overconsumption

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

the consumption of goods and resources at rates that exceed ecological limits, personal need, or social wellbeing, generating waste, environmental degradation, financial stress, and the psychological dissatisfaction associated with hedonic adaptation and status competition; in the fashion context overconsumption describes the trend toward buying far more clothing than one uses or needs, driven by falling prices, aggressive marketing, social media influence, and the psychological mechanisms of retail therapy, novelty seeking, and identity construction through consumption; the average consumer in wealthy countries buys approximately sixty percent more clothing than they did fifteen years ago and keeps each garment for half as long; addressing fashion overconsumption requires both individual behaviour change and structural reforms to pricing, business models, and cultural norms that currently incentivise volume purchasing