Headline, March 06 2025/ STUDENTS : ''' SHOPPING RESISTANCE SHARPENER* '''

STUDENTS : 

''' SHOPPING RESISTANCE 

SHARPENER* '''

ADDICTED TO BUYING : FOR THOSE trying to curb their shopping habits, social media can be a hazardous place.

'' The more time you spend on social media, the more inclined you are to engage with your favorite brands but also buy impulsively, make unplanned purchases,'' said Angeliki Nikolinakou, an associate professor at the University of Western Macedonia in Greece, who co-wrote a 2024 paper on the subject.

SHOPPING RESISTANCE GATHERS PACE : Some influencers - tired of constant marketing - are endorsing '' Low Buy 2025.''..  And now Cassandra Orakpo has just about had enough.

TOO MUCH, in fact. Shopping on her phone had become so easy it had turned into a bad habit. She bought a cake decorating kit, thinking she'd make her own birthday cake, and never even took it out of the box.

She has at least 80 bottles of perfume stored in her closet. And despite all the clothes she has purchased, she feels she has nothing to wear.

'' Clearly my buying has gotten to a place where it's bordering on hoarding,'' Ms. Orakpo said.

So toward the end of last year, Ms. Orakpo, who is 31 and lives in Houston, pledged to tame her buying habits. The first step was to scrub her accounts. She unsubscribed from daily emails from Shein.

She changed her TikTok settings to avoid personalized ads; she blocked Temu on X. She also opted out of texts from brands like Fashion Nova, her nail salon and even her local bubble tea shop. And then she told her more than 2,500 followers on TikTok about it.

Ms. Orakpo joined a growing group of shoppers who are fed up with a constant barrage of marketing in their social feeds and phone alerts. Many have taken to TikTok - the site of much of their frustration - to declare that they are participating in '' LOW BUY 2025 '' or '' NO BUY 2025 '' and sharing the ways are curbing their spending. The videos have garnered millions of views since the start of the year.

The zeal that is driving this trend is as much a pushback against the forces of a consumerist culture as it is about saving money, with scorn for corporate manipulation mixed in with tips for changing personal habits.

On the scorn end of the spectrum was a call for an '' economic blackout '' last Friday by the People's Union USA, which says it is fighting an '' economy designed to exploit workers, suppress wages and keep the majority of us in a constant state of struggle.''

The group is asking people not to buy from large corporations - in person or online - for 24 hours.

Avoiding sales pitches from big corporations, however, is harder than ever. As more Americans spend time on social media, brands have flocked there to capture attention and dollars.

In 2025, businesses are expected to spend nearly  $103 billion in advertising on social media, a 175 percent increase since 2021, according to Emarketer, a market research company.

On TikTok, ads for phone stands, wigs and kitchen sink strainers are nearly indistinguishable from content creators opining about reality-TV shows and politics.

TikTok Shop, where people can make purchases  without leaving the platform, was the single largest driver of U.S. social commerce sales growth in 2024, said Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at Emarketer.

Nearly half of TikTok users are expected to make at least one purchase on the platform this year, she added.

PEOPLE are also buying things on INSTAGRAM,  FACEBOOK Marketplace and YouTube.  According to a Bankrate survey released in September 2023, Americans spent $71 billion on impulse purchases on social media over the previous year - purchases that often ended in feelings of regret.

The Honour and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on Online, Buying and Addiction, continues. The World Students Society thanks Jordyn Holman and Aimee Ortiz.

With respectful dedication to Parents, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See You all prepare for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society - the exclusive and eternal ownership of every student in the world - : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter X !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - The Voice Of The Voiceless