there are a lot of things we don't need that feel like a necessity after we see them again and again in trends on social media. trends like "Tiktok made me buy it" and "affordable items on amazon you NEED", premote cheaply made, low quality items that underpaid workers slaved over just for you to use it once and forget about it, or decide you don't like it but be to lazy to send it back. there are a lot of things that have been built into our society that are really useless. and of course its ok to want things. we just cant let it consume our whole lives while we hop on trends until there gone and then throw the items out to make space for whatever new thing will come and go.

I totally agree with what you are saying, with social media paying influencers to promote cheap fashion or low quality items, people get influenced to want to buy them. Usually these items are made from fast fashion industry’s as well. For example the fashion website many buy from, Shein, is a fast fashion clothing online store that uses child labor and sweatshop factory’s to make there clothes. Usually these clothes also end up being unsuitable or break easily so the people send them back, and when they are sent back broken and battered the company throws the things away making this never ending cycle keep hurting the climate. From a analysis by Business Insider fast fashion industry’s are responsible for almost 10% of the worlds total carbon emissions. These industry’s end up drying water sources for people and animals, They also pollute many rivers and lakes. And circling back to how they throw the unwanted items away, almost 85% of the products made are sent to dumps almost a week later. So again in this I totally agree with your statement about how these things are wants that end up hurting our world, so next time someone decides to buy from fast fashion they should think twice.

It is a great point you(liza) made about how different aspects of the internet promote cheep, poor quality consumer goods. The problem isn’t only that they are promoted, but the fact that these type of items are made in the fist place! Large companies implement planned obsolescence to purposely create products that will break, forcing consumers to buy a new thing, and putting exorbitant amounts of waste into the consumer cycle. This type of explotion needs to stop, and I agree that outside of creating laws that prevent companies from doing this, the best way to make change is to stop buying these products.

I think it’s interesting how people talk about these unnecessary purchases with excuses like “TikTok made me buy it,” like they were forced into buying it and they had no other choice. I think sometimes they know it was just some silly thing they bought, don’t really need, and will forget about quickly, but saying that TikTok made them buy it puts the blame partially on the viewers and relieves the influencer some guilt. I wish they could just own up to the fact that they bought it and maybe they shouldn’t have.
I agree with Raya, it would be ideal if this was stopped at the beginning, before anyone anywhere even had a chance to buy it. We can help prevent these products from being exchanged by refusing to buy them or at least thinking hard: is it a want or a need?

The idea of thinking "Wants or Needs" is really interesting and could actually helps us to make less compulsive purchases. I should probably talk about this with my mom. Sometimes we bought things that are "useless" according to our lifestyle. And it's such a problem since we use it like just once or twice and then, put in drawers, etc. We should think twice before buying things, we should ask ourself if it's a need or just something I want( knowing that it could just be for ostentatious purposes)