Social Media Leading to Overconsumption

Growing to a $15 million company in under two years, Parke has become one of social

media’s trendiest brands. Rivaling them is brands such as Daily Drills and Set Active.

With all of these brands exponentially growing in under five years, it sparks the question

of how these brands became so popular.

With the rise of social media marketing, it has become even significantly easier for

brands to mass promote their products. This makes campaigning for each product

launch significantly easier, allowing brands to release products more often. In addition to

this, social media makes it easier for influencers to create brands and launch products

to sell to their followers. Meanwhile, their followers and social media users are able to

hear about, purchase, review, and share these product launches both quickly and

easily. The ability to generate buzz surrounding these products so quickly means that

the hype around it dies just as quickly, causing brands to drop more often to remain

relevant.

The frequency of these drops, coupled with the limited stock of each product launch,

has led consumers to develop a scarcity mindset. Consumers are under the impression

that once the clothing has sold out, it is gone forever, furthering the scramble to

purchase. This causes brands such as Parke, Daily Drills, and Set Active to sell out in

mere minutes. Users all over social media have shared both the thrill and the struggle of

shopping these collection drops. Consumers can be seen flaunting their latest, trendy

apparel, while others complain of website crashes and their carts selling out during

checkout. Both the hype and the complaints surrounding these companies increase the

brands’ popularity and sales.

While the scarcity mindset may be good for brands’ growth and sales, many have

pointed out that a scarcity mindset has its downsides. People argue that the frequent

drops and the rapid selling-out of these collections are overconsumption. With the rise

of the environmentalism movement, more and more people are concerned about the

rate at which our society purchases and discards products. With landfills continuing to

pile up, many are concerned that the frequent product launches will cause past

launches to become outdated and thrown away.

While social media has been an asset to many companies, it is also crucial to consider

how the constant cycling of products leads to overconsumption, further polluting the

planet.