Deinfluencing and consumerism

By Aliya Couillard, Staff Writer

Consumerism by definition means the protection or promotion of the interest of consumers. It’s a culture that revolves around the idea that personal satisfaction and economic stimulation stem from the purchasing of goods.

Nowadays, with the immense amount of platforms that come with social media, we are exposed to countless advertisements a day. This type of daily user exposure only expands the consumerism culture.

Students on campus had a variety of thoughts to share about consumerist culture. 

“I see issues with consumerism culture. I think it makes us more materialistic,”  sophomore health science major Gina Proviano said.

On the other hand, sophomore health science major Micheal Murro saw both an issue with the culture and some understanding of it. 

“I think when people are buying things just because they can and they have enough money to do it, it kinda throws off the whole buy what you need concept,” Murro said. “[However,] I think at the same time we all like to have nice things.” 

When it comes to this immense exposure of items to purchase on social media, many times an influencer is tied to them. An influencer is a person or thing that influences another and they try to do just that. One of the ways that this takes form is the promotion of goods.

A huge chunk of an influencer’s income comes from doing paid sponsorships with brands. Meaning these individuals are being paid to promote a brand’s product to their audience.   

However, the big question is: are influencers being honest or are they just trying to collect a check? Post students shared their thoughts on this. 

“I think [influencers] are not honest. I’ve seen a lot of influencers reviewing a product and you can just tell that they are doing it for their income and success,” sophomore communications major Mylie Norton commented. “In later posts, you see they aren’t even using that product and you can just tell it was a paid promotion.”

On a similar line, Murrow questioned the genuineness of influencers doing promotions.

“Even when you are scrolling on social media and see stuff like that, a lot of times it will say it’s a paid promotion which automatically makes you question whether or not they are actually using [what they are promoting regularly].” 

However, sometimes when we do see influencers promoting products, especially products that are viral or trending, we cave in and buy. And sometimes those products live up to their hype, but other times, like in Proviano’s experience, they are disappointing. 

“I bought the Keihl’s moisturizer, and it ended up just not moisturizing my skin. Influencers on Tik Tok and Instagram said it was amazing and it wasn’t. It was very expensive from Ulta and now it’s sitting at the bottom of my drawer, unused.” 

Now, if you are an active social media user, you have probably come across deinfluencing content. Deinfluencing is when someone has purchased products that are trending and have been raved about and they tell people not to buy it for various reasons. 

Post students expressed their encounters with deinfluencing.

“There was one Tik Toker who was influencing terrible products. He was basically just deinfluencing the products she was influencing,” Proviano said about her encounter with a video by influencer Jeffree Star. 

Norton gives the dupe trend as an example.

“People are recommending all these alternatives to name brand products, and so I guess that’s kinda like deinfluencing people from buying more expensive things and steering them toward cheaper versions.”

Deinfluencing can turn consumers away from buying products they don’t actually need. Post students agree that the deinfluencing culture is very beneficial to consumers.

“I feel like people are obsessed with having the next best thing and [deinfluencing] kind of takes that away. When you see all these people influencing, they make so much money and they can have whatever they want, but you know it’s not practical in your everyday life, and debunking them makes it a lot easier to scroll past that on social media,” Murro stated. 

At the end of the day, deinfluencing content may help individuals save money. Before buying the next viral or trending item, check if someone has deinfluenced it to know if it’s worth your money or not.