De-influencing on TikTok Explained

De-influencing on TikTok is a huge new trend you need to know about right now.

The rise of de-influencing on TikTok has introduced a new era of influencing on social media.

Is TikTok’s new trend, ‘de-influencing’, helping the over-consumption and mass spending which social media has created?

In the ancient influencer days, when Instagram was the saviour and YouTube was the solvent of all problems, influencers accepted any brand deal or information and offered it to their audiences as the truth.

This was before TikTok snowballed into social media in 2020. In 2021, the app generated $4.6 billion, with a 142% increase year-on-year.

Influencers have become a leading online presence, promoting and endorsing products they don’t always like and lifestyle choices they don’t necessarily follow.

But a new trend, called de-influencing, encourages social media users to avoid splurging on unneeded and unnecessary items, saving time and money.

From the Dyson Airwrap to the Charlotte Tilbury Contour Wand, this may be the start of learning to buy the products that you actually really need and will use, without overspending on products you don’t and will never use.

This issue arises from influencers convincing their followers to buy the latest and greatest.

“I’m here to de-influence you” is currently the most famous phrase in the TikTok beauty and lifestyle community.

Creators often follow that phrase with a list of items that are not worth the money, following with another item that they believe is very much a bang for your buck and works the same as the influenced and often more expensive choice.

A TikToker with over 800,000 likes says, “here are the things I will de-influence you from buying as someone that spends thousands of dollars a year on health, beauty, and hair products but loves to save a buck.”

@alyssastephanie

I love deinfluencing ❤️ #deinfluencing #deinfluencergang #cultproduct

♬ original sound – Alyssa ✨

She says not to buy the Dyson Airwrap, or Olaplex, especially if you have thin hair; she also does not recommend buying the Supergoop! Sunscreen or Charlotte Tilbury’s Glowgasm.

But that’s okay because you can buy an Amazon dupe of the Airwrap for $30 and another beauty product at Kmart that is a great dupe for luxury beauty product and significantly cheaper. So in truth, TikTok’s de-influencers are now influencing you to buy even more.

With trend cycles getting shorter, waste growing and environmental impacts of the fashion and beauty community growing more extensive, it’s no surprise that de-influencing has amassed a broad audience since the beginning of the year.

But with de-influencers recommending cheaper and not necessarily sustainable alternatives, sustainability has now gone down the drain.

Even with good intentions of this trend, it seems de-influencing is selling even more products as creators list their own recommendations and alternative. And when things are cheaper, consumer often buy more of a product.

So perhaps de-influencing is just another form of influencing people to buy more products.

Sadly, this latest era of TikTok influencing seems like just another gimmick to get consumers to trust influencers and ultimately spend more money.