Friday 2 August 2024

Is social media climate friendly?

Research led by Dr Phillip Ozimek of Ruhr University Bochum, Germany shows that social media can make people more materialistic, leading to patterns of excessive consumption.

Social media users and content creators often find themselves buying more than they need to keep up with trends.

A 2022 report by Incharge Debt Solutions found that one-third of their respondents overspent to keep up with their peers.

Trends such as hauls where creators share what they bought, oftentimes in excessive amounts are common on social media platforms.

Maeve Galvin, global policy and campaigns director at Fashion Revolution told Vogue Magazine: 'Hauls are connected to gamification and the sport of consumption when it comes to fashion.'

The release of the Barbie movie in 2023 led to online trends where thousands bought pink clothing. According to Ecoveritas research, these clothes often end up in landfills.

Another example is the popularity of the Stanley cup.

According to AnalystNews, many social media users flaunt their vast collection of Stanley Cups, a reusable bottle, 'proudly displaying them in colourful rows in their videos.'

Maurie Cohen, Professor of Sustainability Studies at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, wrote: 'How utterly trapped we are in the pervasive logic of rampant status and style-driven consumerism.'