alyssa d'amato

mco 427 – final blog post

I am, admittedly, guilty of finding myself sucked into several of those almost interpersonally recorded TikTok makeup ads, which are pumped out by a plethora of influencers, all of various calibers of influence, and in great quantity.

Actually, I could have written an entire segment alone merely breaking down just how much time on average I waste per week, aimlessly browsing the web for items I don’t need/otherwise wouldn’t think to purchase, but that I am successfully convinced the purchasing of will be life-altering in some form because some girl who looked like me opened her phone camera under mediocre ring lighting and gaped at the screen in typical Gen Z fashion as she applied a swatch of the Maracuja Tinted Moisturizer by Tarte Cosmetics. Why is this? What’s more, I am almost always disappointed with the product’s performance. (Probably because I never truly needed it to begin with, but still…)

Instead, I’ve elected to shift my focus on a significant component of the evolving age of social media, and all the opportunities it presents to the press and the concept of misinformation as a whole: Online shopping! (whoo!)

So sit back, relax, grab a snack, and let’s get into it. This one’s for my fellow teenage/adolescents who find it difficult to scroll past these type of advertisements– which, spoiler alert, know exactly what they’re doing, by the way. Those of us who, no matter how much we speculate it’s too good to be true, still have trouble silencing those intrusive, tempting words in the backs of our minds: but what if it’s not?

Bred out of convenience and a money-hungry, evolved desire for profits within a new medium, online shopping has presented the world with a whole new ballgame to foster and enable a culture of materialism. While the concept was technically first introduced in 1979 by a man called Michael Aldrich (he invented the ability to ‘call in’ to a TV program to make various catalogue purchases, or “teleshopping”), mainstream online shopping as we commonly know it to be today found its start in 1995, with the launching of platforms Amazon and eBay (then known as AuctionWeb).

Being born in 2002, I never stood a chance.

Money can be drained directly from the pockets of impressionable consumers like you and I, without having to even leave our houses. What a monumental, innovative business model, indeed! And it has proven to be such a tremendous game changer that our beloved malls we all once knew and loved are being driven out of business amidst this new age of online shopping, which many view as being more convenient, more affordable, and more versatile. But it doesn’t stop there. Companies like DoorDash, UberEats, and GrubHub have gained a cumulative 111 million users and seen an influx in users of over 16% since 2020, certainly increasing since the pandemic, but demonstrating a tremendous likelihood of lingering popularity in the imminent future all the same. In an digital age where everyone is dependent on their phone for nearly every single daily function, it is all too easy to hitch ads throughout every nook and cranny of the web so they are seen by just about every user of all ages, sexual orientations, occupations, interests– just about every self classification you can muster, really. I cannot tell you how many purchases I have made online and been offered a $10, $10, $20 ‘reward’ to make an account through DoorDash (a futile ‘gift,’ however, as someone who is already a DashPass member. I suppose it’s more like a bribe, at the end of the day, between partner organizations).

Again– I never stood a chance.

Because not only do these methods of shopping online save time and are often less expensive, but companies have since significantly weeded down their selection of in-warehouse items, while others have closed the doors of their in-person locations altogether; clearly, businesses anticipate a greater influx of online shoppers than in-store. Whether you bid into this modern lifestyle or not, there are certain products you are simply backed into a corner and forced to purchase online if you wish to buy them. As a petite individual (under 5’0), I have to buy ‘extra short’ jeans if they are to sit above my ankles. Of the few clothing retailers that do offer them, such as the trendy American Eagle Outfitters, they are only available for purchase online. In addition, American Eagles features a slew of other ‘online exclusives,’ available for purchase solely off their website. In doing so, American Eagle effectively negates a handful of shoppers who might otherwise arrive in-store to make purchases, driving a greater percentage of their customer volume to their website and henceforth contributing to this collective, nationwide transition, adoption and eventual preference of online shopping over in-person shopping– the move is intentional, strategic.

But of course, while online shopping undoubtedly has its benefits towards us as consumers, surely we cannot expect these massive conglomerates to make such tremendous business alterations only with our best interests in mind? Surely there is some sort of greater incentive in it for them other than merely adapting with the times? Or rather, how could this newfound shopping phenomenon that has taken the retail industry by storm be further spun for advantageous, profitable benefit?

In other words, releasing selective ‘online-exclusive’ styles is one method to boost Internet sales. Another, of course, is stooping to the level of the players in order to play the game (aka, us!). I believe modern advertisements are highly curated with this mentality.

Which brings us to the TikTok video aforementioned. (And the consequential downsides of near religious smartphone dependency, but that can hopefully be inferred.) But it’s not the only one.

More and more frequently I have witnessed brands we grew up knowing, wearing, eating (and I’m sure you have, too) going viral for silly comments they’ve left in various places across the Internet, one most recently and notably being the trailer for the new Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day– an inevitably self-prophesying future blockbuster which set a new record for the most views within its first 24 hours of release at nearly 719 million views across platforms. As well as the famously recurring fast food twitter feuds between popular brands like Wendy’s, Chick-fil-A, Burger King, and Taco Bell.

These, of course, garner thousands of likes, comments and reactions in public Internet spheres where interactions are high. Why? Because it’s humorously unprofessional, and catapults them into relevancy.

Their intention couldn’t be more clear: appeal to the younger consumers that so massively make up the population of online shoppers and web perusers. In fact, Gen Z is expected to account for nearly 20% of all global transactions by 2030, and as the most chronically online generation, companies are eagerly anticipating online shopping to dominate this percentage of transactions with torch in hand.

Why might this be so problematic, you might ask? Why does it matter?

It matters because only 39% of U.S. teens reported receiving digital media education during the 2023-24 school year, despite 94% wishing they had, particularly given its modern relevance and the all-consuming nature of the media in our everyday lives. Online shopping has (technically) been around since the late ’90’s, yet Illinois was the first state to mandate the education of digital literacy courses in all high schools— in 2021! It becomes intimidating when the media is being manipulated like so, not only in the ways it aims to inform us or to educate us, but to sell us products. To dictate the way(s) we are spending our money. And they have learned to speak our language by means of doing so more efficiently.

So what happens if we are struggling to disseminate fact from fiction? Advertisement from authenticity? This arguably holds even more at risk than merely the spread of misinformation– actual, real life finances are involved. And to what lengths will sellers online go to ensure we spend them?

The Internet shopping scam is a newer– yet increasingly prevalent– phenomenon of intentional misinformation (or rather, disinformation) that often gets overlooked because it does not fall within the conventional classifications of misinformation. And it can manifest in several ways. I’d argue one is actually safer purchasing from a renowned brand like American Eagle as opposed to an independent seller off eBay, for instance. eBay and other second-hand platforms like it do instill seller/buyer money back guarantee policies to help protect users against fraud, but it is never as foolproof as purchasing straight from the retailer.

However, this doesn’t stop scammers from creating uncanny website replicas posing as certain brands to sell cheap counterfeits for the same price as the original. These are often under commonly mistyped web domains.