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Young woman looking at different racks of clothes at a store.
Young woman looking at different racks of clothes at a store.
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Temple | Style > Fashion

Social Media Trend Cycles and Overconsumption

Clara Whitley Student Contributor, Temple University
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Temple chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

Clothing items come in and out of popularity constantly. What was popular two years ago might be the pinnacle of bad style today. What was ugly and unwearable six months ago might be the hot new piece today!  

The fact that fashion and our attitudes to it are always changing is the one thing we can always be truly sure of. 

With the emergence of the internet, these trend cycles are even more vicious than they have been before. TikTok and Instagram influencers are constantly posting about what the hot new product is, what’s in for the season, and what item you need to run, not walk to buy.  

The need to buy, the need to consume, is ever prevalent on social media. These trends and the constant showcasing of new materials can lead to the overconsumption of clothing. 

As humans, we own more clothes now than we ever have before. Global clothing utilization has declined by 36% over the past 15 years, meaning that we keep them for less time, and wear them less frequently. The average consumer in 2014 bought 60% more clothes than they did in 2000, and kept each garment for half as long. It’s been an additional 12 years since this statistic, and we are only getting worse. 

What’s largely changed in this gap of time is the widespread popularity of fast fashion online sites. Since we are buying so many things that we don’t wear, many people turn to cheap clothing sites in order to purchase more without spending more.  

These kinds of inexpensive, rapidly produced clothing from large retailers are referred to as fast fashion. Fast fashion sites have blown up in the industry in the past 15 or so years. While the term itself was coined in 1990, social media sites have propelled the industry into the global giant it is today.  into the global giant it is today.  

Fast fashion brands make participating in the ever-changing trend cycles so easy because of their low price and constantly changing product base. Spending $8 on a t-shirt makes it easy to follow the trend for the three months it is popular and then throw it away once it has been labeled cheugy.  

We overconsume and then discard. More than 11 million tons of textile waste ended up in landfills in 2018 alone. Materials such as polyester do not break down in a natural way. Taking anywhere from 20 to 200 years to decompose, it will break down into microplastics that stay in the environment indefinitely. 

Most people are aware of the environmental impacts that fast fashion has on our world. This does little to stop them from continued purchasing. There is a real disconnect when it comes to online shopping and environmental repercussions. Buying a shirt online doesn’t seem like it would lead to this, but it does.. There is a real disconnect when it comes to online shopping and the environmental repercussions. Buying a shirt online doesn’t seem like it would lead to this, but it does. 

I want to point out that living within this system is difficult in itself, and sometimes we can’t completely abstain from practices that have become commonplace.  

Fast fashion is so popular because most people don’t have the money to buy specialty handmade clothing pieces. Price and convenience are two large driving factors.  

One solution to this problem that I am very fond of is shopping for clothing secondhand. Shopping secondhand is a great way to curate your own personal style instead of relying on online trends. It also helps to reduce waste by keeping items in circulation instead of throwing them away.  

I have also found that shopping in person is an easier way to not overconsume. Instead of tailoring what you buy to what’s trending, you get to see what feels good in person, if it looks good on your body, and if you feel confident in it.  

It is also physically more difficult to overconsume; you get to really feel how many clothes you are carrying and stop and think about how much you are really buying.  

In my opinion, we’ve gotten so used to the convenience of online shopping that we rarely stop to think about the impacts that can come from practice when they become commonplace. 

Clara Whitley

Temple '28

Hi! My name is Clara Whitley, a staff writer at Her Campus Temple.

I am in my third year at Temple University, majoring in sociology with a minor in public policy and apart of the honors college program. Outside of Her Campus I enjoy community service and spend time volunteering at the Cherry Pantry, an on campus food pantry designed to combat food insecurity.

I enjoy exploring the city of Philadelphia, spending time with loved ones, listening and dancing to good music, expressing myself creatively, and being in nature.