but you dont have to show off, if you have other choices especially, people have no choice dont signal virtue????
I still have shirts from high school that I still wear. I just turned 57.
lol my lady figure came in right after high school…I weigh far less but couldn’t fit into my high school clothes lol
Same. Some random instagram influencer got pissed off at me because she recommended some "sustainable" clothing brands and literally everything was expensive as fuck and I told her that sometimes the cheap, shitty option is all you can afford, and she went: "You don't NEED to buy new clothes every season!" and like... half of my wardrobe is made of stuff I bought between 2004 and 2009. I don't buy clothes 'every season', I'm just poor as shit lmao
Have shirts my mom bought for me 20 years ago. Quality is definitely not the same & now I have to spend 3x the price for quality that will last half that long.
I have at least one T-shirt that I've had since middle school, and I am now 35. XD Part of this does come down to taking good care of clothing, but it must be acknowledged that a lot of it has to do with whether and how your body changes sizes over time. Most of my friends' torsos don't fit the same shirt size they were wearing at age 12 anymore.
The delivery of "I can't explain over consumption to him. He's a dog" killed me.
Due to some financial hardships, I've been learning to be more purposeful with where and what I spend money on.
I've been learning to mend my own clothes and alter pieces that I no longer enjoy. I also crochet and create my own pieces. When I do buy items, I try to go with handmade products.
My goal is to eventually have a wardrobe of things only I or others have created.
Also, getting involved in farmer markets, artist colalitions, and other groups make things more accessible. My dad rents his bees in exchange for peaches, pears, and veggies. My mom creates her own jewelry by buying stones at gem faires. Usually sold by the people who found them. I crochet in exchange for having a nightstand repainted. Under-consumption should be getting corporations out of our pockets as much as possible.
Ugh why does this sound like a dream. It must be fulfilling to get to own, wear, and keep what you create like that.
I think your lifestyle is better described as a low buy and high barter style. Which is a great way to do things! it is something most people disregard since it is no long needed to get by like it used to be. I wish it was used more often these days and wasn't something people look down on
@mandas_wild_world It doesn't have to be! TH-cam has been my teacher for years. Check local events and groups as well. There's always classes or groups that have low cost or no cost entry. Take advantage of garage and estate sales. Crafting and hobby supplies are usually in surplus .
I use Facebook to find groups as well as specialized market events. Don't be afraid to reach out to others. Making and crafting is a community learned skill.
@zebraloverbridget I think the barter system is coming back in force. Especially when it comes to what people want, but can't find in store.
My dad has bees, and the peach growers need pollinators to increase their crop yield. My dad receives as many windfall peaches as he wants. It's still good, still edible, but just a little bruised. My dad gave a jar of honey to each of our garage truck men to have them take an extra few bags of trash.
I think the barter system is definitely coming back in use, but the name has changed.
this is absolutely amazing!! I crochet myself and I sell some things too. :)
"okay but whats the harm though?" is a very fantastic question to combat the near-innate desire it to "um actually this is just normal"
Examining what's the harm is always good, but saying "this is normal" doesn't imply any harm. The opposite, actually
i think it's relevant bc as amanda said, tiktok gameifies so much stuff?? i think there IS value in saying out loud that this is kind of what normal, low/medium income people do, not a trend.
like irl people don't care that much about what you do and not everything has to be 'performed' and easily digestible for the internet
and sometimes it’s okay to say that things are dumb and annoying even if it’s not harmful
I'm glad that people are rethinking consumerism and capitalism. I have unfollowed several TH-camrs who are always doing Temu hauls just because they don't have any other ideas for video topics.
Oh definitely the Temu hauls make me unsubscribe immediately
Me with makeup influencers. I often look for people who are reviewing more affordable products, or just products I can buy in my country without extra
a waste. Like even when ordering stuff online I’m always like I’d rather just find this in person
That DVD store sounds amazing! It could be framed as a time capsule experience. Because it is in someone's home being invited, there is being welcomed into someone's sacred space to interact with their cherished objects. Video rental places no longer exist. If you didn't get to go to a video store before, you will only ever get to experience someone's attempted recreation, like a museum.
So exited for UnderconsumptionCon this year! hope you attend and review it.
UnderCONsumption
my birthday is near halloween, so my mom gets me spooky socks as a gift every year. i’ve sewn up almost every pair, as i’ve worn a hole in almost every heel. now that i’m working full time, i wear them to the office with no shame and happily tell my coworkers why i have ghosts and pumpkins on my socks in the middle of summer (:
woah i never thought of sewing up my socks that have holes in them!!! i'll have to do that for a couple of mine that have just one little hole but are in otherwise great condition. hate throwing away socks unless they're absolutely destroyed.
i too wear halloween socks year round, but that's just 'cause they're good socks and i like them. your reason for doing so is really sweet :)
it's called darning, it's a longtime type of repair! @@sidoniegabrielle269
As an artist I do have a decent amount of products across my different hobbies (sewing, makeup, ceramics, etc) but when I buy something I use it until it’s gone. Growing up my family was lower class (and both my parents come from low class families) so we’ve always used things to their fullest. we’ve found a good balance between overconsumption and underconsumption. We just consume and reuse
I love going to thrift stores, antique shops, local auctions, etc and finding stuff I can reuse in my daily life. I furnished almost my entire house on second hand furniture. I'm currently working on making a headboard with two giant canvas prints and some thrifted curtains. I have all of this stuff in my house, but it's all being used and would have ended up in a landfill if I didn't repurpose it. Consumption of goods isn't always bad, especially if it's reusing things.
At what point does underconsumption begin to intersect with extremely frugal content? Like TLC’s Extreme Cheapskate show. I can imagine some people taking this “trend” too far and falling into this pit.
Tl;dr get perspective
I usually put the "this has gone too far" line at:
Is this interfering with my family's functioning, my mental or physical health, or is stopping me from being able to experience things that are healthy and fun?
Ofc gotta look at it in context. What does your family think is normal? What do your friends think is normal? What is normal in your community or online space?
And then after all that, take a step back and ask WHY you are doing the thing/want to do the thing. Disconnect it from an emotional response if necessary (emotional response is hella needed for like voting for your rights, or sensory/trauma issues but not so much for whether you should get the better trash bags that smell nice or the plain ones). Really figure out what is driving the thing to be so important. Getting perspective really helps.
in this economy im abt to become an extreme couponer
I saw one with moldy makeup. They said they just “go around the mold”
@@Jade-g6p oh that is SO bad
"underconsumption core is going overboard"
Man, these musical micro-genres really evoke THE FEELINGS, don't they.
The concept of “underconsumption” or “going on a no buy” is so bizarre, for most people we buy ONLY what we NEED ever (“need” as food, beauty products there are done or expired, medicine, so… a board definition). There’s no disposable income to buy multiples of the same product, which is what I feel these trends focus on: I’m not buying 5 red lipsticks this month = no buy/underconsumption
Yeah by some of these perspectives most of us have probably been doing this 'trend' up til now without realising. I think that's regular consumption tbh; and they're out of touch with just how much they overconsume (or have done) as a way of life
I dunno, I think lots of us have a hobby where we buy a few too many things for. Like me in any used book situation.
@@Tazzie1312 but that makes part of something that you like specifically which you spend money “regularly”, different from “I’m going on a no buy” and not buying items that weren’t a necessity or an interest from the begin like: many reusable straws, many tumblrs, lots of “house gadgets” and so on just because someone on TikTok said so.
Edit: in contrast with like if you are low on money and go on a “no buy” maybe will stop buying books, something that you really wish you could buy because is something important to you but making an effort and choice not to in a way to adjust you financial life. These “no buy” and “underconsumption” are not giving up in buy something important to them just superfluous things and stuff
@@tassisgustavonot really, tons of people go on makeup/skin care no buys because it is a hobby that they care a lot about, but you can only use so much. I've actually never heard of someone going on a no buy for things they don't care about because typically, those aren't the things that people overpurchase.
@ 9:07 One of the reasons why the "Clean Girl Aesthetic" skews white is because a lot of the features of that aesthetic: slicked back bun, gold jewelry, bare/clear skin with groomed brows and lashes, and glossy lips are just things that have long been done in the Black and Latin American communities. So for us, it's not an aesthetic that we think to monetize, it's just what we looked like in high school/college lol.
Yes! I remember going to school in a pony tail or bun with a scrunchie/bow/hair clips/claws, clean eyebrows and gloss because tha was the only thing school let us do on our faces or wear. I'm 33 now so that was like 20 years ago and I remember my 2 oldest sisters doing so
The stare with “I left it downstairs.” I felt that
I think another one of my issues with the "trend" aspect of this is that there are people underconsuming and like. acting like they're the first person ever to do this. they're living what's a normal life to most people and acting like they invented rewearing clothes and not buying a new outfit for every day (exaggerating) like some people are just so tone deaf about it and it's annoying
It does worry me because every time this trend comes, people find a way to monetize it and hide consuming as underconsumption.
Like when minimalism became popular, people sold reusable food containers, bar shampoo, bamboo tooth brushes, bullet journals, cloth produce bags, etc and I know few people who still use that stuff now if they weren’t already living minimalist before.
I think that’s how things like 5 minute crafts got popular and we’ve seen what influence they have had on our culture. Their whole thing started with the idea that you could diy using stuff you already had lying around but in a couple videos they exhausted all the legitimate ideas and so now they either have to fake content or make god awful crafts that require consumption under the guise of diy.
So once people get tired of the same dozen “life hacks” now branded as underconsumption core, influencers are going to find some new way to monetize underconsumption
I had a content creator I used to watch, and then stopped watching, because all her content became Amazon/dollar store haul content, but yet, declutter and reuse? I'm not out here to spend a bunch of money on junk I don't need. I get that it's content, but you can't say 'store your food in old pop bottles' then recycled the same '20 must haves from amazon' for the next vid
I'm so glad you mentioned people with disabilities, because it can be frustrating as one with extra waste it can consume. Even just all my pill bottles and blister packs feels wasteful
I like watching your videos because it gives me a peek at the completely opposite side of the internet and social media I just never see. my side of the internet is just videogame stuff, building cars, engineering, camping, building cabins, prep stuff, etc. I never see any of this stuff lol its soo odd to me that this side of the internet exists where people are watching other people do stuff like... drink coffee?
One thing that people often forget, is that influencers aren't the only source of influence to buy thing. Family, friends and coworkers are also strong influencer in the things we buy. I hadn't realize this until this summer where I forced myself to pack my lunches everyday instead of buying food. I have a bunch of coworkers who only buy lunches and that puts pressure on doing the same. And yet, this year, I have been able to save more than 2000$ just by making my own lunch. Underconsumption starts with small things and I don't think it needs to be a tik tok trend.
Honestly this whole trend has me thinking I’ve consumed a lot less since I broke up with my ex 😅
Omg lunch culture at work can be sooo expensive. I can easily be persuaded lol, but currently, my boss is the only one who ever goes out for lunch, and has to for certain meetings. Our brown bag lunch culture is so strong that there are often rice cookers & mini crockpots in the kitchen with homemade food cooking, which def helps me avoid needing lunch money. It makes our old western museum (where I work) smell like curry, which is a great combination!
T-shirt quality has gone down since the 2000s. I still have free shirts from my old job that have survived 100s of washes and yet the Wet Seal cute shirts I wore in college couldn't last the year (as well as their denim). I blamed the college washing machines, but I learned about improper fabric cutting, and that's what caused my shirts to warp 😢
Calling someone's beloved collection "wealth hoarding" is just sad and misguided
I love my pair of Okabashi sandles that I didn't even buy. My future sister in law ordered the wrong size, and I have the smallest feet in the family. I've gotten a decade of use out of them, and they are still going strong.
As someone with ADHD and autism, I recognize this seems like a rant comment - it’s just me over sharing my own experience as it relates to the topic at hand. Then it got a little carried away as my own history with the topic has created a sensitive topic. Lol
Growing up around the era when consumer recycling became a thing that was pushed out as a way for US to fix the planet - I feel this “model” of life can become harmful. Thinking that you are individually responsible for doing less damage or creating more garbage in the end is what companies want you to think. They want to push it off onto consumers and away from their own responsibilities.
Same with taxes and crisis funding. YOU donate because we won’t. YOU recycle everything we produce because we won’t.
I have a niece who is 10 and I hope she doesn’t grow up with the same complex that I had thinking I was responsible for fixing the earth.
I recycle as much as I can. I collect styrofoam and drop it to a facility that makes styrofoam containers and they recycle it. I collect glass and drop it at a glass recycling facility. I know where to drop textiles locally for reuse or recycling. This takes effort - but I know it is barely a drop in the bucket when I drive down my street and see all the piles of trash on garbage day.
Wanting to buy less and use more of what you own is great, but it shouldn’t also incorporate guilt into it for those that don’t have the means to use what they have or the money to buy things that last.
Every issue in the world is an equity issue. Don’t buy processed foods. But it’s what people can afford. Don’t buy fast fashion, but it’s what is easiest to obtain and afford.
I'm waiting for the "consume what I need and want and not what other people tell me" trend
"get your margarita while the ship is going down" honestly iconic quote
As a plus size human it’s basically impossible to get anything that’s not way outside my price range or cute. Go to say, target or torrid and my jeans last for a few *months*.. insane. Or they fit weird, have stupid patterns on them etc. can’t go get a top that’s not a cold shoulder top, floral, or just plain unwearable. It took me 13 stores to find a pair of plain black shorts the other day. 13. I found them at Walmart. 🙄 washed them once and the seam fell apart in the leg. meanwhile my shein curve stuff has lasted me years. I can get actual basics that look nice and fit me how I want. I have jeans from them that are 4 almost 5 years old. I don’t really buy “trendy” nonsense or whatever just things a 33 year old would wear. I don’t treat them super kindly either. Just in the washer in the dryer on my body 🤣
Do I like sheins ways? No I don’t. But do I like any corporation? No. I just need clothes 😢
I get so sick of people turning over/underconsumption into a trend, the VHS collection guy you mentioned reminded me specifically of myself, I have a comic collection and a hatsune miku figure collection, they’re things I’m fairly passionate about (especially comics) and I’ve been steadily growing my collections over several years, making sure not to buy outside of my price range, to ask for new figures and comics for birthdays and holidays, and to focus on collecting one specific series as opposed to multiple series at a time (Ms Marvel 1977 atm), I think there’s a big difference between having a hobby or a passion like that and overconsumption and one of the few times I’ve ever felt shame for my interests was when I was showing off a new comic to my family and my sibling, parroting tiktok, told me I’m “such an overconsumer”, having things isn’t the end of the world and there’s a difference between buying something you know you’ll cherish and love and buying an over abundance of things you don’t care about and know you’ll throw away in a week
most collectors are definitely way more healthy for the earth than typical consumers. collecting requires often buying 2ndhand & incredibly intentional purchasing. i love collecting stuff, and that means i'm not going to throw it away.
I’m totally with you, I’d love to see that VHS collection room. I’ve been collecting records for years now and most of my collection is secondhand from antique stores. For me looking for them in person is part of the fun. This weekend I finally found of copy of Signals by Rush which I’ve been wanting for a while, and I could’ve ordered it online a while ago, but it wouldn’t have been as exciting as finally finding it in person
I've recently gotten into comics and am evaluating how much I buy/consume for my collection as well! My biggest question now is buying digital single issues vs. physical ones for new/monthly/ongoing releases. A lot to think about for me like weighing what space I have, what best supports the artist, etc.
I feel like there's a huge difference in collecting something because you have a passion for it and collecting something because other people have it. Also, to me there's a difference between collecting reusable products like Stanleys and makeup with expiration dates, and something like media.
The thing taking up a lot of space in my room is a rock and fossil collection. I have minerals, shells, a few teeth, a small geode, and just rocks you can pick up off the ground. I have them from every continent (and many countries) I have been to. If someone is travelling I will ask them to bring me back a rock or a postcard. When I am 80, I can check the labels on my boxes and see when and where each rock came from. I don't think of it as overconsumption, it's adding in something to a collection I love.
Its interesting to me to hear what trends are popular because I just block and/or click "I'm not interested" whenever I see a trend or an ad, so my feed is mostly trend free.
Some people didn't grow up with Grandma and Grandpa's Great Depression trauma and it shows 😂 I was raised to save and reuse literally everything possible. Doesn't mean I haven't had moments of overconsumption (I'm lookin at you beauty trends of the 2010s 😬). But reduce and reuse lives somewhere inside all of us! Gotta tap into it
I used to impulse buy yarn. Now I only by yarn for a new project and try to finish the project before I get more. I'm making a big blanket right now so I have a pile of yarn but it's all going in the blanket. I think just yesterday I saw a video in my recommended of some one sorting their yarn collection in a room that had shelving coervering every inch of the walls all stuffed full of yarn. 😅 I have sooo many other craft supplies too.
I FEEL YAA!! It's SO difficult to not overstock on craft supplies! If you find something cute in stores and fear you'll never see it again. Then there's the "well I'm already here I might as well make this trip efficient by buying 5 instead if the 1 I need" impulse. 😢
REAL. Overconsumption is so common in crafting groups/realms. One lady in my local craft group had wall-to-wall bins of yarn. She gave me three full garbage bags - I kept one bag's worth, and the rest I give away free at my art markets!
Everyday I'm so grateful to my old aunt's and grannies that found out I knit and give me garbage bags worth of yarn. When I was first learning I bought one skein, after they found out I didn't buy yarn for years until someone finally asked for a color I didn't have XD. It's great cause I got free yarn and a pretty good selection at that and the yarn wouldn't sit in a room for years until they die and it gets tossed.
My gg bought so much yarn that when she passed & my uncle decided to sell it he made 11k & it paid for all her estate taxes.
“Buying tons of things is wealth hoarding” I don’t think that word means what people think it means… ‘wealth hoarding’ refers to hoarding excessive amount of MONEY (wealth) instead of spending it! Generally for billionaires who could spend money on investment projects, businesses, donations, NGO’s, etc but instead just keep it so they stay billionaires. It’s a problem because that money could go back into the economy and help fund businesses, salaries, projects to improve people’s lives, etc instead of just sitting there.
Overconsumption is not wealth hoarding by definition because you’re putting that money back into the economy by buying stuff. (That doesn’t mean overconsumption or hoarding objects is good, it’s just not wealth hoarding.) Not to mention the average person is not capable of wealth hoarding because they just don’t have money that’s considered great wealth. Like even if you have a healthy savings account, retirement account, etc. that’s still not wealth hoarding that’s just being in good financial health. The state of the economy has gotten so bad that it’s distorted our perception of what is ‘normal upper middle class, lower upper class’ versus ‘extremely wealthy’.
For all of these "cores" it's always the virtue signaling for me. No one person is better than the other for living their lives. Everyone has different requirements and needs to get by. Would you praise a medical team for reusing one time items during surgery? No. Reusing Tupperware you already have instead of buying new? Fine. Making a movie room because you have a hobby you enjoy? Also fine. We should not shame people for living their lives.
Planned obsolescence in clothing is insane and not something I’d thought of but makes so much sense. I bought a pair of sandals from one of the pricier high street shoe shops here and within a month or so they’d collapsed and were unwearable. I was so annoyed, I spent the extra money expecting it to last longer and it was no better than fast fashion shoes I could have bought from Vinted
i repair a lot of my clothes like socks and sweaters and honestly it made me more aware of how bad clothes nowadays are made. I have decided that once I can't fix stuff anymore they will be scraps for like rags and stuff because the quality has gotten so bad, but also if I have to replace stuff that I now go to sustainable clothing, although lately I feel like it has become normal to just stuck it on everything even though it is not really sustainable. So finding actual good stuff has gotten harder, specially if you don't have a lot of money. But yeah saving for it has been easier because I fix my other clothes until they really fall apart.
I have a tshirt hanging my in closet that my mother wore in highschool in the 70s. It's very thin, but it isn't *cheap* so it doesn't have a single hole in it and I can wear it everyday if I want to.
I have other shirts hanging beside it that I got 10 years ago that have holes in the armpit seams but the print on them still looks pristine.
I have 2 shirts that I've gotten in the last 3 years that have giant holes in the stomach area just from me standing against counters and the designs on them is completely broken and starting to fall off.
Being an adult in this world and watching this enshitification in real time is very disheartening.
It's not a wealth hoarding thing imo it's just...like...okay....this is what the average person does....why is this such a "trend"? Just nonsense
Hey, just wanted to send love to your final anti- Shein/ Temu sentiment! I like that you called out that you're not talking to the broke people. When I started my job I needed a business casual wardrobe and shein was a godsend because I could afford 5 days worth of dresses and a pair of shoes. Now that I'm making the paycheck I'm buying real leather shoes and quality shirts/ skirts, but it was there for me when I needed it. I just started donating all my shein clothes to the local shelter, and I think you made a great point: these companies are useful to people who need them, but you shouldn't be using them unless you're in that slump.
I am a little guilty of over consumption, but it comes from years of psychological damage from brands ceasing to make the products that I loved. For example, I have a ton of spare pairs of the exact same kind of shoe, because I fully expect the manufacturer to stop making it soon. At the rate that I cycle them out, I fully expect them to last the rest of my life, lol.
be careful with the shoes make sure you check up on them every once in a while apparently shoes not worn for a long time will just start to disintegrate lol
@@dylanjones3430 Oh I am very aware. I used to have a backup pair of another kind of shoes for winter that completely disintegrated on the inside between seasons. 😂
Also companies like Bath and Bodyworks tend to influence you to buy more because they have those sales where if you buy multiple items you get a better deal than just buying one.
I use a 3 day rule, if I put something on a wish list and I still think about it three days later, I buy it. I think consciously about how each item I'm purchasing fits into my life, spending mindlessly and hoarding things is just that, hoarding. Not everything needs a purpose but what is the items purpose to you in your life.
Im part of the panning community aka using your makeup enough to hit the metal pan at the bottom of makeup. It's very gameafied, but particapating in it has made me realize how long things take to finish. This I buy a lot less makeup. All this to say, just like you said, underconsumtion core, without the name, has been around a long time.
i did the 3 month no buying clothes bc of you and it lasted 6 months! what you said at the beginning was so true, i could feel so clearly how practicing not spending changed my mindset and has had a lasting impact (so far) on my spending and how i justify purchases on clothes. think ill definitely do it again after christmas, good advice
I think even a better example over forever 21 is just the participation t shirts you would get growing up. I’m currently folding laundry and all of my older shirts are thicker material than the ones I’ve received in the past years. Including the “free t shirts”
I see "underconsumption core" as marketing for the average person (influencer). It's similar to "de-influencing" as a way to use terms that are usually connected to capitalism (because of influencing). And white supremacy always rears its ugly head with any trend- people who want to make it something about "doing it the best or the most".
I think the solution is always gonna be talking back to people within a trend who try to add hierarchies into it.
I've liked how de-influencing seems to have less "I'm better than other people" comments and i hope they continued
Growing up low income/poor and now having my own money and enough money to shop for things that are not needs, I find the underconsumption trend a bit hard because in my mind, scraping the bottom of a jar meant I did not know when I was going to even get more of something. I was sewing bras because I could not afford another one. I never want to go back to that scarcity mind set. I have been recently working on scaling back my shopping but also letting myself have room to buy things because going cold turkey isn't going to do anything but make me want to buy even more dumb stuff. I hope this makes sense. People do need to stop the over buying off of tiktok and amazon but the reason people like to shop might be more than just being influenced. For me, its a sense of power but also panic and that scarcity mindset haunting me. It is a work in progress for sure doing the best I can :)
Also it is for sure on a larger scale now, but for centuries our species has been obsessed with buying and trinkets and collections and surrounding ourselves with art and beauty. It is just a delicate balance and also depends on the item being sought over.
Something that works for me is doing a semi no spend month where I try to only spend money on half of the days. This includes groceries and bills. It makes me have to think before spending and also to strategically plan my spending on what I need/want