The Unforgiving Cycle of Generational Dynamics
A selection of Drunk Elephant products. Photo by Romero Alves via Flickr
With the influx of influencers and advertisements on apps like TikTok and Instagram, users have become bombarded with phrases like “Run, don’t walk before it sells out!” or “This product will change your life!” from familiar faces and brands on our timelines. Whether the product being advertised is a tube of fake freckles or a new lip gloss, it’s safe to say neither will be the cause of any sort of miracle that will change our lives.
However, it is drilled into our minds that we need these products and that we’re missing out if we don’t have them. Generation Z and millennials are less susceptible to these demands because we know better than to buy a product simply because someone is telling us to (most of the time, at least.)
But the same cannot be said for the newest age group, Generation Alpha, born in or after 2010. Countless videos circulating around TikTok have demonstrated this very issue – pre-teens scrambling around leading makeup retailers such as Sephora and Ulta demanding Drunk Elephant Bronzing Drops and Charlotte Tilbury Contour Wands, holding a Stanley Cup larger than their heads.
Viewers’ initial reaction to this news might be to laugh and use the “When I was your age..” line, myself included. However, this isn’t always a laughing matter. The exposure to makeup and skincare targeted at an older customer base could be extremely harmful to kids in the long run. There’s the possibility of damaging self-image, seeing as how children are already prone to feeling insecure as they enter their teenage years.
A study conducted in 2023 by Ruling Our eXperiences, a nonprofit organization, found that the “percentage of girls who report feeling confident has dropped in the past six years from 68% to 55%, as the amount of time they spend on social media has risen.” In addition, many of the products trending include acids and retinol that could harm instead of help their skin, according to an article from USA Today.
Tiffany Masterson, the founder of Drunk Elephant, recently came forward to address the situation, stating that “acids and retinol are certainly not appropriate for pre-pubescent skin. We’re going to keep repeating that as much as we need to repeat it.” While this was a smart choice on the company’s behalf, it doesn’t seem as though this will solve the issue at hand, since it is unlikely it will stop a majority of younger consumers from buying the products they want.
In direct contrast to this, hairstyle trends like bows and pigtails, collecting Squishmallows and Sonny Angels and harboring obsessions with characters such as Snoopy, Miffy and Hello Kitty have become extremely popular among girls in their late teens and early twenties.
This raises a much deeper question – why are younger girls desperate to look and feel older, while older girls are grasping to find something that will give them even the most minuscule semblance of youth?
The most obvious answer is that, as a kid, being an adult seems like a dream. Kids fantasize about the independence and opportunities that come with growing up. Now that we’ve reached that age, it isn’t always as good as we imagined. This is yet another pin of blame we can shove in the pincushion that is social media.
While we Generation Z members spent days mindlessly scrolling online to fill the extensive free time brought on by COVID-19, we were exposed to people in their late teens and twenties showing off their college dorm or apartment, which was something that felt like another lifetime. But now that we’ve found ourselves in the same situations as the people we once idolized, there is, to some extent, a desire to turn back the clock.
While it is not the same situation, it seems that as long as apps that rely on sharing content continue in their popularity, every generation’s dynamic will be built off of jealousy towards others – yearning either to be younger and free of our worries or to be older and surrounded by the opportunities and responsibilities that come naturally with age.