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Q:
My wife and I moved into our new place a year ago and ever since then, we spend nearly every weekend buying something for the house. At first it made sense to buy new furniture and give some of the bedrooms a fresh coat of paint. But now it seems like she spends all week looking at home decorating sites, watching home reno shows, noticing what our friends have, and checking out Pinterest, to come up with ideas for what we need to do next. And her tastes have gotten more expensive, which is starting to worry me. I already know that this weekend I’ll be shopping for new bathroom faucets with her. Nothing in our house is more than about 18 months old. We’re both proud of the work we’ve put into it, but how can I convince her to be happy with what we have? ~Neil
A:
Owning a home and spending time and money making it look the way we want is an investment many of us enjoy making. For some, however, the lure of something newer, nicer or better is irresistible. The rise of social media has brought this allure to dizzying new heights, even influencing us to buy and spend more than we can reasonably afford.
Whether we like it or not, what we see on social media has a significant impact on the way we live our lives – what we buy, how much we spend, where we go on vacation, who we spend time with, our recreation and entertainment, activities for the kids, how we react to current events — all of it. Seeing our friends’ highlights reels on Instagram makes us wonder if what we have and do is good enough; is our life ’Gram-worthy?
How We Use Social Media Can Contribute to Our Debt
We are our own worst critic, and when continually comparing ourselves to others it can be easy to feel dissatisfied with what we have, or that we don’t measure up. This is obviously an uncomfortable feeling and one that we want to remedy, which is where the difficulties begin, especially if we have access to credit.
On the whole, social media doesn’t make us feel better about ourselves, which affects our spending choices. It gives us an unrealistic glimpse into the lives of influencers and celebrities, and lifestyles we just can’t compete with. Friends share the best parts of their lives which, when all strung together in our feeds, creates a fictional narrative we all too eagerly consume. We chase “likes” and upvotes and collect friends and followers as if they are points we need to score. However, we always fall short because there is always something or someone better than us.
Pursuing the life we think we need to live can lead to depression, anxiety and feelings of loneliness, discontent and even isolation. To alleviate the negative feelings, we may end up spending beyond our means, chasing an idealized life we have no hope of attaining or affording.
How to Reduce Financial Stress and Cope Better
Making it easy and convenient to shop is another way social media contributes to our use of credit cards. Baked right into each social channel is the newest kind of targeted marketing consumers are being subjected to. It is advertising, often in the form of promoted posts, that looks like a friend’s post and it makes shopping with one or two clicks easier than ever.
As social media companies, and even Amazon and the loyalty cards you have saved through apps on your phone, collect unprecedented amounts of demographic information about you and your habits, the data allows them to target the ads even more specifically. Then to top it off, you no longer need to go home and think about what you want to buy, do your research online and go back to buy it if you still want it. Most of us have our most powerful computer always close at hand. Our smartphone is all we need and our fingers instantly do the shopping for us no matter where we are.
Tips to Curb Impulsive Spending
When we see what others are buying, this subtly motivates us to do the same. What our friends or neighbours share about their purchases promotes a tendency within us to compare ourselves to them, and the thoughts that we should do the same — to fit in, to keep up or to get ahead — aren’t far behind. It can be hard to be happy for a friend’s new car, enjoy a colleague’s exotic honeymoon pictures, or appreciate a sibling’s purchases without a twinge of jealousy. And in the heat of the moment, we don’t always remember that just because someone shares what they bought or did and what works for them, that doesn’t mean we need to buy it right now, or ever. It may not be right for us — and that’s just fine.
There was a time when keeping up with the Joneses was cheaper and almost affordable. That changed with the proliferation of social sharing. Now it’s not just the Joneses in our neighbourhood we want to keep up with, it’s all of the Joneses in every neighbourhood anywhere. Stopping ourselves from becoming overly envious and going on a spending spree takes a lot of self-control; some days we’re up to the challenge, and other days, that’s when we may resort to retail therapy at the expense of our long-term well-being.
The Best Budgeting Tips to Pay Debt Off Quickly
How you use different social media platforms affects your spending, but not only in the ways you may expect. It boils down to how they make you feel, because feeling terrific means spending to keep that feeling, and feeling down means spending to shake that feeling.
If you use Twitter or Reddit to catch up on current events or newsworthy items, you may be neither overly happy nor overly down. Using Facebook to chat with friends or to reach out to a company for customer service, or Instagram to see what others are up to, can make you feel pretty good about yourself which, in turn, can spur spending. The underlying mindset with Pinterest is feeling positive, even planning more projects than you can reasonably take on, and the reality is that gathering supplies is motivation to spend.
Think about your go-to platforms for information, connection and shopping to determine how they make you feel and influence your spending; your credit card balance depends on it.
If you’re worried about how much social media is causing you to spend, you might be tempted to give it up. However, giving up social media is pretty drastic and can cause you to miss out on the good parts too. Rather than give it up entirely, start by evaluating your habits — kind of like
tracking your spending
, track your social media use to identify your habits.
At the same time, take a look at your budget and goals. Determine if, with your current spending habits, debts, obligations and savings, you are on track to meet your goals. If you’re not, set some concrete goals so that you know what to do with your money when temptation strikes, and work towards creating a realistic budget.
Common Financial Goals and How to Make Them SMART
Remove all credit card and bank account information from PayPal, Amazon and all other websites, apps, merchants and platforms so that you can’t use one-click ordering. Make it as cumbersome as possible for yourself to buy online to reduce how often you do it.
Unsubscribe from email marketing campaigns that you really don’t want to see and filter the few subscriptions for your favourite stores into a separate folder. Only look at the emails when you’re shopping for something you need.
You may want to aim to decrease how much time you spend on social media, or on certain platforms. Rather than peeking at your feed for a few minutes as often as you can, plan 15-minute blocks a few times a day into your schedule for social media. Unfollow anyone who isn’t in line with your goals or who isn’t enriching your life in any way. Log out of accounts on your phone if you have to, logging in only during set times. Focus on living in the moment and appreciating real life as it happens.
4 Money Management Tips We Can Learn from Social Media Trends
It’s easy to blame social media for our spending habits or credit card balance. However, making purchases because we want to keep up, show off or get ahead has been around much longer than the first social accounts we could open. There are many ways social media can enrich our lives. It helps us keep in touch with friends, see photos of family abroad, educate ourselves, build communities around specific interests, disseminate vital information and even provide entertainment. But as Dave Ramsey once said, “We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.”
Social media has its place, and it is up to us to keep it in a place that works for us.
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Opinion: Hundreds of multi-lingual media outlets are the “canary in the coal mine,” offering warnings about everything from foreign interference to psychological stresses on newcomers
Published May 09, 2024 • Last updated 7 hours ago • 4 minute read
Canada could head off foreign influence and intimidation by monitoring the country’s proliferating ethnic media, according to a new report.
Hundreds of foreign-language newspapers, radio shows and TV stations in Canada offer revealing insights into the hopes and tensions experienced by more than eight million migrants and their offspring, says a study titled Diaspora Dynamics: Ethnic Media and Foreign Conflict in Multicultural Canada.
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Canada’s ethnic media is “the canary in the coal mine,” offering warnings about everything from foreign interference to psychological stresses on newcomers, whether from Iran, China, Russia, India, South Korea, the Middle East or beyond, says Andrés Machalski, president of Multilingual International Media Research (MIREMS).
But governments aren’t taking advantage of the fertile resource. Their lack of understanding of the powerful role played by ethnic media has “enabled Chinese and Indian agents to (impact) public opinion … and provided an open door to homeland subversion of Canadian democracy,” says Machalski.
MIREMS’ 54-page report maintains the media outlets are invaluable for understanding what is going on in scores of diaspora communities.
The report goes so far as to suggest many newcomers suffer from anxiety and depression associated with “complex PTSD” as they try to navigate news and views from their homelands with their new lives in Canada.
Although many of the views expressed in ethnic media are predictable, there is some range of opinion, says the report by MIREMS, which tracks more than 800 media outlets in 30 languages in Canada and worldwide.
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The discussion paper includes special sections on what the ethnic media says about China, the Russian-Ukraine war, the murder of a Sikh militant in B.C., and the Israel-Hamas war.
Here are some highlights:
Beijing’s infiltration of Chinese-language media in Canada
Jonathan Manthorpe, author of Claws Of The Panda: Beijing’s Campaign of Influence and Intimidation in Canada, wrote last week in The Vancouver Sun that one of the most “venomous” activities of the Chinese Communist Party is the way it controls “almost all Chinese-language media” in Canada.
“The result of this is most contemptible among new Canadians from Mainland China. This stranglehold blocks their exposure to Canadian society and values, and sustains CCP control over their lives,” Manthorpe wrote.
The MIREMS report does not go so far. But it does capture how Chinese-language newspaper and broadcast outlets, aimed at 1.7 million Chinese-Canadians, more often than not toe the Communist Party line on human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, the detention of Huawei CEO Meng Wanzhou, and China’s interference in Canadian elections.
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Since many ethnic Chinese writers and editors in Canada fear they are being spied on by agents from Mainland China, the report says they often “shy away from controversial topics to protect their interests.” Still, MIREMS suggests a degree of independent reporting can be found.
Russian-Canadian media silent on the war against Ukraine
While the government-controlled media in Russia stridently promotes the devastating invasion of Ukraine, Machalski says that is not the case in the Russian-language media in Canada. “It is largely silent.”
Russian-Canadian media are significantly more “balanced” than those in the homeland — and are occasionally even sympathetic to Ukraine, says the report.
Russian, Ukrainian, Latvian and Polish media outlets in Canada serve a potential audience of more than two million people. If Ottawa had been learning from them, Machalski said, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would likely have avoided the embarrassment of inviting a Ukrainian veteran who had fought for the Nazis to be honoured by Ukraine’s visiting prime minister, Volodymyr Zelensky.
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Less emphasis on “World War III” in Jewish and Arab media in Canada
The mainstream media in Canada is generally more fair and nuanced than the diaspora media in covering most issues, including the Israel-Hamas war, says the report. But there can be surprises.
While Jewish-Canadian and Arab-Canadian outlets mostly contribute to polarization over the war in Gaza, Machalski, who is from Argentina, says there is at least not much talk about “how this is the start of World War III” — a theme that can emerge when mainstream outlets cover angry street protests.
South Asian media more open, and feisty
There has long been a range of opinions expressed in the various multi-language outlets serving South Asian-Canadians, a potential audience of almost two million.
Whether serving the country’s large Sikh or Hindu populations, media outlets are now fixated on how Canada’s diplomatic relations with India have been impacted by last year’s murder in B.C. of Khalistani separatist Hardip Singh Nijjar.
Sikh-oriented media outlets largely condemn India’s government, supporting Trudeau’s allegation that Indian agents could have been involved. On the other hand, Hindu-oriented outlets tend to accuse Trudeau of pandering to Sikh militants.
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All in all, the MIREMS report concludes with the perceptive theory that it is psychologically disturbing for members of Canada’s sizeable diaspora populations, many of whom experience dual identities, to be buffeted by drastically contrasting messages from different media outlets.
“The constant exposure to homeland conflicts through ethnic media on one hand, and the mainstream media on the other, can be traumatic for immigrants, who find themselves caught between their past and present lives,” says the report.
“The coverage of ongoing conflicts such as those in Ukraine, India and the Middle East might trigger symptoms akin to Complex PTSD, where the stress is prolonged and repetitive.
“This form of psychological stress is complicated by immigrants’ efforts to integrate into Canadian society while maintaining ties to their country of origin, leading to a unique set of mental health challenges.”
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Ontario’s education minister says he wants to sit down with social media executives to work out how to reduce distractions and enforce bans on certain apps in the classroom.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce will table legislation on Monday designed to give the government powers aimed at cracking down on privacy issues, cyberbullying and age-appropriate internet use.
As part of the legislation, the government is planning to meet with executives at major apps like Snapchat, Facebook and TikTok to work out how to cut distractions.
The province wants help from the companies themselves with issues like students sneaking through age verification or getting around blocks on the apps in places like school WiFi networks.
“I look forward to that conversation and I believe that they’re willing to have that conversation in good faith, recognizing we have powers through the legislation, or we will have should the legislation pass, possible authorities to further protect children,” Lecce told reporters.
Those powers, if voted through, would allow the minister to implement regulations related to social media, although details have not been made public.
Ontario recently announced it would be banning access to all social media on school WiFi networks and school-owned devices. That news came alongside a strict reduction on when phones can be used by students.
Lecce’s plan to sit down with social media companies comes as several school boards in the province are taking companies behind Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok to court.
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School boards, including Toronto District School Board and Ottawa-Carleton, are seeking $4 billion in damages, alleging some app products have rewired how children think, behave and learn and that educators and schools have been left to “manage the fallout.”
The lawsuit has not been publicly supported by the Ford government and Lecce said he is taking a “different approach” from the school boards in dealing with social media distraction.
“We believe social media companies have a role too, working with the government to get this right so that we focus our classrooms on academics,” Lecce said. “We get the distractions out of class.”
Other regulations the government said it is planning could include “age-appropriate standards for software standards” for devices students use at school like laptops and rules to ensure student data isn’t sold.
“The evolving online world provides many opportunities for children’s education and growth but there are risks to their privacy and the collection and use of their personal information,” Todd McCarthy, Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery, said Thursday.
“Our government wants our children to have a healthy, safe and age-appropriate digital experience when engaging with public sector organizations like schools which is why we are safeguarding their best interests by putting guardrails in place to better protect them.”
Along with meeting social media executives, the government said it plans to consult school boards, parent groups and law enforcement as it creates the regulations.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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A security guard at Drake’s mansion in Toronto was badly injured in a drive-by shooting on Tuesday, police say. The shooting happened amid an ongoing musical beef between Drake and Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar. But David Dennis Jr., a senior writer at Andscape, says there’s no indication Lamar had anything to do with the shooting and that there’s a racial component to speculation that it’s linked to the feud.
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