Consumerism Pandemic: Over-Consumption a Disease?

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Brands sell "identities" that expire to force repeat purchases.

• "Retail therapy" is often a debt-creating cycle, not a solution.

• Shopping is engineered to be a dopamine-driven gamble.

• Social media algorithms normalize overconsumption by making it entertainment.

• AI ads and "dark patterns" use FOMO and stress to pressure you into buying.

I’m sure you’ve seen a Labubu doll. A few months back, while surviving a family event, my cousin told me about the weird doll. Life has never been the same since then. My feed has been flooded with the Labubus. I figured out it’s our recent collective obsession, of course, until we move on to a “new viral weird thing” because let’s be honest, do we remember what we were obsessed with last year or even a few months back? Ah, well, consumerism!

In the era of Instagram and Pinterest, we see new trends every day. Every morning, we wake up to a new thing we are forced to make up our personality around. From our clothing choices to what we eat (shout-out Crumbl), decisions are made by algorithms. It’s intriguing why we are so hurried to get “what’s in”. In today’s article, let's explore the mindset of a healthy consumer who becomes a compulsive buyer.

The Psychological Trap

Modern shopping isn't just about buying things; it's a trap designed to target three key parts of you: your identity, your emotions, and your brain's reward system. 

1. The Possessions Became Your "Identity"

We've always used our possessions to show who we are, and brands now exploit this by selling you a sense of "identity". They might promise to make you "fit in" with the trendy crowd or "stand out" as unique. The catch? This "identity" is designed to expire. To stay cool, you have to keep buying the next new color or series, effectively paying a subscription fee for your personality.

2. The Retail Therapy Myth

 This is made worse by the "retail therapy" myth. You might shop to get a "temporary escape" from feeling sad or anxious. But the "brief sense of happiness" is quickly replaced by guilt and the stress of new debt. This just makes you feel worse, creating an even stronger urge to shop again to escape those new bad feelings. Many studies have established that this emotional consumption is bidirectional; we buy things to escape sadness or anxiety; however, this further causes more of such negative feeling leading to us buying even more. Therefore, it is a consequence as well as a cause of poor mental well-being

3. High On Dopamine?

This entire cycle is then powered by your brain's "wanting" chemical, dopamine. Modern shopping is engineered to get you hooked on the gamble of the purchase, not the product itself. Every time we open our favourite shopping app, we are flooded with products. As we buy one (or of course more) of them, we get a small hit of dopamine (the feel-good hormone), then we tend to start anticipating its arrival. Every notification of "your item is shipped" or "out for delivery" creates a continuous dopamine cycle that keeps us hooked to buying more.

This psychological trap is then made worse by the technology you use every day, which is "designed to keep users hooked". Social media algorithms on apps like TikTok feed you an "endless scroll" of "haul videos" and "#TikTokMadeMeBuyIt" content. This "blurs the line between entertainment and shopping," making all this over-the-top buying seem normal. After a while, the joy of just watching fades, and to get the same satisfying hit, you're pushed to stop watching and start actually buying. 

It also gets personal. AI ads can now guess when you're feeling lonely, stressed, or bored and target you with the "perfect" product at your weakest moment. Finally, when you click that ad, you're often sent to a website that uses tricks to manipulate you. These include stressful countdown timers, hidden fees, and subscription traps you can't get out of. These "dark patterns" are built to create "FOMO" and stop you from thinking clearly, pushing you into a purchase you never really wanted to make

Now that we know about the psychology behind the compulsions to buy what’s “aesthetic," maybe, just maybe, next time we see something that we want immediately, we take a step back and think twice. Do we really “need” to buy that thing? Or are we “forced” to buy it by the algorithm?