Decoding FOMO Culture: Gen Z, Social Media, and Consumer Capitalism
As I’ve mentioned before, what we show online is often polished – Rarely do we see posts about terrible jobs, bad skin days, or dwindling bank accounts–except for a brave few. The majority will only want to showcase and curate their best life online: Their most picturesque and best self, exotic travels, fancy meals, and luxury purchases. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a call for radical transparency on social media. It’s just that, well, not everything is as lavish as it seems online. In fact, it’s usually far from perfect. It’s imperfect, and that’s perfectly fine.
I moved back to Boston in September in hopes of finding a job in marketing and making my 20’s the best years of my life because that’s what we’re told we should be doing. But what does making your 20’s the best really look like? What does it entail? Well, most people will say it involves moving out, living in a vibrant city, meeting new people, constant social outings, and the occasional girls trip. While I agree that spending time with friends and having a little fun is essential to living it up, let’s look at the reality of things, especially if you’re earning under $70k in a metropolitan area.
Let me paint you a picture:
You just landed an entry level marketing job at $50k– sounds decent, right? That’s about $4,166 a month.
Your rent? Coming in at $1,600k monthly, plus roughly $130 for utilities.
Groceries are around $100-$200 monthly, if you’re lucky.
Got a car? That’s $200-$600 for the car payment, insurance, and gas. If not, $20 a week on public transport.
Then come your “night outs” costing around $100 minimum biweekly.
Add $50 on occasional lunches and coffees during the week– let’s say 3 each.
Oh and those new pair of leggings, trendy skin care, and any other thing you’re influenced to buy. Easily $100-$300.
And after setting aside $1,000 for savings, reality hits during tax season, bringing your original $70k down to $30k because most big cities take around 20% of your income to fund genocide and wars instead of fixing roads and offering us free healthcare.
I digress.
And now I want to sit back, and relax, and enjoy my evening, when all of a sudden I hear this agitating, grating, voice:
Consumer Capitalism.
Think about where you’re hearing this echo of “live your best life” and “these are your best years, live it up!”
Did you think about it?
You’re getting these ideas through social media and television. Through ads, influencers, and even your followers who aren’t really doing as good as they seem. In fact, most have multiple jobs or parental aid behind the scenes. Yup, the only finger those suckers have had to lift is the pointer finger to click record. But you don’t know that, you just saw an aesthetic city video of friends going out to dinner in NYC and thought “Wow, must be nice.” I believe this materialistic “your 20’s should be the best years of your life!” message coming through a large portion of social media is unrealistic, toxic, and a trap built up and backed by consumerism and capitalism. To test this I looked up “20s best years of my life” on TikTok. While most posts were sarcastic and pointing out their 20’s are actually horrible, two posts perpetuating the “If I can, so can you” facade or the travel-obsessed 20’s stereotype stood out:
“Everybody told me your 20s are the best years of your life so I left my country at 19 moved to Miami alone earned my own money to travel the world, enjoying life as I’m swimming in the blue waters of the Bahamas being the happiest I’ve ever been” — While this may all be true, it's not the whole truth. A quick comments and profile browse proved that it was daddy’s money, which again fosters unhealthy comparisons while ignoring people’s varying opportunities and luck in life. On the other hand, this very fact can be encouraging for some. But it is mostly hurtful to those who want every new shiny thing and want to do everything others do.
“Pov: you spend your 20’s prioritizing travel”— (I’m guilty of using this caption on one of my travel videos for views and likes I’m not going to lie) The narrative of prioritizing travel and encouraging others to do the same. Oh wait, this is the reason I started my blog in the first place… Self awareness love it. However, my goal with this blog is to be as transparent as possible. Nevertheless, this type of media pushes people to join the adventure because “you’re in your 20’s and time is passing you by! You’re getting old and wrinkly. Are those grey hairs? A receding hairline? You haven’t even been to another continent yet! Catch up!” Now people have FOMO and are spending money they don’t have just because they saw a travel guru on Instagram touch down in a new country every month.
“Move to the city!” But why? To pay thousands of dollars for an apartment the size of a closet? An apartment you’ll spend 6 hours sleeping in since you’re working the rest of the day for five days a week every week? To get dressed up and go out every weekend? To that club that plays ass music and charges $14 for a vodka cran? Just so you can take some pics and get hit on by ugly smelly boys? I might sound pessimistic as hell, like I’m encouraging everyone to stay put and not take risks. This is quite the opposite of the message I’m trying to get across. I’m a Sagittarius for crying out loud. I just want everyone to be hyper aware of the fact that 90% of what we consume online is marketing, Often benefitting the elite, instead of us. In fact, it’s making everyone broke and depressed. I’m not talking about your little iced coffee or occasional clothing splurge, I’m talking about constantly seeking the newest of the new, looking at where others are going, what they’re doing, and what they’re spending their money on. Thinking that you’re going to “miss out” if you aren’t doing the same.
Before you make any big decisions like moving, accepting a job, or even hitting “confirm purchase”, take a second to make sure your priorities are straight. Make sure your decision is your own and it’s not influenced by anyone or anything, especially online. Don’t allow yourself to get trapped. You don’t HAVE to have that new bag or those new shoes. Trends die! You don’t HAVE to work several jobs so that you can live in a major city. You most certainly don’t HAVE to work a miserable 9-5 while struggling to survive to live in said city. And you absolutely SHOULDN’T consume loads of unrealistic and untrustworthy media and assume that you’ll be happy once you replicate it. It is very true that these are our most formative years. We’re finding ourselves by taking risks, learning more about the world through experiences, and making plans for the future. But make sure to have your own definition and idea of “living it up”. Make sure to be conscious of how deep consumerism’s claws run and how it is quite literally killing us.
