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Social Media's Relentless Shopping Machine Has Created an Army of Debt-Laden Buyers (theverge.com) 113

Posted by msmash from the algorithm-knows-best dept.
The influencer economy that Goldman Sachs projects will reach nearly half a trillion dollars by 2027 depends on a less-examined population: the influenced, millions of people who find themselves accumulating debt and clutter after years of exposure to what amounts to a 24/7 digital infomercial.

Antoinette Hocbo, a former marketing professional who knows the tricks brands use to chip away at willpower, bought a $199 Pilates program, an iPad, and an arsenal of makeup products after TikTok's algorithm served her a stream of aspirational content. The Pilates gear now sits unused. Elysia Berman accumulated over $50,000 in debt across four credit cards and four buy-now-pay-later services during the pandemic, purchasing items she never wore because influencers recommended them.

A 2024 Pew Research Center survey found 62% of adults on TikTok use the platform to find product reviews and recommendations. Marketing expert Mara Einstein told The Verge that brands now need seven exposures to prompt consumer action, up from three in the pre-social media era. The vastness of the internet has allowed available products to bloat beyond imagination.

Social Media's Relentless Shopping Machine Has Created an Army of Debt-Laden Buyers More | Reply

Social Media's Relentless Shopping Machine Has Created an Army of Debt-Laden Buyers

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  • sponsored videos (Score:3, Insightful)

    by wyHunter ( 4241347 ) on Monday December 08, 2025 @04:17PM (#65844275)
    Does nobody understand that the majority of 'review' videos are sponsored? Really?

    • As long as a review cores a products features adequately, I don't care if the reviewer is getting hookers and blow.

      • How would you know the difference? Because you trust the influencer so much? Sucker!!!

        When a review is paid for by the seller, the review is never impartial.

        • How would you know the difference? Because you trust the influencer so much? Sucker!!!

          When a review is paid for by the seller, the review is never impartial.

          But...

          Yes, I did receive this product for review from the company for free, so please take what I say with a grain of salt. That said, my opinions are my own, and I will be honest with both my praise and my criticism of said product. Now? On to the review!

          Yeah, right. Human nature alone says you got new shiny for free, you'll be enamored with new shiny, regardless of how often new shiny arrives in your cave.

          • Indeed. People tend to brush off the disclaimer and believe the influencer anyway. It's like those drug commercials with the soft, droning voice telling you how many ways the drug can kill you, while the video shows pictures of people having fun together, jumping into the water, setting off fireworks, anything to make you not notice that droning voice. *This* is how we should regard reviews that contain these disclaimers. The disclaimer is there to distract us from the pleasing words surrounding the product

            • Indeed. People tend to brush off the disclaimer and believe the influencer anyway. It's like those drug commercials with the soft, droning voice telling you how many ways the drug can kill you, while the video shows pictures of people having fun together, jumping into the water, setting off fireworks, anything to make you not notice that droning voice. *This* is how we should regard reviews that contain these disclaimers. The disclaimer is there to distract us from the pleasing words surrounding the product, attempting to be "honest" while at the same time saying what the advertiser wants you to hear. Those influencers know full well that if they don't say things the advertiser wants them to say, the advertiser money will soon disappear.

              Believe the "influencer"?

              Oh yeah. I'm always worried about the impact on my axe throwing plans when I'm considering an anti-inflammatory to take after a skydive.

              A North Korean soap opera about who won World War 3, has more authenticity.

        • Seek some therapy for that anger you carry around.

          • No anger here, just common sense.

            If you get paid by product manufacturers to review their product, and you air critical reviews, guess what happens to your income? Product sellers don't like bad reviews, so they'll go where they can get good reviews. Influencers know this, and want to keep the money coming, they don't want to bite the hand that feeds them. So guess what they'll do...they'll keep the good reviews coming, so they keep the money coming.

            This is precisely why Consumer Reports doesn't accept free

            • A smart and ethical reviewer simply would not review products that can't rate well.

              They DO exist.

              I've turned down free product in exchange for favorable reviews twice. I've also declined to change my posted review in exchange for payment of some kind. Twice.
              Besides which, not all reviews are sponsored. I've made good, high quality reviews and didn't get paid for them.

              Besides which, if people use reviews to get product info, and do not pay much attention to the reviewer's feelings.

              • Yes, ethical reviewers do exist. The problem is that you, a consumer of the reviewers' material, don't have enough information to determine which ones those are.

                • But it doesn't really matter since you can use return the product if you don't like it.

                  People buying stuff that they never even open is NOT an issue of unethical or bad reviewers.

                  • Well, sure, you can usually return a product you don't like, if you don't mind the hassle of packaging it up and shipping it. And many return policies require that the package be unopened, or you incur a restocking fee. And you get pay shipping yourself, a cost that can be as much as the item's value.

                    And then there are gifts. My son bought me a $90 grill scraper from an influencer, and gave it to me as a birthday gift. Instead of bristles, it had little rings, like chain mail. It was supposed to be much les

      • Just as an aside here, if any vendors reading this are willing to pay me in hookers and blow to push their stuff on TikTok, please DM me.

        As you were...

        • Just as an aside here, if any vendors reading this are willing to pay me in hookers and blow to push their stuff on TikTok, please DM me.

          As you were...

          I guess the line starts here. I'm looking for guitar and amp sponsors. Coincidentally, they should have a fairly significant supply of hookers and blow available just for their usual endorsers, and I'd be happy with just the scraps. I'm old, and my tolerance isn't real high for either.

        • Hookers and blow availability would definitely influence me in a variety of ways.

  • People are sheep (Score:5, Interesting)

    by innocent_white_lamb ( 151825 ) on Monday December 08, 2025 @04:32PM (#65844313)

    I guess I'm a grumpy old codger, but I simply don't understand how people get sucked into stuff like that.

    I buy what I need, and replace it when it breaks beyond repair. I try to get stuff of good quality, even when it costs a bit more, and I'll try to fix it if it quits. I'll buy "cheap junk" if it's something like a paint brush that I'm going to use once and throw out.

    I don't know why schools don't teach financial literacy. Parents used to do that with their kids, starting with "Here's your allowance, this is what you get for the week". But now it seems the parents themselves don't have any understanding of money management either.

    • I don't believe age to be the cause. I'm not an old codger just yet but I'm very similar in attitude. My sister of the same generation and schooling quality would much rather spend £300 getting an appliance repair man to plug in a loose cable than to even attempt it herself. She is constantly in debt buying stuff she doesn't need because she's seen it.

    • Re:People are sheep (Score:5, Interesting)

      by larryjoe ( 135075 ) on Monday December 08, 2025 @05:08PM (#65844413)

      I guess I'm a grumpy old codger, but I simply don't understand how people get sucked into stuff like that.

      Also, is this really a social media thing? Isn't this more of a gullible people with no financial self-control thing? Wouldn't these types of people get suckered by any form of advertising?

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by dfm3 ( 830843 )
        It's exactly this. I've had older family members who sit glued to the TV for hours watching QVC and constantly buying shit they don't need. Doesn't matter if they bought it through a website or an 800 number, the result is the same.
        • I imagine they still get a hit of dopamine from buying from tv. I don't get it, as I am like the OP, I buy what I need generally. I also don't spend what I don't have even if I need it. It is weird how people get wired. I know other people who grew up without a pot to piss in and they spend every penny. Me I see how my parents struggled and swore never to be like that. Humans are complicated.
      • It's the latter. As TFA says:

        She makes wishlists of items she sees that she will come back to later, and has worked to develop hobbies not tied to accumulating things. But the pull is still there at times, especially after a period of scrolling.

        That's akin to a drug addict leaving syringes full of heroin lying around the house. The pull is still there...

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by N1AK ( 864906 )
          I'm not a expert in the field but I know I've seen adding potential purchases to a list, vs immediately impulse buying, is often suggested as a way of reducing wastful purchases.

          • I do that. If it sits in my wishlist for a year or two, I realize that I really don't need [coolthing]. I may still want it, but I'll usually delete it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by necro81 ( 917438 )

        Also, is this really a social media thing? Isn't this more of a gullible people with no financial self-control thing? Wouldn't these types of people get suckered by any form of advertising?

        Monorail [youtube.com] says yes?

      • I think one point being made is that the current advertising and media landscape, which depends on social media and so-called influencers, is particularly good at grifting people who can be grifted. It doesn't contradict your point, but if people have certain weaknesses, we shouldn't be fine with a culture of predation aimed towards these weaknesses. Unless you're a libertarian and you think everyone should just use their free will to make better decisions, and lying or distorting the truth to make money is

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Brain-Fu ( 1274756 )

      One reason is the dopamine rush that one experiences when one buys something new. It's addictive and if people aren't otherwise happy with life they are going to chase after all kinds of things that provide this rush.

      The natural, unenlightened, mind believes that happiness is attained by fulfilling desires (and chasing that dopamine rush). This only works in the short term and the effect weakens the more one indulges. Overcoming this requires education about this, self-awareness, discipline, and the mean

    • You may think so, but even you are susceptible to marketing. That's the great thing marketing doesn't want you to know: It works even when people think it doesn't. You may not want cheap junk, but that doesn't make you immune from all of it.

      A large portion of your life is dictated by what you know about the world, and a significant portion of that is delivered via marketing. You almost certainly are surrounded by stuff you wouldn't have otherwise bought were it not for marketing, even if you didn't do it co

  • Elysia Berman accumulated over $50,000 in debt across four credit cards and four buy-now-pay-later services during the pandemic, purchasing items she never wore because influencers recommended them.

    If the influencers jump over a bridge, will she also?

  • We have more people in debt than ever before due to constant advertisement on social media and we have people COMPLAIN that it got less efficient because it now needs 7 instead 3 "exposures" to "prompt consumer action"???!?!?!

  • 7 exposures? (Score:5, Funny)

    by DCstewieG ( 824956 ) on Monday December 08, 2025 @04:44PM (#65844347)

    Must...buy...MongoDB...

  • Run up credit debt and Buy Now Pay Later debt now and suffer and struggle for a lifetime

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      TBH, if I wound up in that situation, I'd just file bankruptcy. Yes, people will mock those who do that. However, it is a legal mechanism to seek debt relief, and it shows good faith. It is a last resort, but you can go on with your life, and it is a lot better than just ignoring the loans for four years while creditors sell the loans back and forth to try to get around the four year statute of limitations, or do things like call neighbors nightly saying that person at 100 East Elm has not paid their bil

  • for people to go bankrupt. It does enable them, but last time I check most everyone is responsible for what they spend. If you are stupid enough to fall for the commercial machines that are slurping up money then you are that stupid. If the majority of people would push back on companies instead of accept whatever they want to charge, then we wouldn't be where we are at today with enshitification

    • Pre-2000, I would say that is the case. These days, there are no jobs, advertising is highly targeted, there are a lot of "must have" subscriptions [1], and pricing for basic items is going asymptotic. Plus, sometimes getting the basic tools to do one's trade can be expensive. Certificates are not cheap (and you are not going anywhere with IT without them), education isn't cheap.

      Now, whatever it takes for one to survive. Bankruptcy is better than just ignoring debts for four years.

      [1]: One could dismis

  • If you're that stupid/lacking willpower/whatever that you immediately go off and buy something because you saw it online, you deserve what you get.

    You're an adult, supposedly with something approaching intelligence and self-control. If you're $50K in debt because you're continually buying junk, the problem is not with the influencers.*

    * They're called shills. Call them what they are.

  • Self medicating humans (Score:3)

    by rmdingler ( 1955220 ) on Monday December 08, 2025 @04:57PM (#65844391) Journal

    We're living in a fascinating era. Life is too difficult for many people, and the angst this creates leads to depression.

    Some people try to eat their depression away, and some try to spend themselves out of its clutches purchasing the newest shiny thing.

    Get off the scrolling treadmill, go outside, throw a ball with your dog, and last but not least, have a drink at the end of the day and kick your feet up.

    • From what I recall Kay Redfield Jameson's autobiography on manic depression: An Unquiet Mind, opens with a scene of a relative entering her apartment, which was strewn with $30K+ of impulse purchases.

      • All we know for sure is that in late stage capitalism, the extreme (rather than the creme) rises to the top.

        There's too many obstacles for the underprivileged, and not enough challenges for those who overcome the financial hurdle. The previous consensus that a healthy middle class makes the nation greater has been lost on our Representatives.

        • "Late-stage Capitalism"? That's a nonsensical idea based upon the absurd notion of "scientific history". Marx was wrong. We have over a hundred years of evidence that he and his theories were wrong.

          History cannot be subjected to scientific analysis, nor can the future be accurately predicted from it. All of Marx's theories are based on the idea that the future can be accurately predicted, yet ALL of his predictions were wrong. What was the result? Every major war and genocide committed during the 2

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by bazorg ( 911295 )

      Must buy a dog and a ball then.

      • Hah! The secret is in the sequence of events.

        Try a ball out for a couple of weeks. If that's suits you, pickup one of the condemned pooches at the local Pound.

    • Seems to me that people are making their own lives more difficult, and in order to soothe themselves they turn to things that only make it worse.

  • What is old is new again. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by CommunityMember ( 6662188 ) on Monday December 08, 2025 @05:21PM (#65844429)
    Influencers are the new shopping channel hosts (getting you to buy junk you don't need with money you don't have).

    • I immediately thought of that video where the convertible ladder collapses under the host.

    • I stumbled on some jewelry shopping channel and every single item was "a deal", "must have", "special", ... I can't believe people don't realize that not everything can be the "best deal ever".
  • We've developed of country of weak willed, selfish, unmotivated, entitled, arrogant Karen's/Kevin's. Gone is any notion of social obligation or civic duty. If you have to purchased shit to keep up with the Kar-trash-ians, you're an owned pawn and deserve what ever happens. There is no quip that will provide a cranial sphincter removal procedure.

  • A man will pay double for something he needs to have it right when and where he needs it. A woman will pay half price for something she doesn't need simply because "It's a good deal!" Women make purchases based on emotion. There are entire industries built around this. Cosmetics being the biggest one. Fashion being second. Hell, even plastic surgery. Women shop based on emotion. Tell them what they want to hear, and they'll pull out a credit card so fast you'll feel a shockwave.

    The same industries kind of e

    • Re:Women... (Score:4, Informative)

      by tragedy ( 27079 ) on Monday December 08, 2025 @06:59PM (#65844645)

      A man will pay double for something he needs to have it right when and where he needs it. A woman will pay half price for something she doesn't need simply because "It's a good deal!" Women make purchases based on emotion. There are entire industries built around this. Cosmetics being the biggest one. Fashion being second. Hell, even plastic surgery. Women shop based on emotion. Tell them what they want to hear, and they'll pull out a credit card so fast you'll feel a shockwave.

      Sure, whatever you say. The reality is that most studies show that, while the categories they spend most on differ from women, men tend to spend more than women on non-essential products based on emotion.

      Advertising for men revolves more around giving a sense of purpose, practicality, productivity, freedom, endurance, and adventure.

      In other words, appeals to emotion.

    • Almost every person in the TFA was a woman. The men:
      1) the long dead, Mr. Pilates
      2) a male influencer.

      Also, men make purchases for women, rarely do women purchase for men.

      • "rarely do women purchase for men."

        How to tell me you aren't married without telling me you aren't married.

    • Although I disagree with your description of how men and women buy things, I agree that it is exactly how things can appear. I recommend one brief essay by Ursula K Le Guin, taken once per week until the condition clears.
    • Nah, men and women shop according to their evolutionary roles. Women gather, men hunt.

      How does one gather? Browse the landscape looking for anything useful to bring back. How does one hunt? Going out focused on tracking down a specific thing and bringing it home. Anyone who has gone shopping with a member of the opposite sex has been annoyed by this but may not have realized why.

      "Darling wife, I thought we came here because you needed a bra. Why has it been three hours and why am I pushing a sho

  • This is conservative/right wing agitprop clickbait bullshit of the absolute lowest quality.

    no, social media is not creating debt laden people low wages and monopolies raising prices is.

    Fuck what a particularly nasty piece of clickbait. But you got me I clicked it and I commented so you win I guess.

    When the species of super intelligent raccoons or beavers take over from us after we drive ourselves to Extinction through sheer stupidity I wonder what they will think of this crap.
    • Speaking of a smart raccoon, https://www.tmz.com/2025/12/03... [tmz.com] Really surprising, I'd think hard liquor would not be a taste for an animal. Beer yes, hard liquor?
    • You don't think that people letting themselves being talked into buying things they will never use is part of the problem? Granted, any advertising can do that, and this may just be people with unhealthy habits expressing those habits through social media (and thus it not being social media's fault), but if it is worse than it would otherwise be then it is worth some attention. No?

      And why would you call it "right wing agitprop"? It strikes me as an anti-consumerism article, and I don't think those usua

  • Who ARE these people, and can I have their number? (Score:4, Funny)

    by registrations_suck ( 1075251 ) on Monday December 08, 2025 @06:43PM (#65844617)

    I promise, i won't sells them anything.

  • Believing & following an "influencer"...every CEO's DREAM! More $$$$

  • If you have this sort of shopping problem, you should move to a tiny apartment. Nothing kills the joy of buying stuff like having to throw other stuff away to fit the new.

  • Our society has become progressively more and more materialistic to the point where "Standard of Living" has come to mean how much stuff you can own rather than how happy and healthy you are.

    Honestly, once you have enough stuff for your basic needs, and then a bit more just for fun, I find any additional item is a net negative for my happiness. I also get extremely irritated by built-in obsolescence and I try to make my stuff last as long as possible.

    Society teaches us to consume rather than think.

  • Let me fix that headline for you: (Score:3)

    by skogs ( 628589 ) on Monday December 08, 2025 @10:38PM (#65845003) Journal

    Some People are Too Stupid To Have Credit Cards

    At least 30 years ago these people had to get off their ass, look in the mirror, and then drive down to the mall. Sure there was tv shopping; but you really can only buy so many shitty bracelets and necklaces.

    Hey new generation. No this isn't a generational problem. The same people said it about my generation and the one before it. Please internet generation hear this:
    " You aren't worth it. You don't deserve it. Shut up and get to work. "

    Repeat that to yourself the next time you Ubereat and think something looks nice on a facebook or tiktok.

  • Just simply the truth !! Start by staying off TikTok and don't follow any influencer !!
    • And that's the perverse part! "62% of adults on TikTok use the platform to find product reviews and recommendations" - they're intentionally using it to find someone to tell them what useless crap to buy and never use! Madness.
  • Have you seen the "I was in debt, but $DEBT_COMPANY took it away!" commercials on TV? This ultimately means WE are going to pay for their bad judgement.

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