Consume Consciously: All You Need is Less

Ugh. We hate to say it, but overconsumption is slowly killing us. We used to love watching beauty gurus on YouTube unbox PR and share clothing hauls and back-to-school videos. But what once felt aspirational and comforting is now an unachievable level of consumption that leaves us feeling like sh*t after a night of scrolling. After noticing our FYP’s consist of guest room bathroom restocks after Amazon haul after seasonal target decor hauls we’ve had enough. We are actually disgusted. Overconsumption is not aspirational; instead, it is dangerous in many different ways. 

De-influence with Diana

With an attempt to de-influence the masses, Diana on TikTok stitches videos that display mass levels of overconsumption and comments alongside makeup reorganization videos like this one, where she flatly comments, “I just wanna start this off by saying that this is no longer desirable to me,” as an influencer organizes 110 lip products in a plastic organizer and closes the drawer moving onto the next. “At one point in time, this was like ‘goals’ or ‘wow’ and ‘I just can’t wait to have this in my life at some point’ or ‘you’re so lucky’ and now I think this is extremely irresponsible for multiple reasons.” Diana goes on to talk about how pushing this type of consumption to a large following is irresponsible and changes our brains' wants and needs. This type of content is detrimental to the creators' wallets, minds and our planet as well as the viewers.

Consume Consciously

Here at The Edge, we are taking control of our FYPs by unfollowing over-consumers and following creators that feature a low or neutral level of consumption, if any on their platforms. Here are our recommendations (we promise they won’t organize 1200 makeup products in an Ikea Alex Tower) to make healthy switches. 

Beauty: @SaraRoseBeauty on Youtube “I love helping you shop smart, buy less, and enjoy the makeup collection you already own!”

Fashion and Lifestyle: check out @style.withasmile, @aditimayer, @leevosburgh, @candicemtay or @mrspress on Instagram. 

Declutter: @minimalism_with_mary on Instagram. 

Debunking consumption: @depressiondotgov on TikTok.

Have additional recommendations? Message us on Instagram at @theedgemag to keep the conversation going!