For years, one of the biggest ways to boast about your social status, net worth, or overall cool factor has been to tell strangers about it online.
Many millennials and Gen Z-ers are digitally native, meaning they've more or less grown up with some sort of technology in their hand.
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For older millennials, they likely grew up on AOL and a wired desktop connection to chat with friends. Younger members of the Gen Z cohort grew up even more plugged in – 94% of teens reported owning a phone in 2023.
This means that most young people nowadays are used to experiencing at least a portion of their lives through a screen. It could be via what they watch on a streaming service, how they communicate with friends remotely (which is increasingly how most of us socialize), or how they get everything from news about politics to trends.
It's also been a great way for businesses to thrive. Though brands like Slim Jim and Kroger may not have grown up digitally native like your average 15 year old, many corporations have captured the overwhelming zeal for online interaction and capitalized on the fact that this is just where most of us hang out these days.
Influencing online is big business
In fact, you'd be hard pressed to not find the largest brands and businesses with some sort of online footprint nowadays. Airlines field customer complaints on Twitter, fast food brands start feuds with each other, and popular snack brands post memes in the hope of garnering interaction or going viral.
It's a solid business plan, but the bulk of the money is to be made with influencers, or individuals with robust social media followings.
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Depending on their goal and budget, everyone from large brands to small upstarts now partner with influencers to help them sell whatever product they've deemed sellable. Increasingly, that's most of them.
TikTok star Charlie D'Amelio reportedly makes $17.5 million via her TikTok presence, and YouTube star Mr. Beast raked in $82 million via his account and was named the highest paid social media influencer in 2023.
But not everyone's buying in
But increasingly, younger people are demonstrating a resistance to ads and influencers on their social media feed. And their reaction hasn't been to spend less time on their favorite apps like TikTok or Instagram.
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Instead, it's a new hashtag known as "underconsumption core," which advocates for a simpler, less materialistic way of life that resists influencers shamelessly hawking products as a opportunistic cash grab.
In a video by @PlatedWell, which has now garnered over 1.2 million views, the user shows her apartment kitchen; it features only hand-me-down utensils, gifted artwork, and two cutting boards that are heavily used but "perfectly functional."
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User Jessica Clifton shows a similar video, where she shows off un-manicured nails, a potted plant she found on the street, and a closet of thrifted – and minimalistic – clothing.
"What freed me from the overconsumption loop was finding passions & creative outlets that replaced my need to shop," Clifton writes in a caption. "Whatever you think you need right now, you probably don’t. Remember, we have everything we need right now to be happy in this moment."
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Countless other videos touting the merits of freeing oneself from overconsumption have millions of views on TikTok. Many users show off their makeup collections, which feature just one or two products. Others who identify as "low income families," show off their cars that are over 10 years old, the only purse they own, and one single bathing suit that has treated them well for years.
"Posting this just in time for prime day," another user wrote just ahead of Amazon's (AMZN) big sale. "Believe it or not, making this video made me realize there is a lot of other stuff I want to get rid of."
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