The “TikTok Leggings” Fallacy
TikTok’s micro-trend cycle enforces hyper-consumerism among teens. The consequences may be disastrous.
On August 5, 2021, Brazillian mother Fernanda Rocha Kanner gained international attention for deleting her 14-year-old daughter’s TikTok account with 1.7 million followers. Ironically, numerous articles about Kanner’s “radical, but necessary” decision spread across social media, eliciting praise from mothers and disdain from teenagers alike. Quoted in an article by the Daily Mail, Fernanda explains her controversial choice. “[I do| not want Valentina to grow up believing she’s this character. I don’t want her advertising flammable polyester clothing made in China. I don’t want my brilliant daughter doing her daily dances like a trained baboon.”
TikTok’s influence is undeniable, as is the threat this influence poses to our generation. Since its international market launch in September 2017, Chinese-owned TikTok (rebranded from Douyin) has amassed 1 billion active users worldwide. Originally marketed in the US as a successor to now-defunct lip-syncing app Musically, TikTok has far surpassed Musically in its significance. Despite facing scandals over surveillance and a racially biased algorithm, (and being denounced by former president Donald Trump himself!) TikTok’s growth has continued to barrel forward, exacerbated by the pandemic. This year, 63% of Americans between the ages of 12 and 17 used TikTok on a weekly basis, compared with 57% for Instagram. To teens searching for identity amidst an increasingly atomized, isolating, and apocalyptic world, TikTok represents a beacon of social normalcy — pseudo-social though it may be. Through TikTok, Gen-Zers pining for a semblance of community can outsource their political ideologies, tastes in fashion, and senses of identity. TikTok has not merely manifested its way into the cultural zeitgeist of our generation, it has become the cannon. It is not uncommon to hear teenagers say of one another “She gets her entire personality from TikTok” or “He’s so hot, he looks like a TikTok boy.” Our generation needs to become more mindful of how we are allowing the echo chamber TikTok generates to affect our lives.
If TikTok is the doctrine of culture for American teens, what is it preaching? TikTok’s impact on the shopping habits of Americans is profound. According to an Insider Intelligence report, from 2019 to 2020 the number of US social e-commerce shoppers grew 25% to 80 million, a number which is forecast to grow to more than 100 million by 2023. In December of 2021, TikTok launched a live shopping feature, an addition to an earlier decision to begin circulating ads with direct links to purchasing goods and giving brands access to algorithm-driven marketing. “We think it’s a really significant moment. E-commerce is a big opportunity for TikTok and it’s something we’re investing in significantly,” Rich Waterworth, TikTok’s general manager for the UK and EU, told BBC News. Numerous brands have made TikTok pages, hoping to colonize the growing consumer base of Gen-Z. Brands can have their videos shown to hyper-specific demographics, in order to ensure the effectiveness of their marketing. Brands can also pay popular TikTokers to promote their products to their loyal disciples. For brands, going viral on TikTok is financially equivalent to finding an oil strike, inventing sliced bread, or having your logo permanently emblazoned in the retinas of 1 billion people. Popular hashtag #TikTokMademeBuyIt encourages users to try out items and hacks that are marketed on the platform. TikTok has enabled dropshipping brands which resell cheap goods from China for a markup to flourish. In November 2020, a specific pair of leggings sold by a French company Seasum for $25.99 went viral overnight, after being lauded by content creators as booty-lifting, waist-cinching, and life-changing. These “TikTok Leggings” subsequently became a top ten most searched item on Amazon, and, as noted by People Magazine, were worn by Lizzo herself. Today, counterfeit TikTok leggings can be found in the sale section of department stores and shamefully stuffed in the backs of closets across the country.
This is the chaos that ensues when an app that capitalizes off waning attention spans controls E-commerce. Since its inception, TikTok has maintained its user base by providing a constantly flowing torrent of newer, better, funnier content. Users are pressured to keep up with hours upon hours of constantly shifting, self-referencing, undulating media out of fear of being “out of the loop”. TikTok users have even invented a word to reference those who fail to grasp the trend du jour: “cheugy”. Micro-trends have come to define TikTok as a platform, not just in terms of the types of jokes or audios that are popular, but the very ideals that are promoted through the app. Following the wake of the killing of George Floyd, political activism-based content on TikTok and across all other social media was so prevalent that even influencers whose content was of the doing-ten-second-dances-and-being-attractive fare were expected to delve into critical race theory. More than a year later, it is far less common to see users promoting “radical” ideals, with some users even making videos joking about their “2020 leftist phase”.
I have been addicted to TikTok since 2019. Many times I have resolved to quit cold turkey, and many times I have relapsed immediately. I’m currently in denial of my vice, limiting myself to an hour-daily time limit. I shamelessly ignore it every day. Until I throw my phone into a volcanic chasm, I will not escape TikTok. TikTok is terrifyingly effective at drawing in viewers and turning them into pawns of an algorithm. During my time on TikTok, I have been swayed by the rise and fall of many aesthetics, each with its own name, wardrobe, and identity reflective of and appealing to my conscious and subconscious desires. From the grunge-adjacent, heavily eyelinered “e-girls” of Winter 2019, to the environmentally friendly, messy bun wearing, jovial “VSCO girls” of Summer 2019 to the over-saturation filtered, thrifty “indie girls” of Winter 2020 to the low-rise jeans, Paris Hilton-worshipping “y2k baddies” of 2021 to the Lana Del Ray-listening, suspiciously inspired by Lolita “winter coquettes” of 2022, I have witnessed enough aesthetics to enumerate for several more commas. According to data from Statista, e-commerce in the U.S. amounted to $469.2 billion in 2021, an increase from $431.6 billion in 2020. An unprecedented portion of this money was spent by Gen-Z. In order to achieve the hyper-specific, forever out of grasp aesthetic ideal promoted by TikTok at any given time, teens are encouraged to completely remodel their closets every six months. It is undeniable that TikTok pushes its users to participate in e-commerce. Unsurprisingly, many TikTok users choose to digitally purchase a bulk of cheap, poor-quality clothes that are made by underpaid or forced laborers. What happens when I finish the grueling search for the perfect pair of baggy jeans that compliments my painstakingly cultivated aesthetic? My interest in the aesthetic dwindles with its fading relevancy and I am caught in a cycle of endless consumption.
As soon as a TikTok trend reaches its apex and achieves mainstream status, it begins to be eclipsed by a newer, cooler, more “unique” trend. As a growing consumer base, teens are purchasing and disposing of clothes at an unprecedented rate. According to the Council for Textile Recycling, the average US citizen throws away 70 pounds of clothing and other textiles annually. Textile waste is estimated to increase by about 60% by 2030, with an additional new 57 million tons of waste being generated annually, reaching an annual total of 148 million tons. Solving the crisis generated by this excess of consumerism embedded in our culture requires radical change.
It is clear that halting TikTok’s growth is a Herculean task. Then again, MySpace and Tumblr were considered impenetrable behemoths of digital media in their time. Just like I know the sun will eventually collapse in on itself, I know TikTok will eventually become cheugy. When this happens the existing base of e-commerce consumers will not dissipate, they will move to another app with similar if not worse societal implications. Large systemic changes must occur regarding both the regulation of the import of unethically sourced international products and improving the ethics of production within the United States. Before that occurs, individual consumers must take it upon themselves to be cognizant of how their money spent impacts the world. Thrifting offers a good alternative to purchasing clothes from Shein and provides an equally promising means of disposing of unwanted clothes. Content on TikTok is free to view, but if my generation hopes to combat hyper-consumerism, we must ask ourselves what price we are willing to pay to conform.
Works Cited:
Lauren Lewis For Daily Mail Online, Associated Newspapers, 04 August 2021 “Mother DELETES 14-year-old influencer daughters social media account with 1.7 million followers” https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9860779/Mother-DELETES-14-year-old-influencer-daughters-social-media-account-1-7-MILLION-followers.html
Salvador Rodriguez for CNBC, 18 November 2021 “TikTok usage topped Instagram this year among kids aged 12 to 17, Forrester survey says” https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/18/tiktok-usage-topped-instagram-in-2021-among-kids-12-to-17-forrester-.html#:~:text=This%20year%2C%2063%25%20of%20Americans,%2C%20while%20TikTok%20had%2050%25.
July Jargon for WSJ, December 8 2021 “TikTok diagnoses videos leave some teens thinking they have rare mental disorders” https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-diagnosis-videos-leave-some-teens-thinking-they-have-rare-mental-disorders-11640514602
Agnes Erickson for The List, January 06 2022 “How TikTok is Impacting Online Shopping” https://www.thelist.com/726341/how-tiktok-is-impacting-online-shopping/
Bianca Borrisova for Screenshot Media, October 19, 2021 “Inside TikTok’s micro-trend crisis and how it is fueling fashion overconsumption among teens” https://screenshot-media.com/the-future/fashion/tiktok-fashion-overconsumption/
Christian Allaire for Vogue, December 15 2021 “16 Items that went Viral on TikTok This Year” https://www.vogue.com/article/viral-tiktok-items-of-2021
