Keri Pollock Pollock 1

ENC 1102

Professor Kennedy

07/07/2022

Research Proposal

Overview of Genre:

For my research paper topic, I wanted to cover the genre of social media ads and how it

promotes overconsumption. Social media allows for fast communication and ways to find

different content. Ads on social media open doors to tons of opportunities for business owners,

regular people, and influencers. Website Spiceworks defines social media ads as, “... a form of

digital advertising that serves paid ads to your target audience using social media platforms such

as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.” Companies use influencers as a way

to market their product to their target audience. Since there are so many types of influencers and

each of them have a big following, these sponsorships get many views. People who watch

influencers review products, get brand deals, or do shopping hauls see all of this spending and

consumption as normal and socially accepted. This will lead them to more content like the ones

showing all these advertisements and viewers will begin to adapt to the thinking that they need

the stuff being advertised. Now the marketing for these products has done its job and people are

overbuying products that they don’t necessarily need. This shows how ads on social media

normalizes overconsumption and markets it to everyone. The social media platforms that I would

focus on for the topic would be Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube. I would use ads from these

platforms that show up while people are browsing and the content that influencers make.

Research Objective:
 Pollock 2

On TikTok, fashion influencers do clothing hauls and buy an unneeded amount of

clothes. Instagram has many influencers who are sponsored and will promote their partnered

brands to their followers. Youtube has many videos of how overconsumption is everywhere and

why it is so dangerous, but it also has product reviews and suggestions. On all of these platforms,

there are advertisements and sponsors that pop up unprovoked. This type of content promotes

overbuying and that is harmful to the environment, economy, and to ourselves. The more people

go on shopping sprees and over spend, it impacts air quality, depletes resources, and causes

climate change. If people continue to overbuy, companies they are buying from will produce low

quality products, while not paying their employees a living wage. Overconsumption can hurt the

people buying into it, not only is it expensive, but it can lead to health problems. For instance,

the overconsumption of food can be dangerous because it will increase obesity. The goal of this

research paper is to highlight the ways social media ads help normalize overconsumption and

why it's marketed to teens. This topic is necessary to write about because it affects the future of

the environment, our lives, and the economy. Bringing attention to the issue that is

overconsumption would be beneficial to everyone participating in it. The purpose is to spread

awareness about the subject and find other alternatives to overconsumption. I want to learn how

much consumerism has increased within the years social media gained popularity and I want to

see how many ads and sponsored videos pop up on people’s social media platforms. This will

help show that consumerism has increased to an unsustainable amount. I would also like to look

at how much the environment has been impacted and how climate change has gotten worse and

then compare it to the increase of consumerism. Comparing these numbers will show that the

environment has been impacted by an increase in consumerism. I would also like to investigate

how big companies like Amazon and Shein advertise on social media and then how often people
 Pollock 3

see them. I would also like to research what overconsumption does to the planet and to its

consumers more directly because I don’t have any examples of it.

Methodology:

For my methodology, I will use surveys and textual analysis. Surveys will be posted on

social media and I will ask my coworkers, roommates, and classmates to take the survey. The

survey will ask questions about how often they see ads and sponsors on social media. It will ask

if they have ever been inclined to purchase a product or have purchased a product from these ads.

I will ask which companies give you the most ads and do you ever visit their website afterwards.

I will ask about their “for you” page and see if they get any trends about buying in bulk, hauls, or

just product reviews. Then I will ask if they ever feel like they need to buy things just because

they see other people buying them . The goal of this survey is to understand if companies are

targeting teenagers and young adults through social media posts and how it is affecting their

audience. For my textual analysis I will look at the revenue of companies and how much each

company has made throughout the years that social media ads became popular. I will use the

companies that the survey shows and see how much they are making and how much they are

contributing to overconsumption.

Timeline:

The timeline of this is to create the survey and get as many responses as I can within the

week. Then use that data to begin researching other parts of the topic and the companies that

were mentioned the most. By week 4, my research should be done and I should begin writing the
 Pollock 4

research paper. By the end of that week I should be finished with the first draft and begin

revising and editing. By the end of week 6, the research paper should be done.

Citations:

Deshpande, Indrajeet. “What Is Social Media Advertising? Definition, Costs, Best

Practices, Benefits, and Examples.” Spiceworks, 25 Aug. 2020,

https://www.spiceworks.com/marketing/social-media/articles/what-is-social-media-advertising/.

Appendix A:

Google forms will be used for the survey