4 ms·

The Rise of Cute Debt

7 points by bdev12345 1y ago

duxup 1y ago
>Lots of our spending was driven by trying to keep up with our friends—not just the real ones, but also the parasocial ones we follow online. Social-media influencers seem to be just like us, only one step and hundreds of thousands of dollars ahead. “The essence of influencer culture is a kind of low-grade gaslighting about what is possible and what is attainable,” I wonder about this aspect. I get a lot of ads that seem to feature influencers or people looking like infuencers who seem to be pushing the most run of the mill goods, a nondescript hoodie or such. These folks seem to be selling a lifestyle or identity folks aspire to ... by apparently buying a bizarrely expensive plain hoodie.
- viraptor 1y ago
  Fashion is a weird parallel universe. There's bad cheap hoodie, there's plain hoodie, there's influencer bad plain hoodie, then there's something like https://acrnm.com/S40-RS_FW2324 https://acrnm.com/S40-RS_FW2324 which is... who knows but it sure is expensive. (And they'd probably lose customers is they used usual influencers)
  - duxup 1y ago
    Man that site, the models and outfits all seem like they were taken right out of the Matrix.
viraptor 1y ago
https://archive.is/20250816160435/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/08/buy-now-pay-later-women-shopping-debt/683883/ https://archive.is/20250816160435/https://www.theatlantic.co...
fennec-posix 1y ago
>“One moment, you’re financing your Coachella outfit; the next moment it’s groceries.” And indeed, this is happening more and more frequently—a quarter of “buy now, pay later” customers say they use an installment-payment service to shop for food. This is the kicker for me personally. I don't know if it's cost of living increases driving people to start using these services for daily essentials, or if it just becomes a habit through putting all spending through services like this. Either way it's scary.

4 ms·

The Rise of Cute Debt

7 points by bdev12345 1y ago

duxup 1y ago
>Lots of our spending was driven by trying to keep up with our friends—not just the real ones, but also the parasocial ones we follow online. Social-media influencers seem to be just like us, only one step and hundreds of thousands of dollars ahead. “The essence of influencer culture is a kind of low-grade gaslighting about what is possible and what is attainable,” I wonder about this aspect. I get a lot of ads that seem to feature influencers or people looking like infuencers who seem to be pushing the most run of the mill goods, a nondescript hoodie or such. These folks seem to be selling a lifestyle or identity folks aspire to ... by apparently buying a bizarrely expensive plain hoodie.
- viraptor 1y ago
  Fashion is a weird parallel universe. There's bad cheap hoodie, there's plain hoodie, there's influencer bad plain hoodie, then there's something like https://acrnm.com/S40-RS_FW2324 https://acrnm.com/S40-RS_FW2324 which is... who knows but it sure is expensive. (And they'd probably lose customers is they used usual influencers)
  - duxup 1y ago
    Man that site, the models and outfits all seem like they were taken right out of the Matrix.
viraptor 1y ago
https://archive.is/20250816160435/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/08/buy-now-pay-later-women-shopping-debt/683883/ https://archive.is/20250816160435/https://www.theatlantic.co...
fennec-posix 1y ago
>“One moment, you’re financing your Coachella outfit; the next moment it’s groceries.” And indeed, this is happening more and more frequently—a quarter of “buy now, pay later” customers say they use an installment-payment service to shop for food. This is the kicker for me personally. I don't know if it's cost of living increases driving people to start using these services for daily essentials, or if it just becomes a habit through putting all spending through services like this. Either way it's scary.