Anna Rinaggio, Campus Carrier opinions editor
We love to buy stuff. Water bottles, stuffed animals, clothes — you name it. Thanks to the fact that we live in a world where you can buy anything you want at any hour of the day, it is almost too easy to buy way more than we need. In an ideal world, buying yourself a little treat a few times too often wouldn’t be a huge issue. In reality, though, we buy ourselves a little treat a little too often, and it’s becoming a huge problem.
Overconsumption isn’t a particularly new issue. We’ve long been buying more food, clothes and decorations than we really need. Sometimes, it’s just easier to buy something new rather than fix whatever it is that needs a repair. What’s becoming an even bigger issue, however, is the fact that we’re buying new stuff even when the things we already have aren’t broken.
If you happen to see a cute sweater at Target for a decent price on a random Tuesday, for example, you’re probably not going to think much about how you already have five sweaters at home. Nevermind the fact that you came to Target for deodorant and toothpaste — that sweater is cute and it’s only $20. The question isn’t “do I really need this?” but rather, “how can I pass up a deal like that?”
Sure, the sweater is cute, but how many times are you really going to wear it? Are you going to repeat this process over again when you see the next cute sweater in a few months? What happens to that sweater you just bought? Are you still going to wear that when the next cute thing comes along? These are all questions we should be asking ourselves when we want to make a purchase — especially an impulsive one — that we tend to gloss over.
Stanley cups are probably one of the best examples of recent popular overconsumption. The point of a reusable water bottle like a Stanley cup is to help us use less single-use plastics and effectively reduce waste. Having one or two Stanley cups is fine, but there are plenty of people on social media who have gone overboard with their collections. Having eight different colors of Stanleys to match your outfit every day is a bit too much. Fighting people at Target to get a Stanley x Starbucks cup is a ridiculous 2024 issue.
What happened to your Hydroflask from last year? Has that been shoved in the back of the cabinet with the other 10 used-to-be-popular reusable water bottles you’ve bought over the years? Will the five Stanley cups you bought this year join them when the next big water bottle comes out? The point of reusable water bottles is to reuse them. How many times are you reusing something if you have eight versions of it, though? Not nearly as many times as you would be if you only had one.
Skincare is also a place where overconsumption comes to mind. There are countless young children on TikTok sharing their elaborate skincare routines every day. The number of Drunk Elephant plastic bottles going in the trash is surely too many to count.
That’s not to diss on the benefits of skincare, but it does shed light on the fact that we are buying a lot of skincare products in single-use plastic containers. Many of us are probably buying more than we truly need. Wanting to test a new and popular product can be tempting, but if you’re buying it just to buy it and not because you think it will actually be beneficial to your skin’s health, you’re contributing to a very harmful habit.
Getting yourself something new every once and a while isn’t a bad thing, but buying way more than you need, especially when you’re buying something that theoretically aims to reduce consumption, is something we all need to watch out for. Practicing ethical consumption — being mindful of what and how much we are buying in an effort to minimize the effects of our purchases on the environment — is way more important than we often realize. This mindfulness isn’t always easy, especially when we’re constantly surrounded by the endless possibilities of all the things we could buy, but making even just a little effort to reduce your consumerism makes a big difference.