Charlotte Cowles* says our brains are very bad at resisting temptation, which makes curbing the urge to overspend online that much harder.
Photo: Karolina Grabowska
I spend a lot of time on Instagram, partly because it’s fun, but also for work. The problem is that I’m also using it to shop, and I need to rein it in. I like a lot of the stuff I buy, but I know I don’t need it. And I definitely can’t afford it. How can I make myself stop?
There’s a perverse pleasure in having Instagram serve up exactly what you want before you even know you want it.
The downside is that you’re predictable, easily pigeonholed as a sucker.
But the upside is far more powerful: It’s a soothing, portable echo chamber of your own taste, only with better lighting and more possibility, where you can shop whenever you feel like it (and even when you don’t).
No wonder so many of us can relate to your quandary.
One survey found that 57 per cent of millennials spent money they hadn’t planned to because they came across new products on social media.
Our lizard brains are, in general, very bad at resisting temptation, especially when the bait is repetitive and easily accessible.
Of course, the most logical solution would be to quit Instagram entirely, but it seems like that’s not realistic for you.
Instead, you want to stop spending money on it — or at least spend less money.
It’s a fine line, and a tough one to walk.
I called psychologist Adam Alter, a Professor of Marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business and the author of Irresistible, which looks at why so many people are addicted to online behaviours (shopping and social media among them).
He explained that part of what makes Instagram dangerous for your wallet is that it grooms you to want stuff.
“You’re seeing the top 1 per cent of interesting people doing the top 1 per cent of the most interesting things in their lives, and that puts you in an aspirational mindset that leads you to shop for betterment,” he says.
Instagram also lulls you into mental state where spending money may not seem like such a big deal.
“When you ask hardcore gamblers how they feel when they’re sitting in front of a [poker] machine, they usually describe a feeling of being sedated and pain-free, almost floating,” Alter says.
“It’s an effortlessness that isn’t true about the rest of life.”
“Instagram is similar — it puts you in a calm state.”
According to Alter, with each minute you spend on Instagram, the chance that you’re going to buy something goes up incrementally.
Meanwhile, every additional “like” and swipe gives advertisers more information about you, so they can target you even more specifically.
Now for the good news: Knowing your weaknesses makes you better equipped to resist them.
One way to build a buffer between Instagram and your bank account is to disconnect all payment methods from your phone.
Having to manually type in your credit card number whenever you buy something is annoying, and that’s the point.
You want to increase the “pain of paying,” a term used in behavioural economics to describe the uncomfortable moment when you hand over money to buy something.
Research has shown that this “pain” plays an important role in consumer self-regulation.
It’s also reduced or totally absent when credit cards are involved.
Second, zoom out and take a look at your spending habits more generally.
Are there certain patterns to your impulse shopping?
Are you more likely to do it during certain times of the day or week, for example?
I tend to buy things when scrolling through my phone before getting up in the morning — so now I put my phone in the kitchen at night.
A friend of mine told me she often overspends on Fridays, when she feels like she’s “earned it” by getting through the week, so she temporarily disables her Instagram account every Thursday night.
While you’re at it, look at your overall budget and see how much damage you’re actually doing.
“You might say, ‘Oh wow, 23 per cent of my discretionary income is going towards these impulse buys online. That’s alarming,’” Alter says.
“Those epiphanies can be powerful and motivate people to make a change.”
Taking stock of your finances could also make you realise that you don’t have to stop shopping cold turkey.
Perhaps your budget can allow for one unplanned purchase, within a certain dollar amount, per week?
“Anything you can do to minimise the amount of self-control you need to exert is a good thing,” Alter says.
“If you can make hard and fast rules that guide your purchasing behaviour, but also licence you to do it occasionally, you may have an easier time keeping it under control.”
Impulse shopping isn’t always bad, after all — just like Instagram itself, it’s only problematic when it gets out of hand.
* Charlotte Cowles is a columnist at The Cut. She tweets at @charlottecowles.
This article first appeared at www.thecut.com.
