By Sarah Currie-Halpern, Co-Founder and Partner
Like almost every other Gen Z trend, it started on TikTok.
Meet “underconsumption core,” the social media trend turned social movement that’s changing the way Gen Z thinks about what they buy, what they use, and what they throw away. On the rise in the U.S. since 2022, this phenomenon encourages young people to reconsider their participation in influencer-driven and highly disposable social media trend cycles, which have hit a dizzying speed in recent years thanks to TikTok.
Fashion is one of the most obvious culprits here. Each new blink-and-you-missed-it microtrend—mob wife, office siren, coastal grandma—demands its own fast fashion wardrobe and makeup drawer update. Once the microtrend goes bust, everything purchased to fit its aesthetic lands in the garbage. Perhaps it was inevitable that the pendulum would eventually swing in the opposite direction, and with the rise of underconsumption core, that finally seems to be happening.
Underconsumption core is essentially the internet-trend-ification of the environmentally-minded practices of buying only what you need and will actually use, and then using it until it is empty or worn out and can no longer be repaired. This means, among other things, not tossing out your furniture and your entire wardrobe simply because it has gone out of style. It prioritizes finishing a product before buying a new one, and recycling whenever possible.
Social media has always existed for Gen Z, the oldest of whom were born around the turn of the millennium. As such, the internet has defined and driven their generational understanding and relationship to culture, fashion, and current events. This push towards underconsumption core is rooted in this internet-based worldview. There is a growing frustration with influencer culture after years of being sold products that either don’t deliver or seem to cost more than they are actually worth (especially once made obsolete by the subsequent microtrend).
Thanks to the internet, there is also an incredibly high level of climate concern and literacy among this age cohort. According to Pew Research Center, 67% of American Gen Z-ers believe climate should be “top priority to ensure [a] sustainable planet for future generations,” and Gen Z respondents were also the generation most likely to have “personally taken action to help address climate change within the last year.”
It was only a matter of time until Gen Z put these two things together, and the paradigm shift was no doubt helped along by rising inflation. The ongoing downturn in consumer spending extends to Gen Z and signifies the end of post-pandemic “revenge spending.” In other words, Gen Z is beginning to see en masse that most of the products marketed to them as must-haves are anything but, and their wallet is thanking them for it.
What’s remarkable about the trend of underconsumption core is how multifaceted it is. Its individual economic benefits are undeniable. It gives Gen Z a way to actively reduce their impact on the climate. It extends into mental health and mindfulness, with adherents choosing to be happy with what they have instead of buying into a never-ending stream of disposable trends. It is an outright rejection of inauthentic and predatory influencer marketing. Underconsumption core takes a wonderfully holistic view of waste reduction that can attract people using any one (or a combination) of these elements. The potential is enormous, and the framing feels new. Thanks to its online trend status, there’s virtually no limit to how far it can spread.
Gen Z have an especially vested interest in waste reduction and stopping climate change. They are, after all, one of two generations with the most time left to spend on Earth. Watching them take individual-level waste reduction not only seriously but in a new direction is encouraging. Social media trends have had a net-negative and real-world impact on the climate for years. Underconsumption core now promises to do the opposite, and it might just change the culture in the process.
Comments