I severely underestimated how long it would take to break my shopping habit. I still have slip ups on occasion. I have had so many set backs to the point where i have not even achieved half the money goals i had set for this year. I had to identify the root cause (tiktok/internet) to finally see progress and stop the online shopping cycle. I took up reading and other hobbies to fill time more productively without exposure to ads. THIS IS SO HARD but it has been so worth it. I am readjusting my goals and recommitting. I am excited to get myself into a better financial position by the years end. Your videos are basically the only content i watch these days so i am so glad you're making them !! (i dont think you should be embarrassed AT. ALL. about being influenced to make purchases. its very relatable and helpful to see)

I find that boredom is my worst enemy when it comes to shopping.

I’ve binged so much of your content after you popped up on my FYP about three days ago. You’ve really opened my eyes and prodded a lot of thoughts. Thank you for sharing your journey

I am sitting in a chair in front of our guitars on the wall, too 😊 Again a good take. If we’re not part of the solution we’re part of the problem. There is a German punk pop band (I think Die Ärzte are internationally known?) that sang: It’s not your fault how the world is right now but it would be your fault if it stays that way. Online culture is sometimes so overwhelming, all the problems, all the overconsumption, that we forget what we can directly change… And there are so many little things you can do. Today we worked in the garden with the kids (eating raspberries, planting beans, guiltily removing a young birch that decided to grow between our vegetables). We have wild flowers, a lot of insects and hiding places for hedgehogs and other animals. Yesterday I looked some videos about mending and started to prepare some jeans to repair them (you need to open the leg to put a patch on it). I sometimes ask myself if it’s worth it. I repaired some Jeans but they already ripped open a few weeks later. But the creator I watched gave good tips and she was working on dresses from the 1940s! We have the ability to do things better. And we can teach our kids. We can show them meaningful work. Sometimes it’s exhausting. After a normal day in office to thing about meaning, about something that doesn’t hit the dopamine button immediately like shopping. Videos like yours remind me of how I actually want my life to be. Even if I’m stuck in a job - it’s not your whole life and consumption makes me even more dependent. Edit: Typo

your comment about how much time we spend shopping omg I relate to that A LOT. I'm working from home so whenever I have a window I scroll through products and things to buy. And this does consume a lot of my time (and brain space!) when I think about it. It's crazy. Thank you so much for pointing that out :)

I really felt seen during your video, when you showed everything you were influenced to buy. I’m not alone in all of this consumption, and the difficult things you have to do to break out of it. Because it’s easy not to do anything about it. ❤

Lovely series, I love thought provoking content. 🎉 My thoughts: people seeking to make online content as influencers are lacking something in their life-yes this will be an unpopular opinion I’m sure-but I stick by it. The creators cannot handle traditional paid work for whatever reason. Stubbornness? (You can’t make me conform to external expectations and schedules?) Self-centeredness? (I’m so lovely I must be adored?) low self-esteem? (Pay attention to me?) Mental incapacity? (I can’t leave my house?) Whatever the reason, they are seeking to be self-directed and this is the best way to make a living all by yourself these days. I look to the awkwardness in my young adult children to see that online life as a hobby has created huge gaps in social graces/education/ability to cope in real life and they aren’t online professionally-just recreationally. Real life is lived in the real world and these folks are creating artificial lives that simply do not exist; it’s artifice/playacting for the camera. I would like to see a movement toward the internet being a resource for truthful information (a digital encyclopedia) and for (legal) business. The rest is pure fluff and is diminishing our society and setting us back both mentally and physically. Is the quality of human life now really this shining example of least-common denominator hucksterism? I really hope not. The other point I have is that online presentations of youth with wealth creates unhappiness with your own station of life and budget. I “deserve” a big house, new car, designer clothes, trips to Coachella… because it seems accessible online thanks to influencers. People cannot be happy with what they have, can find locally, what their pay will allow so they want shortcuts to the mansion! Dissatisfaction with real life is the main product influencers are selling to already vulnerable people, much like MLMs and other get rich (or look rich) lifestyles. No one wants to be average with an average life, and the fact is, we all are. They prey upon our natural insecurity. Very few people are historically memorable so we are chasing the unattainable and going into debt and polluting our planet because we won’t be “average”. 😢

Really appreciate your insight! Very helpful and relatable.

Excellent summary of this series. Thanks!!

Thank you Alexa, for sharing your thoughts this week! I've really enjoyed listening to it and agreeing with nearly all your thoughts. Congratulations on 2k subscribers 🎉 we need more content creators like you ❤😊

If it's not a hell, yeah, pass! I dont settle for the second best. It's becoming difficult to find excellent clothing items. I love my wardrobe😊❤

Thank you. I enjoy your videos.

Loved this wrap-up to this week! A lot of times what drives us to make unnecessary purchases is insecurity or shame, and continuing to beat ourselves up creates more of the same. And it isn't always easy to face our past actions (including purchases!) Or the actions of others with empathy or compassion. It can be really uncomfortable. Jessica Dore writes a substack newsletter, and her May 5 issue had this great quote about forgiveness from another author (Matthew Ichahasi Potts -- I'm not familoar firsthand but loved the quotes Jessica pulled). "Forgiveness...might be more closely related to lament than relief...Rather than ease or peace or closure, the promise of forgiveness may be that it makes livable what can’t be undone." It might feel kind of dramatic in the context of our consumer choices, but when I think about the system writ large and my role within it, it fits about right for me.

You said what needed to be said

Think definetely theres a mix up between being influenced and who’s responsible. Yes it may be shared fault, but no one can have such a strong hold over you that you can’t say no to shopping. If i buy something with or without being influenced, i am the one pulling the trigger. I am the one choosing to buy. Thats not the influencer, seller or marketings fault. Many pshycological factors however, from your upbringing, memories, thoughtpatterns and so on… i also want to mention how the society is what it is at this point, i dont think we can do much as ordinary citizens😅 about the global economy right now, meaning everybody simply trying their best to survive. Whats fair or not fair and ethical or not is separate discussions as to who brought this upon society. I saw an interesting video a while ago how we may be addicts because we are seeking. Oh seeking purpose? Maybe. Or maybe we seek back to how things used to be, an easier life maybe. One can question if we even live today. Looking at all the mental health, sicknesses, stresss and online worlds, it makes me think we simply seek our physical lives back. And this addiction no matter what it is, is usually stress behaviour, it releases dopamine and that creates an habit. Finding grounding hobbies such as climbing, taekwondo, fengshui, gardening, swimming and lots of hobbies like this might be helpfull to feel connected in a positive way between mind, body and spirit. Also its so important and it feels so powerfull and releasing to be able to understand that with change comes growth, to accomplish full bloom one need to let go to make space for something new. By letting go we give nurishing soil back to our fundation, and we grow stronger and better, more concious… then we come to the full bloom, takes a moment to be still, and we are dying once again, that means change. So we take all our lessons and knowledge with us, as we let go once again, we spiral upwards constantly and this is life. I shared this because no one else is accountable for the life you choose to live. You can get stuck anywhere in this upward spiraling, and you can also thank yourself when you reach a new chapter, because its your own doing that got you through. You cannot control the external influences, you can control yourself. I really like follow along your videos! Thanks for sharing!

A lot of people like to blame big companies and say that the big companies are responsible for creating this environment. Which of course with educated marketers and advertisements designed to psychologically affect us, we would have an unawareness to what's happening to us. But I think becoming aware as a consumer is needed. As your title is "conscious consumer" I believe that's the answer. Why would companies ever change if consumers never asked for change? In the company's mind they think "don't fix what's not broken." In my circles of friends and acquaintances I feel like most are just the average consumer and living their life day to day. I don't think many are educating themselves on consumerism. In my many many years of loving this topic (slow life, sustainability, diy) I've come to realize it's exactly that, it's a niche. While conscious consumerism is gaining popularity these days, it's still such a niche category that not everyone is searching for, not everyone is knowing that they need to educate themselves on, and not everyone is even Interested in educating themselves in the first place. Hell it's taking a global environmental crisis for companies to even acknowledge the fact. Unfortunately, I feel like most things we (humans, society, governments) do are reactionary instead of preventative. The speed limit in my area was reduced because a child was killed. My acquaintance went on a severe diet because the doctor said she was at risk of death. Vehicles were recalled because a system malfunction led to death. Governments signed an agreement in Paris because the Earth is dying. Everything is reactionary not preventative.

Congratulations on your online detox progress! It’s to be celebrated that you have come so far and learned so much. 🎉🎉🎉

Great as always! I want to make an influencer joke by asking you for a link to the cardboard boxes on your shelf ;)

No we aren't stupid! I just have to remind myself when we know better we do better...

This has been great.

Little fact in the province of Quebec (Canada) back to 1980 the government passed a law against having commercials aiming at kids on tv. so I grew up with no Barbie commercials and super heroes commercials. Now I have kids and while they were also watching tv they started to watch KZfaq video and very fast were watching those toys unboxing videos on their feed and I could see right away the difference and there awareness so yes overconsumption is a individual problem but it’s also a “community “ problem because if not governments wouldn’t have passed laws trying to regulate the sponsorship/ advertising the problem is that social media don’t have boundaries, and cannot be regulated like regular tv . So the difference between tv is that we know it’s a commercial, we know we are watching shopping network… it’s way more difficult when we watch a KZfaq video to know we are feed an infomercial disguised in a vlog with the tittle “what I did today” and again my unpopular opinion I hate those kind of videos 😆

I recently came across Lynne Twist and find her speeches to be profound. I thought I'd share if you might find it interesting. One video is titled "Freedom from the money culture | Lynne Twist | TEDxBerkeley" and another is "Unlocking a More Conscious World | Lynne Twist".

Living according to your values sounds very good. Does that include some fun stuff, too? To me, values imply "I should", "I must" etc. and that can turn into a terribly dreary life

Two thousand! Onward and upward!

"3rd world" is referred to as "the global south" now, just fyi

Wondering how much your bank account has grown since you changed your spending habits. I may have to try this no spending just to see how much I save.

Does the term " shopaholic" really apply? Yes you bought things when you wanted for a while but no where near the overkill many people exhibit? It is very good that you feel more in control now and are helping others but to me you were never THAT bad!

Omg another KZfaqr starting a video with a long apology for having an opinion.