I love how hauls are ways to show what purchases you’ve made. They’re a fun and sometimes creative way to share personal style, discover new brands, or even celebrate a successful shopping trip. But at the same time, I can’t help but feel like they bring a lot of overconsumption with them. I truly believe overconsumption has become one of the biggest habits in our generation, and it’s been rising rapidly, especially with how integrated social media is in our everyday lives.

Platforms like TikTok Shop, Instagram Shop, and even YouTube Shorts make it ridiculously easy to purchase something on the spot. A single tap, and boom—it’s at your door in a few days. While that convenience might seem harmless (and is genuinely helpful for small businesses trying to get visibility), it creates an endless cycle of buying, discarding, and buying again. This kind of fast-paced consumer culture isn’t sustainable—not for our wallets, not for our minds, and definitely not for the environment.

It’s not that I’m against hauls completely. This isn’t a hate crime or a personal attack on anyone who makes haul videos. I get it—sometimes you’re excited about what you got, and you want to share it. But I think we need to slow them down. They’ve taken over our feeds, our conversations, and even the way we think about our own closets. Hauls can subtly (or not-so-subtly) make us feel like we’re always behind, always needing to buy something new to stay relevant or stylish.

This ties into what I said in my last post about how influencers are shaping fashion today. Many influencers don’t just share what they love—they share what they’re paid to promote. And when our feeds are flooded with “must-haves” and “basics you NEED,” we start believing we lack something, even when we don’t. Suddenly, our self-worth or sense of style feels tied to how often we’re able to buy, instead of how well we can style what we already own.

I think it’s time we start thinking critically about the content we consume. What if hauls were less about quantity and more about why certain pieces were meaningful or well-made? What if we praised re-wearing, repurposing, or even just pausing before making a purchase?

We don’t always need something new. Sometimes, we just need to see what we already have with fresh eyes. Let me know in the comments: What’s the last thing you bought on impulse because you saw it in a haul? How did it really make you feel?