“This is your daily reminder that most of the content you see online is not the way most people live,” says sustainability influencer Sabrina Pare, in a video she posted to her 250,000 TikTok followers recently. “It is OK to be content with your simple life,” she continues as she makes her bed. “It is not normal to do massive clothing hauls, daily trips to Target and have a new outfit every day. Nor do I think it should be aspirational.”
It is one of a slew of videos that are surfacing online of people making a point of using and appreciating what they already have, or what they find on online hand-me-down groups, rather than showing new clothes acquired on the daily from Amazon or the next Stanley cup accessory, or the latest Dyson hairdryer. It’s all part of a trend aiming to encourage people to reconsider how much they consume – say hello to underconsumption core.
Also called normal core or normal consumption, the movement is about taking on an attitude of mindfulness and “less is more” at a time when overconsumption is rife and TikTok is full of content encouraging users to buy things they don’t need. Pare, who goes by @sabrina.sustainable.life on TikTok, says underconsumption core videos show items that “might not be the newest, but still work”. Underconsumption core influencers, she says, are “showing items they have upcycled, ways they reduce waste, and things they have gotten secondhand. It’s all about extending the life of your items, reducing the number of items you own, and being mindful of your purchases.” Pare has been posting frequently about underconsumption core since the middle of July, which is when she says she began seeing it popping off on TikTok. It follows the deinfluencing movement, which started last year and encouraged consumers not to buy anything. Now, creators are proudly showing the use and reuse of everyday items and clothes they’ve had for years. In another of her recent videos, Pare shows how to extend the lifespan of your knives. It’s not the most glamorous or compelling content on social media, but Pare’s videos have amassed nearly 15m likes.