THE DANGERS OF CONSUMERISM
MATERIALISM'S NEATIVE EFFECTS ON SOCIETY
By Nicholas Tran | Staff Writer
Each year consumers around the world spend thousands of dollars on unnecessary products like the latest iPhone, new model of car or even popular social media trend products such as Labubus and Dubai chocolate. This unnecessary spending has led to negative impacts to the environment, construction of new class barriers and exploitation of consumers by selling cheaper and worse products so that more people will buy the same product again.
According to Investopedia, consumerism is the belief that increasing market-driven consumption improves the economy and individuals' happiness by purchasing more goods and services. Those that support consumerism believe that if people spend more it can improve the economy. Consumerism’s supporters also believe that business owners and those who are employed in industry can benefit from consumerism.
Social media has also played a role in consumerism with social media trends like Labubu dolls, matcha drinks and Dubai chocolate being bought in large quantities. Items purchased solely because of trends on the internet, but these products often go to waste once the trend has ended or has become unpopular on the internet with the items eventually being thrown away, contributing to pollution in the environment.
“Recent trends with Labubus and Dubai chocolate online have caused the prices to skyrocket after multiple influencers decided that was what people would focus on,” said Sophomore Evan Le, who has interests in world trends and economics.
In 2025, Pop Mart, the company that created Labubus reported that the company's net profit skyrocketed by 396% and that their stock price has increased by 200% since the beginning of the year. This massive success is mostly because of Labubus and how the plush doll became very popular across social media in the summer of 2025.
Critics of consumerism believe that it negatively impacts the environment because of pollution from products going to waste as well as air pollution caused by factories to produce these products. Critics also believe that consumerism promotes a materialistic society where people buy more things than they need.
“I would say that it’s led people to be more materialistic and focus on the things of the world or themselves rather than what really matters,” said sophomore Caleb West, who runs a social media platform and receives income from it.
Along with materialism, consumerism also supports the mass production of low-quality items that are planned to become obsolete so that consumers continue purchasing products. Examples of consumer products that are annually released are smart phones, clothes, shoes and video games. As consumerist products they’re deliberately made with less effort and care so it entices the consumer to continue buying more and more products.
“As a society I don’t think we take care of stuff as much anymore, because with these multibillion dollar industries are using planned obsolescence as a tool to get us to buy things every two or three years,” business teacher Jim Vanek said. “Our phones now last about three years max and then they want us to buy a new one.”
Consumerism is frequently associated with globalization, and the production and consumption of global goods that can be incompatible with local cultures and their ideals.
“I feel like instead of actually trying to make products or anything that really benefits society, they try to use the least amount of effort to gain the most amount of profit for something that looks interesting instead of is interesting,” Le said.
All in all, consumerism is a harmful ideology that supports materialism and buying more than you need. Also it is deceiving consumers by putting less effort into the products so that they must be purchased frequently, further harming the environment by pollution from the production of these products and their waste.
“The way we’re looking at it is that things have gotten to the point where it is cheaper to buy a new one than to just maintain your old one,” Vanek said.