Consumerism, reimagined

In the early 2000s, platforms like Facebook and Myspace – the first of their kind – were built with the primary goal of connecting groups of people on a scale never possible before. Even later, large platforms such as the early Instagram, video platforms like Keek or Vine, YouTube, or Tumblr were completely absent from brands and the social media marketing machine in their early forms. Just humans sharing.

Since then, the e-commerce industry has catapulted to become the largest mode of transaction in the world. Approximately one-third of the global population shops online, valuing the global e-commerce market at $6.8 trillion USD as of 20251. Influencers have started to earn commissions from simply tagging what they’re wearing online through platforms such as LTK, and soon, large companies will have their own, including Vogue and Sephora, encouraging direct collaboration on a mass scale.

Joining trends and ‘improving’ your look has never been more effortless. With the constant suggestions, combined with the inherent isolation in receiving them by spending time online, consumerism based on self-improvement is highly individualistic. It takes time, research, and effort to curate a list of things to improve your life with from thousands of creators online who are trying to make money from suggesting these products to you.

Yes, we can share it with our friends, and in many ways, that’s what keeps social media so present in our lives and why it never gets old. However, the isolation hamster wheel of appearance improvement is exhausting – not only from a self-critical perspective, but also from the drain of researching and taking note of every tip that might be useful from creators and trying it out on yourself. In fact, many creators have built a career just by trying out all the tips to save audiences time and effort.

As we acclimate to a particular social media output structure, it naturally evolves and corrects to what it views as what will yield the best engagement from its users. This is propelled by both the creators of content and the platforms themselves. With the oversaturation of appearance hyper-fixation, audiences feel tired. In response, companies are adjusting their media output to focus on themes of genuine connection, as well as high-quality content that was previously deemed too valuable for social media.

Audiences have already started to harness that time by giving their attention and time to creators who focus on health, wealth, and knowledge improvement. The wellness market has experienced significant growth in recent years, with forecasts indicating a 7.3% annual increase until 20282. The online education market is forecasted to experience even steeper growth at 15.75% annually until 20293. As an act of self-correction, we are shifting our focus from time-consuming, appearance-focused content to curated content that emphasises personal growth and life improvement. We are witnessing mass investment towards mindful consumption.

Mindful consumption is the action taken by an individual to spend the same or similar amount of time they would spend consuming anyway and use it to consume media that provides the viewer a higher return on their time investment in terms of their well-being. It is a more intentional approach to the digital sphere, which helps one avoid excessive engagement with mindless content.

Mindful content output can be considered the process of creators putting the same thought and concern into online content that they would into traditional sources, such as magazine releases, rather than treating it as an intermediary between mindless content and magazine-type content and shifting the content online even further than what is already present to the curated end of the spectrum, to where it becomes a new landscape for high-value knowledge. This shift is a sign of genuine acceptance of the online space and e-commerce sphere as a legitimate source of content distribution for highly trained individuals. It represents a destigmatisation of purchasing a product as well as presenting oneself to sell the product online, as companies move to refine the process. Additionally, a recognition of the high value, community building, and engagement found in authentic content featuring skilled individuals to enhance the audience's intelligence, rather than merely capturing their attention. With this transformation, content consumption becomes more intimate and community-building, rather than individualistic. Companies that already produce mass content, such as Vogue, are similarly anticipating this mass shift in consumerist culture by changing their output structure to a less-is-more approach.

As we experience the shift, we feel a value proposition of the online sphere increase and refine itself to bring intentional improvement to our lives. Its primary function is to reposition itself as a form of support, rather than a distraction from our lives.

References

1 SellersCommerce. (2025, May 12). Largest ecommerce markets in the world (2025 data). SellersCommerce. https://www.sellerscommerce.com/blog/largest-ecommerce-markets/

2 Global Wellness Institute. (2024, November 5). The global wellness economy reaches a new peak of $6.3 trillion––and is forecast to hit $9 trillion by 2028 [Press release]. https://globalwellnessinstitute.org/press-room/press-releases/the-global-wellness-economy-reaches-a-new-peak-of-6-3-trillion-and-is-forecast-to-hit-9-trillion-by-2028/

3 Statista. (n.d.). Online education - Nigeria. Statista Market Forecast. https://www.statista.com/outlook/emo/online-education/nigeria