TikTok— the platform most of us spend an average of 95 minutes a day on. But has this perfectly curated feed become something more than addictive entertainment?
Introduced in 2023, the TikTok Shop feature has become synonymous with ‘cheap, unmissable deals’. Just this week I’ve seen ads for £9 sofas! It’s likely that the only drawback of TikTok Shop you’ve considered before is the bombardment of ads. It’s annoying. What was once a cycle of fresh, funny clips has spiralled into a global e-market. Some users are even complaining they see an ad every six videos. However, the problem with TikTok Shop goes much further than a mild inconvenience.
With fashion responsible for 10 per cent of global carbon emissions, it’s no surprise that TikTok’s ‘viral clothing’ is contributing to environmental harm. Products are scarily cheap because of how they’re made: in overseas sweatshops, by workers suffering abysmal wages and gruelling shifts. It’s also clear that the rise of TikTok’s ‘in-app purchases’ is perpetuating a ‘wear it once’ culture. Studies show we wear an item 7-10 times before discarding – this number only worsens with readily available cheap garments.
In an even more serious turn of events, The Verge reports on an incident involving the newly introduced AI-powered ‘find similar’ feature. The recent controversy involved footage of a Palestinian woman finding her home destroyed and family missing. Through reverse image searching, TikTok prompted users to shop for ‘Dubai Middle Eastern dresses’ and even identified the woman’s head covering. Not only is sensitivity to the situation dismissed here, but the fact that war coverage is becoming an opportunity for profit? This feature sets a dangerous precedent for other tech giants and sparks wider conversations about what it means to capitalise on an opportunity. Should reverse image searching be limited to videos in which the creator is trying to sell, or is anything posted online free rein?
Discourse around the dangers of social media often characterise younger viewers as ‘vulnerable’ and a victim of the problem, not part of it. But with 18-24 year olds 3.2 times more likely than the average consumer to buy something from TikTok – is it time to ditch the ‘impressionable children’ mindset? A leather handbag costing ‘less than a coffee’ is an alarming sentence. Does indulgence in these marketing tactics more accurately reflect our lack of awareness, rather than our helplessness?
Whilst I’m the first to blame corporate aliens for ‘over-consumption core’, change starts small, and with individual responsibility. It starts with questioning the origin of your seventh black top – and saying “no” to ‘you NEED this’ ads. That isn’t to say that all affordable items are the bane of Attenborough’s existence. But there are SO many sustainable and guilt-free ways to shop cheaply. Edinburgh is home to plenty of charity shops waiting to be raided by budgeting students. Buying second hand, getting your nan to repair the odd tear – that’s where real change starts.
So, if Black Friday is already marked on your calendars: try and think before you click.
Photo by Zulfugar Karimov on Unsplash.