✨ Underconsumption Core ✨
In a world where overconsumption is the norm, rejecting it feels revolutionary.
Enter social media’s newest trend: underconsumption.
Historically, underconsumption referred to the economic concept of more supply than demand, originating in the 1590s to describe workers producing more than they could afford to buy with their wages. Today’s "underconsumption core" represents a rejection of capitalist influence over our decisions and a pushback against social media's normalization of influencer culture and "rich" lifestyle habits.
While the idea of underconsumption isn't entirely new, its spread on social media is. In true Gen Z fashion, the rise of this term is fueled by its aesthetic and vibe. Being sustainable is seen as artsy. Not caring about designer brands is considered original. Shopping vintage is viewed as unique. However, the trend has a deeper duality. Those influenced by overconsumption pressures see underconsumption as the necessary antidote to correct excess, whereas many might consider habits like buying only what you need and using a product till it’s no longer useful, not needing to have a product in every color or recycling clothing as simply normal consumption.
The line between ones’ identity and consumption habits hasn’t just been blurred; it’s been ripped apart. Not only do we follow the herd into participating in our capitalist world, we also do so in rejecting it. Gen Z romanticizes life through curated content, mood boards—artistic collages depicting an overall vibe, TikTok’s trends being called something core, are all a way we conceptualize and communicate in our digitalized world. Its only natural that in response to social’s media promotion of overconsumption is also combated in the same way, by making content to convey the alternative – undercomsption and making it the cool thing to do. Trends like this exemplify this new way of organizing culture, trends come and go, but what is here to stay is the medium of content.
With content, anything can become an atheistic. Anything can become “something core”. “SAHM” (Stay at home mom core), single core, holiday core, culltercore, farm core, cottage core, barbie core, yes these all are all real. It has never been easier to define and redefine the narrative through the content we create and consume.