BY REMY TUMIN, for The New York Times
During the pandemic, people started buying more, sometimes out of boredom but also of fear, Diana Wiebe, a content creator who critiques influencer culture, said. They continued to do that as restrictions lifted, cementing influencers’ roles as figures who persuaded others to buy items that supported an aesthetically pleasing life, as they received commissions from brands whose products they had agreed to endorse or otherwise advertise.
While some of the items being promoted were originally meant to be reusable and environmentally friendly, many were being shuffled through influencers’ rotations of products. “Every week they have a different tiny purse to attach to their water bottle that’s supposed to be reusable,” Ms. Wiebe said.
Ms. Wiebe, 30, a communications manager for a legal nonprofit in Ohio, began to notice her own spending habits late last year. Now she considers herself a “de-influencer” and creates videos that call out unnecessary and wasteful products.
“I’ve been really excited to see this trending lately, because it’s a good approach to showing that overconsumption isn’t the norm for most people,” Ms. Wiebe said in an interview. Underconsumption, she said, “rejects the influencer culture and also the companies behind the influencers who are always trying to get us to buy more and consume more.”
“It’s almost like breaking people out of the trance,” she added.
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