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  • freyabeatt
    • Feb 5
    • 4 min read

Do I even like this?

Navigating the oceans of personal style and creative expression in an overly saturated online world


It’s 2024. The year we all agreed to use our phones less, our brains more, and finally read that god damn book that’s been sitting on our bedside table for months. How’s that going for you?


In attempts to not sound like a broken record player, or the baby boomer interviewed on television last night, it’s no surprise that technology, more specifically social media, has become a never-ending black hole of sorts, one which many of us have fallen into with no one to yank us back out. Yet, let me remind you, Facebook has become a stream of advertisements, Instagram refuses to show us our friend’s posts in a chronological order, and Tiktok, the most recent of them all, has reduced our attention spans to the size of an increasingly shrinking peanut. Remind me again why we use them? Of course social media has its positives. Living in a global and expanding world, we rely on these apps to make the distance between friends, family, and that one unforgettable crush we met on our Euro summer trip in 2018 a little bit smaller. But have we taken it too far?


Ironically enough, the inclination for me to write this article originated from my own experiences on Tiktok, gen z’s acknowledgement of the widespread use of the phrase, ‘chronically online’, and a reflection of the extent to which the items we see in stores are in a constant state of movement to keep up with what seems to be a never-ending tsunami of micro-trends. Picture it, its 8am, your alarm bleeps from the pillow beside you. Rolling over, you lift your head up slightly to unlock the device you swore you put on charge last night. As it signals its familiar unlocking click, you sleepishly tap the familiar pink, blue and black icon, transporting you from your bed back to an online sphere of constant comparison. As you watch snippets of ‘days in the life’, unboxings, hauls, ‘get ready with me’s’ and collections of extremely curated photo compilations paired with a trending sound, you’re left wondering why their life gets to look like that and yours doesn’t.


What appears to have become a prominent stream of thought is the constant need for the next best thing. More specifically, an increasing amount of individuals base their choice of clothing on what is either currently ‘hot’ or ‘not’, which of course can quite literally change overnight. Of course trends are not a new or recent phenomenon, instead they have been a part of human history. Take the 1800's for example, individuals, based on their class and social background, looked for fashion inspiration from those around them and those who ‘influenced’ them, a little different to influencers today no doubt. Yet, with the development of technology, the rise of the influencer, brand partnerships and a shift in how easily the online world is accessed, the concept of ‘personal’ style can be questioned.


Today, more than ever, short term and cyclical fashion trends not only encourage overconsumption, but they contribute to the deterioration of the environment as well as unfair working environments. Additionally, there are increasing numbers of consumers experiencing the phenomenon of ‘buyers remorse’ or more simply, ‘post-purchase depression’. In a study conducted by Ipsos last year, 62% of American consumers admitted to regretting an impulse purchase. It’s a universal experience. You get home after a big shopping day. It was pay day last week so of course you spent a little more than you should have but you just needed those biker boots you saw in Zara because they have been living ‘rent-free’ in your mind since seeing every ‘cool’ girl on Tiktok with a pair. We tell ourselves we need these items when really we are only fuelling our inner need to satisfy all our wants, only for these ‘needed’ items to be forgotten and shoved to the back of our closets by the end of the month.



I admit, I myself have at one point or another been a victim of these short term, impulse purchases, simply because they were ‘all the rage’ at that moment in time. Take the viral 2015 I am Gia teddy bear jacket for example. It was a simple sign of cool or not, up to date or behind, on trend or off trend. I found mine whilst digging through my closet a few months ago. Having not worn it for around seven years, I decided to pass it onto a new home (extremely difficult decision for a clothes hoarder like myself) however, when I went to post it on my depop, I was unpleasantly surprised that I shared this idea with every single other owner of the jacket. Making me wonder if anyone really genuinely liked this item at all.


So, consulting myself, my twenty two years of life experience, and my friends both within and outside of the fashion world, I have solidified a list of what to do when shopping to avoid making these silly impulsive purchases and build a wardrobe that actually reflects you, not the work of trend predictors.


  1. Think about your personal style, use social media for inspiration, but don’t rely on it.

  2. Buy items that can be re-worn, restyled, cropped, layered. Avoid one wear purchases.

  3. Don’t try and keep up with every trend. It’s not essential. It masks personal style and its way too expensive in the first place.

  4. It seems simple but when considering a purchase, think about it. Do you want it because you like it or because that little annoying voice in your brain is saying this is what everyone has so I need it too.

As the line between the offline and online world is increasingly blending into oblivion, individuals need to be aware of the effect of ‘chronically online’ behaviour. At the end of the day, it really comes down to asking yourself one simple question, do I even like this?




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