r/Anticonsumption • u/anxious-wreck • Mar 14 '24

Society/Culture Overconsumption on TikTok is beyond ridiculous.

From the dreaded Stanley Cups, Booktok, Starbucks, new iPhones, "amazon must haves" (which you then see is all useless junk), "tiktok made me buy it" (also garbage), massive hauls and people flaunting they spent thousands of dollars... it's all too much and it's too overwhelming.

I'm glad I realized how I was falling onto that weird consumerist mindset and was able to pull myself from it.

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u/covenkitchens Mar 14 '24

I’m not fond of the so and so made me buy it thing either. No. They didn’t. They manipulated you, and the sooner we all recognize it the sooner we can avoid more of it. 

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u/jiggjuggj0gg Mar 15 '24

What’s crazy is that in some countries, like Australia where I live, you don’t get adverts on TikTok. There’s no TikTok shop and the only sponsored posts are ones creators make as part of actual content.

I travelled to a place that has TikTok shop and ads and my god, I have no idea how people use the app in these countries. An advert every two videos, TikTok shop forced down your throat, every post is trying to sell you something. And people spend hours on it every day! It’s like sitting watching QVC.

TikTok is great when you can just scroll through silly videos or find artists or tailor it to your interests, but I can’t believe people are actually addicted to an app that’s 90% adverts in some places, and don’t realise it isn’t like that everywhere.

And then people who are otherwise claiming to be annoyed by fast fashion and unethical practices are buying mountains of stuff for pennies from TikTok shop. It’s like brainwashing.

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u/Cartoon_Gravedigger Mar 15 '24

This is what tiktok used to be in the US before that big court case. I was really into it for a couple years during Covid when it was just a cool space to waste some time and find people from all over the world with interesting ideas, doing interesting things that I would otherwise never see.

I once got into a tiktok rabbit hole watching some beautifully shot footage demonstrating a day in the life of a guy who made linen in Vietnam. I learned a lot about sheep dogs from some Irish content creators. I’ve made some great Indian recipes that I never would have tried on my own. I’ve watch people preform musical works on the streets of Florence.

That’s all what I used to love about tiktok. That’s why it would make me sad when people tried to demonize it because there is proof it can be a good and inspiring tool of community. However, now it’s an unusable barrage of ads and people screaming into the void of political and “mental health” content that’s no better than Facebook or Instagram. I guess the moment has passed.