Consumption over Style

With over 100 million of us logging in to Instagram almost every day, it’s easy to fall witness to the advertisement and display of each personal style that exists amongst us. For many of us, these images go unnoticed and pass through us in an instant, but the effect they have catches us in the decisions we go on to make.

The fashion industry, as I’m sure we all know by now, is one of the most harmful polluters of our “so called” beloved planet. With this being said, could over stimulation of apps like Instagram play a bigger part? Scrolling aimlessly through verified blogger accounts seems like a harmless, every day activity, but the potential results do have a role to play in how we choose to live. Being shown a mass of differing styles, lifestyles and hobbies it’s easy to become confused when trying to understand where we, ourselves, fall on this spectrum of endless choices – which is why the majority of us can’t. We think we are a Kardashian-Jenner copycat one day, getting injections, enhancements and all the above whilst in the not so distant future, we see ourselves as a skater groupie, buying in to any streetwear brands that we know to be readily available. This confusion, lead by liketoknowit tags and hyped resale pricing, is leading to impulse purchases of clothing that represents us at that short moment. Instead, learning what we really and truly enjoy ourselves, without the over consumption of social media, is how we step in the right direction to reducing and crafting the clothing we buy.

Now, Instagram isn’t the be all and end all of creativity, in fact it’s quite the opposite – but learning how to use this tool to create something that represents ourselves is the key. We should be following those who really resonate with us, not just the ones we see sprawled across our tv and computer screens. Surprisingly, normal every-day people can be just as interesting.