The Rise of Cute Debt
theatlantic.com
The Rise of Cute Debt
1–6 of 6 posts
Re: The Rise of Cute Debt
#2>Lots of our spending was driven by trying to keep up with our friends—not just the real ones, but also the parasocial ones we follow online. Social-media influencers seem to be just like us, only one step and hundreds of thousands of dollars ahead. “The essence of influencer culture is a kind of low-grade gaslighting about what is possible and what is attainable,”
I wonder about this aspect. I get a lot of ads that seem to feature influencers or people looking like infuencers who seem to be pushing the most run of the mill goods, a nondescript hoodie or such.
These folks seem to be selling a lifestyle or identity folks aspire to ... by apparently buying a bizarrely expensive plain hoodie.
Re: The Rise of Cute Debt
#3Re: The Rise of Cute Debt
#4>Lots of our spending was driven by trying to keep up with our friends—not just the real ones, but also the parasocial ones we follow online. Social-media influencers seem to be just like us, only one step and hundreds of thousands of dollars ahead. “The essence of influencer culture is a kind of low-grade gaslighting about what is possible and what is attainable,” I wonder about this aspect. I get a lot of ads that…
Fashion is a weird parallel universe. There's bad cheap hoodie, there's plain hoodie, there's influencer bad plain hoodie, then there's something like https://acrnm.com/S40-RS_FW2324 which is... who knows but it sure is expensive. (And they'd probably lose customers is they used usual influencers)
Re: The Rise of Cute Debt
#5>Lots of our spending was driven by trying to keep up with our friends—not just the real ones, but also the parasocial ones we follow online. Social-media influencers seem to be just like us, only one step and hundreds of thousands of dollars ahead. “The essence of influencer culture is a kind of low-grade gaslighting about what is possible and what is attainable,” I wonder about this aspect. I get a lot of ads that…
Fashion is a weird parallel universe. There's bad cheap hoodie, there's plain hoodie, there's influencer bad plain hoodie, then there's something like https://acrnm.com/S40-RS_FW2324 which is... who knows but it sure is expensive. (And they'd probably lose customers is they used usual influencers)
Man that site, the models and outfits all seem like they were taken right out of the Matrix.
Re: The Rise of Cute Debt
#6>“One moment, you’re financing your Coachella outfit; the next moment it’s groceries.” And indeed, this is happening more and more frequently—a quarter of “buy now, pay later” customers say they use an installment-payment service to shop for food.
This is the kicker for me personally. I don't know if it's cost of living increases driving people to start using these services for daily essentials, or if it just becomes a habit through putting all spending through services like this. Either way it's scary.