TikTok’s ‘Underconsumption Core’ challenges consumerism, potentially redirecting US finances towards saving and minimalism

Tik­Tok’s “Under­con­sump­tion Core” is mak­ing waves among young peo­ple glob­al­ly. This move­ment advo­cates for uti­liz­ing and valu­ing exist­ing pos­ses­sions while min­i­miz­ing unnec­es­sary pur­chas­es. The trend has emerged in response to over­con­sump­tion trends dri­ven by social media and eco­nom­ic pres­sures. What’s unique about this trend is its poten­tial to fun­da­men­tal­ly alter finan­cial behav­iors world­wide, shift­ing the focus from spend­ing to sav­ing and reshap­ing finan­cial habits away from exces­sive consumerism.

Under­con­sump­tion Core is more than just a viral hash­tag. It rep­re­sents a broad­er trans­for­ma­tion in con­sumer behav­ior, espe­cial­ly among Gen Z and Mil­len­ni­als, who are fac­ing unprece­dent­ed eco­nom­ic pres­sures. The trend urges peo­ple to buy less and max­i­mize the util­i­ty of what they already own. 

Think about it: instead of demon­strat­ing extrav­a­gant pur­chas­es of new clothes or make­up, Tik­Tok users are proud­ly pre­sent­ing their thrift store finds, mod­est wardrobes, and every­day items that have seen years of use.

There are sev­er­al rea­sons why this trend is gain­ing prominence. 

First, there’s the eco­nom­ic real­i­ty that many young peo­ple are grap­pling with today. As of August 9, the aver­age fed­er­al stu­dent loan debt in the U.S., accord­ing to the Edu­ca­tion Data Ini­tia­tive, is $37,574 per bor­row­er. That’s an astound­ing amount that can remark­ably con­strain spend­ing pow­er, forc­ing young adults to pri­or­i­tize debt repay­ment over dis­cre­tionary purchases. 

When com­bined with the ongo­ing effects of infla­tion, which con­tin­ue to erode pur­chas­ing pow­er, this sit­u­a­tion ulti­mate­ly will lead to a gen­er­a­tion increas­ing­ly aware of the need for finan­cial prudence.

But it’s not just about mon­ey. Envi­ron­men­tal con­cerns are also a sig­nif­i­cant dri­ver of this trend. Mass con­sumerism has long been linked to envi­ron­men­tal degra­da­tion, with vast amounts of waste end­ing up in places like Chile’s Ata­ca­ma Desert, where an esti­mat­ed 11,000 to 59,000 tons of used cloth­ing are pil­ing up in landfills.

Gen Z, in par­tic­u­lar, is high­ly aware of these issues. A ThredUp report found that 65% of Gen Z respon­dents want­ed to shop more sus­tain­ably, yet a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber, i.e. one-third, admit­ted to being “addict­ed to fast fash­ion.” The under­con­sump­tion move­ment offers a way to rec­on­cile these con­flict­ing desires by encour­ag­ing a more mind­ful approach to shopping.

Now, some might argue that this is just anoth­er pass­ing trend, but there’s rea­son to believe it could have last­ing impacts. Finan­cial­ly, under­con­sump­tion could encour­age a shift towards sav­ing and invest­ing, rather than spending. 

This is par­tic­u­lar­ly rel­e­vant as infla­tion shows signs of eas­ing, with con­sumer prices in the U.S. drop­ping for the first time since May 2020. As the eco­nom­ic envi­ron­ment sta­bi­lizes, those who adopt under­con­sump­tion habits might find them­selves in a stronger finan­cial posi­tion, bet­ter equipped to weath­er future eco­nom­ic downturns.

More­over, under­con­sump­tion chal­lenges the very fab­ric of Amer­i­can con­sumer cul­ture, which has long been dri­ven by the idea that more is bet­ter. In the U.S., spend­ing is often equat­ed with suc­cess, and not just by adver­tis­ers. It’s ingrained in our social fab­ric. The more you spend, the more you’re per­ceived as thriving. 

But what hap­pens when a sig­nif­i­cant por­tion of the pop­u­la­tion starts to reject that notion? We’re begin­ning to see the answer to that ques­tion unfold on TikTok.

The under­con­sump­tion trend also inter­sects with the con­cept of finan­cial lit­er­a­cy, which is cru­cial for long-term finan­cial health. By focus­ing on using what they have, indi­vid­u­als can avoid the pit­falls of over­con­sump­tion, which often lead to debt and finan­cial stress. 

Stud­ies show that those with high­er finan­cial lit­er­a­cy, for exam­ple, are less like­ly to be swayed by aggres­sive mar­ket­ing tac­tics that encour­age unnec­es­sary spend­ing. Instead, they make informed deci­sions that align with their val­ues and long-term finan­cial goals.

This move­ment isn’t mere­ly about depri­va­tion or deny­ing one­self plea­sure; indeed, it focus­es on mak­ing thought­ful, delib­er­ate choic­es that enhance over­all well-being. A mix of expe­ri­en­tial spend­ing — like trav­el — and mate­r­i­al pur­chas­es can lead to greater hap­pi­ness and sat­is­fac­tion, as research sug­gests.

The key is bal­ance. By reduc­ing over­all spend­ing but still allow­ing for mean­ing­ful pur­chas­es, indi­vid­u­als can achieve finan­cial sta­bil­i­ty with­out sac­ri­fic­ing qual­i­ty of life.

One of the most com­pelling aspects of the under­con­sump­tion trend is its relata­bil­i­ty. On Tik­Tok, users are find­ing com­mu­ni­ty and val­i­da­tion in the sim­ple, every­day act of using what they already have. It’s a pow­er­ful counter-nar­ra­tive to the con­stant pres­sure to consume. 

As one Tik­Tok user put it, “Under­con­sump­tion core is lit­er­al­ly my favorite trend Tik­Tok has ever had. It makes me feel so real and human.” 

Paige Pritchard, anoth­er Tik­Tok con­tent cre­ator and founder of the per­son­al-finance busi­ness Over­com­ing Over­spend­ing, notes that it pro­vides peo­ple with reas­sur­ance, help­ing them feel they are not alone and that their expe­ri­ences are not unique, as report­ed by MarketWatch.

This sense of authen­tic­i­ty is res­onat­ing with many, espe­cial­ly in an era where social media often per­pet­u­ates unre­al­is­tic stan­dards of living.

In addi­tion, this trend might indi­cate a broad­er cul­tur­al shift towards more sus­tain­able and finan­cial­ly respon­si­ble lifestyles. While it’s still ear­ly days, the grow­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty of under­con­sump­tion could lead to more wide­spread changes in con­sumer behavior. 

If more peo­ple start to adopt these prac­tices, we could see a sig­nif­i­cant impact on indus­tries that rely on fre­quent con­sumer spend­ing, par­tic­u­lar­ly fast fash­ion and oth­er sec­tors asso­ci­at­ed with high turnover of goods.

It’s impor­tant to rec­og­nize, how­ev­er, that under­con­sump­tion isn’t a one-size-fits-all solu­tion. It may work well for those who are already finan­cial­ly secure, but for indi­vid­u­als who are strug­gling to make ends meet, the choice to con­sume less might not be voluntary. 

For them, under­con­sump­tion could be a neces­si­ty born out of eco­nom­ic hard­ship rather than a delib­er­ate lifestyle choice. This high­lights the ongo­ing issue of income inequal­i­ty in the U.S., where the wealth­i­est con­tin­ue to thrive while many oth­ers are left to fight over what’s left.

Still, for those who can embrace it, under­con­sump­tion offers a path to finan­cial secu­ri­ty and a more inten­tion­al way of liv­ing. By focus­ing on what tru­ly mat­ters — whether it’s pay­ing down debt, sav­ing for the future, or sim­ply enjoy­ing the things you already own — you can break free from the cycle of over­con­sump­tion and find a more sus­tain­able balance.