User:Gracezillaa/Fast fashion

Social Media's Impact
The rise of Social Media has revolutionized on how we consume media. Instagram, Tumblr, Youtube, and in more recent years Tik Tok are just a few examples of popular platforms. On these platforms, people are exposed to a wide variety of content that include personalized shopping ads, social media influencers, and videos of shopping hauls. This pushes mass consumption of products that are being advertised. " On social media we see hundreds of videos of hauls and shopping sprees. This phenomenon is terrible for the environment. The fashion industry is one of the leading polluters in the world, as well as depending on exploitive labor practices." Younger generations like Millennials and specifically Gen Z are the most vulnerable to over consumption via social media. "A 2020 survey by Vogue Business found that more than half of its Gen Z participants bought most of their clothes from fast-fashion brands, like H&M, Gap, Zara and Forever 21. Market research firm Mintel has reported that Gen Z, generally seen as those born between 1997 and 2010, also buys more clothes than older generations, with the average Gen-Zer owning hundreds of dollars worth of outfits that never get worn at all. It’s a trend that analysts say is fueled by a social media culture that pressures youth and young adults to never wear the same outfit twice, as well as an industry that has made impulse buying and returning items far easier." "Fast fashion, the quick manufacturing and selling of cheap clothing, is a result of the high demand for clothes that conform to ever-changing trends. Creating clothes so quickly at such a low price requires a process that is extremely detrimental to the environment, which is the main reason fast fashion is such a major problem today. Social media promotes clothing trends by exposing millions of users to new clothing styles. The more people adopt these trends, the higher the demand for the clothing items becomes." In the early 2020's a platform, named Tik Tok gained extreme popularity. " TikTok’s great rise to fashion power player status is in large part owed to COVID-19. The platform exploded when everyone was locked in their home without nowhere to go and nothing to do.Compared to some of its other social media predecessors, like Instagram, which has a static feed, or YouTube, which typically features more long-form videos, TikTok was known for its short-form videos. At maximum, a TikTok user has three minutes to give you the content you crave. The problem with this is that aside from birthing even shorter attention spans, it has also birthed microtrends."