What exactly is #Deinfluencing?

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Hyper-consumerism dominates today's social media landscape. Micro-trends such as balletcore and office siren have dominated the internet, whilst 28% of TikTok users in 2022 admitted to making purchases due to celebrity or influencer brand endorsements. Social media is all about selling.

Yet, new trend #Deinfluencing has amassed over a billion views on TikTok. Self-identified deinfluencers aim to discourage their audiences from buying ‘overhyped’ items. But we must ask ourselves: is deinfluencing a genuine antidote to the voracious consumerism of the internet age, or just a shrewd marketing hook in its own right? 

Environmental educator Isaias Hernandez defines deinfluencing as a growing social media trend meant to “educate the general public on the need to divest away from obtaining or upholding excess products that are not needed in our daily lives”. However, we must understand that deinfluencers are still influencers, who ultimately seek to shape consumption habits. Telling their audiences what not to buy is still persuasive, in spite of employing very true arguments around products being overpriced, potentially harmful, or even ethically questionable

Some deinfluencers advocate the dangers of consumerism, whilst others use this movement to build up their own brands. Christina Mychaskiw’s Instagram content focuses on decluttering and repairing clothes you already own, including both “Minimalist-ish®️” and “Intentional spending & style “ in her Instagram description. Monetised minimalism is complex, promoting purchases such as her YouTube memberships or journal to gain access to exclusive advice. Mychaskiw’s intentions are of course admirable, but the model she follows is very much that of a regular influencer.

Symeon Brown, a Channel 4 reporter and author of Get Rich or Lie Trying: Ambition and Deceit in the New Influencer Economy states: "The most valuable thing that you could do to de-influence is to deactivate your account”. Until there is a genuine and general movement to actively get off social media completely, de-influencing is precisely the kind of engaging and alluring trend that he says “social media bosses will love”.

This is not to say that deinfluencing is futile, but there is a central paradox - people are advocating for less consumption on a platform where consumption is at its core. Tik Tok even has a shop built in its app. Social media is essentially a paradox. However, there is a growing backlash towards it: our attention span is receding, it enhances polarisation and drains our time. Knowledge has not changed our habits, but has just increased guilt around using social media. Online platforms dominate our lives and de-influencing, similar to concerns about screen time and attention spans, is another manifestation of how our relationship with social media has never been more compunctious and self-conscious.