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thing that we buy, that we just simply do not need for. this is my favorite trend of all time. i can't believe we as a collective are finally admitting that overconsumption as getting out of control. i fall into the same job where like i need the next new products are needed to fall . the next you trying to feel like the most beautiful, with my make a product extra with my next glam that i do the i'd say needed to have the it products to be relevant. and that's just ridiculous. i just today take talk to and consumer culture. you've heard of influencers, but what about a de influencer? i'm happy to have a dean and on this episode of the stream, we'll look at the tick tock trend. what is the thing about our online shopping habits and our shifting attitudes towards influences? as always, you can be part of this conversation, just put your questions and comments into our lives. youtube jet. me with us to talk about this in london, debarber, author of the book consumed the need for collective change,

colonialism, climate change, and consumerism. in the u. s. state of arkansas, jessica clifton, and online content creator who focuses on sustainability and in new york, elisa, lakes and author branding expert and the founder of leave your mark. welcome to you . all i want to start with you. i mean, what is the influencing and what do you attribute to this new trend? wow, the 1st thing i'll start with is, i hope that it's not a trend. the reality is we had been buying too much for far too long, and the planet can no longer sustain us in this way of buying. and so it's, this is a trend. it's probably not something that should be a trend, but ultimately, what i'm seeing is a lot of people talking about consumption, which is awesome. that's exactly where we need to be. however, i've seen some people sort of say, don't buy this by this and said when actually we should be asking ourselves why we're buying so much stuff to begin with. yeah, i appreciate that framing. i mean,

i was a bit confused because it seems like they're still kind of influencing, but they're just pivoting and i don't know like reverse psychology. we'll get into that in a bit. but question, just get your thoughts. is this a trend and what's driving it? certainly feels like a trend right now is definitely as a trend with ours, i would love for the conversation to continue further. i 1st i was so excited to see this trend, obviously st. about the content creators, he's been trying to create a way that they're on other countries. for years. it started with a lot of normal people. i mean, awareness about their own over consumption. people making videos about like i didn't realize i had washers, i didn't realize, but continue to buy new hair dresses, which i think is a beautiful realization the realization i had for years to go back and change my mind that consumption for ever. but yeah, just like are you just mentioned it quickly turned into by that not by bashing brands and buying just different,

cheaper dupes wishes going back into the over consumption hampshire. well, that we've been over consumption hamster, we'll leave that. does that ring true to you? i mean, do you feel like this trend is actually separate from influencing in general? the great question and you know, to be honest, i agree with both of you on, on why it's a great thing, but here's where it went awry. when it start illegitimate thing. the creator economy, right? because, i mean, just, you said it best in one of your videos like there is amazing content creators on tick tock, for example. and the idea that de influencing and i think it's like, you know, the hash tag overconsumption would have been a better thing to go viral than be influencing. because i do think what's happening is legitimate creator, who are authentic, who care about what they talk about, who care about who they align with, are kind of being roped into this. and then we start to see mainstream headlines

that are like or influences over is influenced or marketing debt. and the reality is we live in a world where brands are going to constantly try to sell you something. the only difference here is the tick tock algorithm, where you pay that it's feeding you constantly, things that they think you want to see. right? and you know, whether it is a trend isn't a trend. we have a lot of people on take talk, commenting about this. all one of whom mail says that this d influencing trend is actually a trend that's just gone off the rails. take a look not to be shady, but it seems like a lot of you don't actually know would be influencing is telling people you don't like a product only to recommend they buy a different product is still influencing the entire ethos of the influencing is to get people to consume less, not by other different things. and so it's around the topic, this trend, how quickly dulled into mean girl territory using it as an excuse to bully and shooting people for the way that they spend their money. like it shouldn't need to be said that if somebody buys a product that you don't, mike are considered be too expensive. it is not

a reflection of their level of intelligence or character who's actively trying to consume less. i like the idea of the trend, but it is going off the rails very quickly. so odds are what do you think of that? i mean, more people certainly seem to be thinking about their over consumption habits. we've seen those haul videos featuring sort of fast fashion and beauty products, but what do you make about that video common and what are your ethical concerns with all of this? i mean, what's, what's this really about? my ethical concerns are the fact that we are in a climate crisis and a few years. well actually know right now places in the world are already seeing water shortages. we're seeing resource shortages when i know that the fashion industry accounts for so much waste and so much over consumption, we're talking millions of products getting incinerated. i know that ultimately this can't be a trend. and, you know, if we're talking about judging people for how they spend their money, no, we shouldn't be doing this, but we should be asking ourselves why we're spend their money in the way we're doing it. when we talk about water crisis,

water crisis and different parts of the world, but you need to understand as things like cotton, which is used for that t shirt. that accounts for a lot of water to grow that continent to produce and harvest those goods. and so if we already have people that are facing water shortages and we have a. busy world where we're sort of being pushed to by you know, a pair of jeans, a year, 20 cotton t shirts which we ultimately aren't going to wear and they might end up in the landfill. then what are we doing besides creating more strife and strain for our fellow humans who we share this planet with? most certainly, certainly important question. i don't know if i have an answer. maybe you do a lot of people in youtube also commenting. we have, for example, cherry very thing. consumerism is out of hand and there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. it should just be about consuming less and more ethically, not as in brands, but as in the way we are consuming. so obviously

a lot of people reflecting on their habits as we've said, but i mean, if i'm not mistaken, the influencing at the end of the day still very much seems like people are trying to in fluids, people's behavior online in terms of how they spend their money, so we've, we've kind of mentioned this point, but i want to share with you an articulate professor who, who shared it with a jonathan sent us this video about the changing identity for influences and why it's all a bit confusing. take listen to what we're seeing. influence has become d influences, but it's a bit of a paradox, surely because you've got influences who are looking to monetize their social presence. and if we look at the rise of the influence, so that was because content traces through the democratization of information quite rightly challenged are the sizes and journalists about their opinions. but now we see that the tables have turned an influences have been challenged about being potentially to money hungry. so i think in reality, what we're going to say is a balancing act we're influences are going to be influences and the influences at

the same time. and to me, it's a bit like the old psychology trick way. if you tell somebody not to do something, it actually increases the accuracy and desire. so these are what do you make of jonathan's comments there? i know that you've recently published this article, a headline really gives it away here. it says d. influencing is a scam actually, and we've seen this trend before. so what do you think of that? so 1st of all, i think jonathan was very well spoken in his answer, but the problem is that it is true if you even have a 100 followers and you are telling them not to do something. and they respect your opinion because you're coming from an authentic place, you have influenced them. so i think the issue we're having here is not so much the message as much as it is the hash tag in a way that has gone viral. because i mean, when we think back to any previous economic downturn,

take it 2008. right. 2009 was the year that bloggers really came to the forefront. certainly in fashion. and even though they existed prior to that, that was when all of a sudden everyone was like, wow, here are the people they're giving their real opinions. yeah. because they had no skin in the game. they were not, they were not hearing to advertise her dollars. they really could be authentic. so i think it's twofold. i think there is the need to stop over consumption, but there's also the need for authentic voices. and there is a lot that's happening online right now, where people are taking, you know, as much money as they can. and you know, you can't blame me at the end of the day. i think the other issue is this is a business being a full time content creator is a legitimate, fair enough. so can you said you can blame them? go ahead. yeah, go ahead. i was going to come, can we blame them? what is one of the things that i want to get back to is the fact that i know a lot of people who have been, you know, ethical content creators for

a long time. and the reality is, we sit out a lot of money for our morals, and i am one of those people. if i were to go around saying that everything that's thrown my way is sustainable, i would be a multimillionaire, right? but i've already evaluated what i want for myself on this planet, and i actually don't want that because i don't think that that's really helping the problem. so there are people that are legitimately in this conversation and have been into it for a long time. and we aren't making over money, but we are in it for the right reasons. and i like the idea that, you know, i can influence someone by basically re wearing my clothing a lot. and by saying no to bad brands that i know you not care about the planet. and yes, that means that i'm not making all the money. but i think when you re evaluate the planet that we're living on and the systems that we're living under, some people might find that maybe that's not actually the path for you. so it really depends on the person and ultimately what they want out of their platform.

and for me, as someone who has sat out hundreds and thousands of dollars because i will not be the face, the green washing, i can say that you have to evaluate who the person is what their platform is and why they're and i'm not selling a lot of things on my platform because of that i'm missing out on huge paycheck. but you know what? that is not where my joy comes from. i don't want all the clothes. i don't want fancy cards. i don't want, you know, a lot of the things that we've been told were supposed to want, and that's a cultural shift that i'm also seeing that i think it's important. right. and i think when you think cultural shift, that's so important that we frame it as such because at the end of the day it's really about a much broader trend outside of take talk of consumerism, capitalism, in general. lot of people and you to commenting on that. before i come back to you, i want to ask you quickly, i mean, what do you think about the idea that sustainable goods and practices are privileged that not everyone can afford? i think people that i have grown up with and known with my friendship circle and my

own family are often more sustainable than the people that go out and buy the all the sustainable this and that because that's what you're supposed to have. so i think that that conversation has kind of been used to, to continue our consumerism within our society. because the truth of the matter is sitting back and say, you know why, i'm not going to buy x amount of new clothes this year. i'm just going to get the genes that is something that a lot of us can do, right? flowing down, it costs you nothing. and a lot of people are already doing that. it's just not fancy and social media packaged, you know? yeah. have a you, i just want to, i just want to kind of accurate what you were saying. i think i think what you're talking about about sitting out on those opportunities goes back to your belief system, right. and in my upcoming book on brand one of that, which is all about building your personal brand, one of the 1st exercises is, what is your belief system? what do you want to align with? and i think a lot of people do a good job of making sure that they have

a clear belief system for their own personal brand dna. and they stick to it. and then there are others who are out for the cake. and i completely agree with you, you can miss out on a lot of financial opportunity. but at the end of the day, you have to sleep at night through. people are fine with that. and i was calling to let track close. i was not, you're right, you're right. i mean, i was just gonna say a lot of people i think might be motivated by profit rather than purpose. so maybe the reflecting more on how they and the, you know, in this culture where we're all comparing ourselves to the next person on the next platform. i mean, i think that can influence our own belief system, but less about my thoughts more about yours. i wanna share it with you. cherry very thing. thank you for reading my comment. my question for the panel panel is what is something we can all do to be less consumers and help the planet? jessica, what comes to mind when you hear these sort of concerns either from cherry fairy

here or just from people who follow you online? what do you say? kind of what i was just talking about when it comes to buying sustainable good. the back of the matter is green. capitalism is not going to fall. climate change is not going to help over consumption. so what is so great is a way to help our consumption behavior is literally to change your mindset. oh, once that around consumption, it's all about asking questions before you buy, kind of creating a pause before you purchase something just to see is this and purchase? does this brand treat the planet and workers correctly? just starting to ask those questions is a great way to learn how to consume more consciously. it's not about buying new things. it's about shipping that mindset and buying less. and, you know, anecdotally in the last few years, i've seen tick tock, kind of kind of consuming so many people's attention and bandwidth. it's really, you know, taken off. we've also seen companies like she and,

and others just really bring the price point down to a point that's really staggering to believe. i mean, it's hard if you look on their website, but this is forget sustainable, but forget even ethical but possible. and so with that in mind, i do want to know, like, i guess when you see a hall video where people are in boxing tons of clothes from she in or somewhere else. i mean, what is your initial reaction to that knowing that there are millions of people potentially doing that on take doc, for example, nacia. i feel nauseous when i make me feel sick. and what does i mean? i think it's interesting. it makes you feel think, but it's also making our planet sake. i mean, i asked you earlier, what are the costs, and one of your answers to our producers and the pre interviews that i found really interesting is you were kind of pinpointing a good solution for consumers is to think about who is benefiting. right. like, are you benefiting? is it just the influence or could you talk us through some of that and what the real cost is for the planet?

yeah, so 60 percent of fibers that exist and retail spaces today are polyester. what that means is they are plastic. a lot of people do not connect the plastic problem to our clothing, but a lot of the closing is being made is not being made from natural fibers. so what does that mean? it means it's never going to bio degrade that dress that you bought to where one time for a weekend, it's going to be on the planet for longer than you well. and what we also know is with microfiber, stay go everywhere, including in our water stream, fish eat them, you know, so when we are eating and drinking water, as long as we are continuing to watch these fibers that shed, they will get into our food supply. so at the end of the day, i think there is this idea that fast fashion is hard, blessed and we know that other people and we know that it's harming the planet. but eventually that's gonna come around and harm you to. you might think you're just having fun, but like nobody wants to drink plastic. and by the way,

a lot of the colder fake. so let's talk about that too. a lot of people are buying in bulk from different brands to create content. so it's not even are they have, they're actually buying the product, they're doing it to have content creation, right? and that's what it's concerning to me like when we talk about this as a trend. i mean, all of this is concerning to me and it should be to all of us. but i'm, for example, terry ferry. now, part of this conversation i love and that happens in you to chime in thing. the problem with saying by more ethical brands is most of them are expensive and poor people like me can't afford them, but we can do thrift shopping and stuff. so that issue of the price point. jessica, what comes to mind for you? i mean, what's the solution social media really does tend to make people feel like they're poor or they're missing out. yeah. so to me, it's not people who are living within their means that are causing the math over consumption. is the people who are making these $501000.00 halls of she and on

pick talk. when people love to talk about this, there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. it isn't really great point, but when people are talking about, you know, shopping more consciously and we're talking about the, the more sustainable products in general. when this comes up, it's never for the people who are living in there is the people where yeah, if you can spend $500.00 on a 5 fashion company, you can probably consume less and put that money toward brands who are actually treating their workers barely can i say i clarify when i say it again, i was up when i i felt buying fast fashion when i was broke. basically i realize that all of my disposable income was going into to the direction of clothing that i didn't even need. or really, why like that? well, your income was going to disposable clothing arguably. exactly. and so there became a time period where i was really not financially in

a great place. and i was like something scott again and i ended up wearing the clothing in my closet and it turned out i had a lot of clothing. and i began to realize that i never wanted to go back to that way again. and it's such a better way of living. i don't have the same sort of impulsive purchases, which i think that's what a lot of fact fashion runs on is impulsive buying. and so when you have that mindset shift, you aren't going to get, as, you know, pushed into buying something really quickly because you're actually researching and taking the time and saving for things. i think sometimes in our society we have this idea that if you have to say for something that means that it's unfair and affordable, but that's just not the way our grandparents shop is, not the way we're supposed to be buying clothing. it shouldn't be that a rest costs the same as a lot, so it just isn't. no, we can't have a world where we pay people fairly if that's what we're looking for. but additionally, the person that has to pick between paying their light bill or buying

a pair of trousers from an unethical maker is never going to be the person doing the whole video. yeah, we have to be realistic about who is doing the damage here. and i think for a long time this conversation has been very dishonest. yeah. dishonest, i think a lack of transparency and accountability which i'm so grateful that we're bringing to it today. obviously, it's safe to say that influencing for better or worse is not going anywhere with that in mind. what are some of the takeaways? well, we have actually a d t mayor who is this sustainable fashion blogger who actually shares with, with us what she thinks of the whole, the influencing trend, why it matters and where it may be. going to go with the fact that we have this name of the influencing and the fact that it has permeated to the internet at large is so important for the cultural zeitgeist. we need more conversations about how influence our culture is predicated on this really false idea. of aspiration,

that is all about mind this consumption or single use outfits and that needs to change. um, but what concerns me is the fact that the influencing is being called a trend. i hope that the influencing is not a fleeting moment on the internet. and i hope that it becomes an opportunity for us to kind of think more critically about these fast pace consumption lace platforms like tick tock. so these are what should people keep in mind? or if they want to keep buying things, i mean, any advice here? well, 1st of all, i would say that if anyone is truly against what, what they believe is tick, tock ball, then they should probably get off the phone. number one like you don't, no one has to be there and you control who you follow. you certainly can feed your for you page to give you about what you want to see. the 2nd thing is that i don't think that we should be shaming content creators who are promoting brands,

if their livelihood. so i think we have to separate what is an actual job not saying they should be doing whole through she and i don't think anyone should shop a chan, but this is advertising. this is our new form of advertising since the influence or economy so. so i leave that because we're running out of time. i just want a pepper and a comment that just came in on this issue. charles caplin saying on youtube to us, thanks to the celebrities for allowing themselves to be the poster people for fast fashion different clothes, every frequent event, a hollywood so ok. where do any? yeah, is not going. 2 sample. ok, i that is where i come from. i used to dress every celebrity for the red carpet. those are actually that is the most sustainable practice. those are borrowed samples. they're not even showing different things. constantly. people don't know that, right? so like there is power and the celebrity who re, where's the thing,

whether it's borrowed or not, or we don't in the culture. okay. we all have to do about models and i think the luxury of going up and different offers every single time you see them does promote that. we need to be wearing different things all the time. so whether it's samples or not, they're still promoting the over consumption because the normal consumer doesn't know that these are samples. they are just high dollar items that they're wearing on the red carpet that they never wear again. but think about how it affects all the other industries ray, where a different garment, which you know, many celebrities change during the day. and if the attention of property, you have many different photos in different outlets. which means media sites are gonna pick up all different versions of you and different app, and so everything is feeding each other. it is an ecosystem of media, is what we're talking fair enough. i mean, certainly an ecosystem that has a lot of flaws, but also thanks to this conversation, banks to your expertise. hopefully we can move in a direction that's more sustainable for everybody. and for what it's worth,

it's given me a lot to think about. so i want to thank you and jessica lisa, i mean maybe i'm winning in some way because i think i've worn this blazer on every single show this month. so definitely not living up to the celebrity, celebrity culture. but that's all the time we have for today. thanks to everyone for your comments, particularly you cherry sherry, i don't know if that's your name, but always love when you guys get into this conversation. see you next time. ah ah ah

ah, with to moment a vice of fame and success and a multi 1000000000 dollar for her da da chin to pull her ambition challenge by fanny's occasion, and cultural tradition. hollywood freeman on i just even ah,

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