The cup is full. On social networks, young adults are opposing consumerist overbidding, disguised advertising and the practice of presenting one’s purchases, known as haulcalling for getting rid of the superfluous.
Mending, recycling, frugality and minimalism, theunderconsumption core is popular on TikTok. These posts encourage a return to simple pleasures and skills, in stark contrast to the type of content usually popular on the platform.
They “promote a lifestyle of moderate consumption: instead of having 15 beauty products or 50 pairs of shoes, having only three,” explains French digital behavior analyst Anissa Eprinchard.
At a time when everything has become an object of consumption, both political discourse… and skin care [soins pour la peau] “, this trend signals “a fed-up feeling with content consumerism,” she believes.
When people are constantly trying to sell you something and the prices keep going up, you end up getting financial burnout.
Kara Perez, American influencer specializing in financial and eco-responsible issues
“I use elements of nature to decorate my apartment, most of my clothes are second-hand… I reuse my sauce containers to store food, it’s free and very practical,” explains one Internet user in a video published in July on Instagram.
One after the other, videos highlight an old piece of furniture inherited from grandparents, patched-up clothes, a dented insulated water bottle or homemade hygiene products.
“Unrealistic routines”
For Mme Eprinchard, this tendency comes from a fatigue in the face of “unrealistic routines or hauls indecent”.
This weariness is even more pronounced in the United States, where young adults are suffering from soaring prices since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The consumer feels “alienated” in an unstable geopolitical and economic context, explains Tariro Makoni, who specializes in the analysis of consumer and social movements.
On Google, searches for “underconsumption” nearly doubled this summer in the United States, alongside those for “overproduction” and “the Great Depression.”
According to experts with whom AFP spoke, younger generations are realizing that they cannot keep up with the abundance of products popular on social media.
In a quest for identity, many young people are “compulsively” consuming disposable and replaceable fashion, British content creator Andrea Cheong, author of a book on sustainable fashion, told AFP.
On her Instagram account, she shows her followers how to mend even the most unusual pieces of her wardrobe, like lingerie, and transforms a mismatched wedding dress into a tank top.
Simple and durable
L’underconsumption core wants to make the imperfect aesthetic and is part of a search for timelessness that contrasts with the Instagram and TikTok trends that preceded it.
PHOTO NATALIE WADE, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
L’underconsumption core wants to make the imperfect aesthetic.
“I would like it not to be just a trend,” Mr.me Cheong: “Because for some, it’s a way of life.”
The experts interviewed note a growing appetite for authentic content, moving away from the classic culture of influencers who push hyperconsumption.
Recycling and conserving “has become cool,” says Mme Makoni: “A similar movement was created after the financial crisis of 2008,” she notes.
More and more young people have developed an ecological conscience, but the main driver behind this trend remains purchasing power, assures Andrea Cheong, who still sees it as a positive change for the planet.
If ethical and sustainable fashion is, for example, an “extremely complex” subject and difficult to summarize in one-minute videos on Instagram, she believes,underconsumption coreby conveying a simple message inviting people to “consume less”, helps to popularize a sustainable, eco-responsible approach that is accessible to all.
This spirit of “under-consumption” also extends outside of social networks.
In Washington, Anjali Zielinski, 42, and her daughter Mina, 7, recently attended a mending workshop.
Mme Zielinski hopes to maintain her daughter’s boundless creativity, but also to remind her of “the value of things” and “the work needed to produce them,” in a world that she feels is increasingly disconnected from these realities.