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Magnific. (n.d.). Top view boss sticker on mug [Photograph]. Magnific. https://www.magnific.com/free-photo/top-view-boss-sticker-mug_9640632.htm
By Shayne Solomon
In a world of golden Labubus, Dubai chocolate and NeeDoh squishy toys, are you the self-taught upcycler?
There is so much beauty, right now, in how social media has grown as a platform for sharing like-minded thoughts, interests and creative ways. This streamlined approach to conversation has allowed us to connect through culture and communities all over the world. But through the globalization of constant communication, people are now conforming to the trendy influences on social media. This is partly the fault of our pesky algorithm. When you interact with content, it tracks your behavior and metadata to gather similar content for your feed, and over time your feed becomes perfectly curated into one style. It might sound nice to be able to have a place that’s only about your specific mindless-scrolling interests, but it enables mental laziness. If you’re seeing the same things day in and day out, your creativity gets stuck in an echo chamber.
A great example of this is the fast-fashion trend. Human nature is to want to fit in and unconsciously conform to societal standards, especially in the beauty industry. And fast Fashion websites like Shein, Temu, Cider and Fashion Nova create clothing daily based on current micro-trends floating around social media. These companies’ primary target audiences on social media are girls and women around the ages of 16-35. This is because women are a large part of consumer spending, and they are subject to constant mass scrutiny of their looks and intellect in society today. And when people are buying from these fast fashion brands to always have the newest and trendiest item, that not only leaves everyone looking the same, but they aren’t engaging in thoughtful dialogue with themselves to determine if that trend is an actual extension of their creativity.
Start at 4:25 to hear about how TikTok negatively impacts consumer behavior.
Fashion is a way of using your creativity to express yourself. But the aesthetic trends and TikTok beauty advertisements have quickly capitalized on these girl’s/women’s psych. They put a price on beauty and try to sell the Western beauty standard as the standard to conform to. In turn, this creates a population of young women who are insecure and aspiring to look the same, in pursuit of feeling worthy based on their appearance.
I am not saying that all trends are bad, and that we all must have a perfectly niche creative appearance. I understand that it is nearly impossible to have a completely original thought, and inspiration must come from somewhere (just look at Pinterest). I am suggesting that if we take a step back and do things without the noise of social media, we might discover something new and exciting about ourselves that distinguishes our minds from the ideas of others. Generally, these actions are more economical and lead to feeling more pride in your creative ideas.
