When Gen Z stops spending and tires of social media trends

For the past few years, opening up social media has felt like standing in front of a fire hose of fashion and internet fads and turning the nozzle to full blast.

- Callie Holtermann

New "it" water bottles are anointed almost quarterly. Influencers urge their viewers to style themselves as coastal grandmothers, ballet dancers, indie sleazers and coquettes—looks that have little in common besides the consumption they require. Specious fads like the "mob wife aesthetic," recognized by publications including this one, prompted The New Yorker's humor column to predict what might come next: How about "Supreme Court casual" or "spotted-lanternfly goth?"

To keep up would leave most people broke, not to mention disoriented. And while a majority of these crazes are labeled "Gen Z trends," members of that generation may be the ones most fatigued by the churn.

It's not that they don't get what's going on: Today's young adults can comfortably discuss the way that social media and fast fashion keep many members of their generation buying, sharing and discarding items. They are aware, sometimes painfully, that their insecurities are being harnessed for someone else's bottom line.

Neena Atkins, 16, a high school junior, said she felt "constantly bombarded" by product recommendations. Cheetah print was hot less than two months ago, she said, "and now when I go on TikTok, I see people saying, like, cheetah print is getting so old."

Lina, 15, a high school freshman in Indiana, watched classmates buy US$35 (S$47) Stanley tumblers only to covet another brand of pastel water bottles shortly thereafter. "It's wasteful," she said. "You're just wasting resources; you're wasting money."

College student James Oakley, 19, thinks his age group has reached saturation: "The prevalence and pure amount of microtrends have made it impossible to understand or participate."