– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

Consumerism is getting out of hand.

Everyday, sophisticated marketing

schemes flood our feeds with newly

created musthaves. Handheld banana

slicers, miniature keyboard vacuums,

shower hair catchers. They're cheap,

they're novel, they look useful for

about 5 seconds and then they end up

tossed in the trash. A growing slice of

social media has turned into a 247

shopping channel where cheap products go

viral, clutter piles up, and the tactics

used to hook us are getting harder to

resist. This video is sponsored by

Squarespace. I'll share more about why I

use them for all my websites later. You

know, I don't use social media too much

these days, but sometimes my curiosity

gets the best of me. And recently, oh

boy, did I get a real treat. My

algorithm took a hard turn into some of

the most absurd, useless, and wasteful

products I have ever seen. Suddenly, my

feed was a parade of contraptions. A

designer cover for your trash bin, a

wheelspun bread cutter, detachable wine

glass stems, an egg yolk separator

shaped like a basketball hoop, and

decorative toilet seat covers. When I

was a kid, it felt like they made

something new every day, like every day

was Christmas.

>> This bed tent is the perfect way to get

more privacy and make date night more

cozy. This soap dispenser sticks to your

wall and holds enough shampoo,

conditioner, and soap to last a year.

This is a wearable sleeping bag, and

it's great for staying warm whilst doing

your daily tasks. What the A

wearable sleeping bag. It's called a

jacket. You're looking for a jacket.

These products are the spiritual

successors to the as seen on TV era.

Those infomercial gadgets that promise

to solve problems you didn't know you

had.

>> Simply pour your favorite marinade into

the flexible flavorizer. Attach the

needle, place into the flavor probe, and

presto.

>> Back then, they were quirky, cheap, and

sold through 2 a.m. infomercials with a

toll-free number. And despite the

terrible production value and gimmicky

sales techniques, they worked.

>> I couldn't believe how juicy these

burgers came out.

>> I'm sorry. This is one of my favorite

clips. I watched so many infomercials.

Something about this guy just kills me.

Like, this is a paid actor. I can't

believe how juicy these burgers came

out.

>> I couldn't believe how juicy these

burgers came out. I can't believe how

juicy. Okay, I'm done. On social media,

that same formula works even better.

So-called internet entrepreneurs set up

their phones, demo cheap products, cut

their videos to trending audio, and hit

publish.

[Music]

>> I got to say, you know, I was a skeptic

at first, but then I got this and I just

realized how valuable this could be for

everyone from smoothie shop owners to

rabbis looking to increase their

productivity. These short clips are made

for the algorithm. They're unique,

visual, and pitch like magic solutions

to frustrating problems in your life.

And the sellers hit every psychological

trigger they can to get you to buy.

Novelty, scarcity, social proof, lowcost

impulse buying, and that oddly

satisfying feeling that makes you want

to watch again and again. Short form,

instant gratification, onepage

checkouts, Apple Pay, Google Pay,

bundles, FOMO. These are all the things

that get people riing. Boom. Check out.

It's not that people are stupid. These

tactics are engineered to bypass our

rational decision-making. Okay, maybe

people are a little bit stupid. It turns

out a swipeable video is far more

powerful than a 30inute infomercial.

It's bite-sized, sharable, hypnotic to

watch, and since buying is easier than

ever, this stuff is selling like hot

cakes. Speaking of hot cakes, grab this

portable hotcake maker now for 50% off

in the next week.

>> These ads, they come in hard, they come

in fast, they're very convincing. So far

in the last 2 hours, I have purchased

this car vacuum that has apparently NASA

level suction. This balance board cuz my

balance sucks. And this electric bird

feeder which takes glamour shots of the

creatures in your backyard cuz they make

it so easy. It's just click click click

click. Then it's yours. I didn't need

any of this when I woke up this morning.

This constant stream of micro

infomercials is making it harder than

ever to be intentional with our

purchases. And the views on these videos

are insane. Consider that electric crepe

maker. It pulled in 135 million views.

Click through to their profile and what

you'll see is that the same post has

been uploaded over and over again.

They're fishing for another algorithmic

hit. For sellers, this is just a numbers

game. Most posts get tens of thousands

of views. Some take off and get

millions. And those kinds of numbers can

translate into some serious money. But

who's really behind these accounts? How

do they make money? And how does the

whole operation actually work? So, the

internet has a long history of people

turning to get-richqu schemes to make a

living all from the comfort of their

bedroom. Except now it's getting easier

and easier to do. And as the systems and

tools for selling get easier, more and

more people are trying to strike gold

with cheap disposable products on social

media. There are a couple different

models that people are using to make

money from these shitty products. One of

the lowest effort and easiest to get

into is affiliate marketing. With

affiliate marketing, a seller shares a

special link to a product and earns a

small commission each time someone uses

that link to make a purchase. Because

that link uniquely tracks which sale

came from them, grabbing attention,

views, and clicks becomes the heart of

their business. They create content

designed to drive traffic and sales.

Whether it's a YouTube video, a blog

post, or a boosted Instagram reel,

highlighting a product. supposed

benefits.

>> I've been doing affiliate marketing for

a couple years now, and without lifting

a finger, there's content that I've made

a few years ago that's still making me

hundreds or thousands of dollars every

month from a single piece of content.

Amazon runs the largest, most

sophisticated affiliate program in the

world with over 900,000 affiliates

globally. In the right niche, those

small commissions can add up. Categories

like home and beauty can pay rates of up

to 8 to 10% per sale. Take the Instagram

account, The Sisters Shoppers. With over

750,000 followers, their page is filled

with nearly 800 posts, each sharing a

product they find on Amazon that are,

according to them, musthaves, like this

nugget ice maker, this pizza storage

container, and this drink dispenser. You

know, musthaves, because we've all felt

the strain of lifting the milk out of

the fridge, twisting the cap, pouring it

on our cereal, and putting it back in

the fridge. They post a new product

almost every day. Many of the videos

rack up millions of views with thousands

of people in the comments asking for the

link, which by the way triggers an

automated system that instantly sends

you a DM with the creator's unique

affiliate link. I don't think affiliate

marketing by itself is inherently bad. I

use affiliate links sometimes when I

recommend a book, a product, or service

that I find valuable. Most creators that

I know do the same as a way to earn

supplemental income. This year, I've

made about $150 on average per month

from it. Most of it coming from a video

I did in April where I recommended one

of my favorite self-help books of all

time, The Courage to be Disliked. This

income helps pay our grocery bills, but

nothing crazy. And that's because I

don't push it or optimize for sales.

It's not my business model. What's

happening with these must-have accounts

is different. It's very unlikely that

they're sharing products that they use

or find helpful. What's more likely is

that they're actively hunting for items

that they think will go viral and

generate commissions. This is an entire

system designed not around recommending

genuine products or sharing things that

you actually use and find value in, but

around manufacturing artificial needs,

trying to get people to buy things so

then you can make money. And this model

is really just the tip of the iceberg

for online sellers. Affiliate marketing

might get you a 10% cut, but with a

little extra effort, some sellers go

even further. They source cheap products

from factories in China, set up an

online store, mark up the price 10, 20,

even 60 times the cost, and run the same

viral playbook. Welcome to the cutthroat

world of drop shipping. Drop shipping is

an e-commerce model where you run an

online store, but don't keep any of the

products in stock yourself. When a

customer places an order, the details go

to a third party seller who packs and

ships the product directly to the

customer on your behalf. You make money

by charging the customer more than you

pay the supplier. Keeping the difference

as profit. You can literally run the

entire operation from your bedroom

without ever touching inventory. Here's

how it typically works. You find your

next viral product by searching

AliExpress. Maybe this elegant toothpick

dispenser. You order a sample from the

supplier to film content with. Then you

set up an online storefront. From there,

you launch content, creating satisfying

videos of the bird grabbing toothpicks

with trending audio. Most likely, you

then boost it with paid advertising.

Next, you fulfill orders using a drop

shipping app to send each order

automatically to the supplier who ships

the product straight to your customer.

And then finally, you repeat the same

process with other shitty products. This

model takes some more upfront work,

building a website and creating a brand.

But the payoff can be much bigger. The

Instagram account Olivia finds with more

than 391,000 followers promotes a

different product in every post. At

first glance, the account looks similar

to the affiliate marketing example I

showed earlier. a handheld mop, a bed

tucker, a rocking footrest.

>> Just place it under your desk and rest

your feet on it.

>> The key difference with this model,

though, is that each of these products

are sourced from AliExpress. It took me

about 2 seconds to find the original

listed products. So, Olivia sells the

Ham Mop for $342,

but it actually cost $168

on AliExpress. The bed tucker sells for

$14.94 and costs $3.13. And the rocking

footrest, man, that thing looks awesome.

that sells for $4941 but actually costs

$7.31.

Those are some pretty big markups. As

one retired drop shipper, Thomas Despin

put it in a Medium article. We basically

mark up a product anyone can find, ship

it slower than any one of the major

e-commerce players, and we call this a

business. Now, you might be thinking,

"Come on, Matt. People aren't actually

buying this stuff. There's no way. I

mean, it's obviously just a bunch of

crap." But then you look at the comments

and you see so many people commenting

the word foot over and over and over

again. By the way, for a limited time,

if you comment foot below this video,

I'll send you a picture of my foot. At

this point, you know that I'm not a fan

of useless products that serve no

purpose. So, if I were going to build a

website using Squarespace, my sponsor

for this week's video, this is what I

definitely wouldn't do. I wouldn't

invent a product called the self

stirring spatula for times when stirring

your homemade curry is just too much for

your wrist. I wouldn't go to Squarespace

to grab the brilliant domain

stircatula.com.

I wouldn't use Squarespace's new

blueprint AI website builder to fill in

the details for this completely

pointless product and have a full site

set up in minutes. And I definitely

wouldn't set up an online store, launch

a blog, and manage analytics all while

my dinner stirs automatically in the

background. Instead, I'd use Squarespace

to build a website that hosts my

content, course, and links, using it to

help me run a business in a way that

feels good to me. If you want to do the

same, then go to squarespace.com to sign

up for your free trial. And then, when

you're ready to launch, go to

squarespace.com/mattella

to save 10% off your first purchase of a

website or domain. Definitely don't use

it to make a shitty product. Please,

please don't do that. Now, before you

get too excited, slap a logo on a banana

phone cover, and open up shop, there's

something you should know. While some

drop shippers have reportedly made

hundreds of thousands, if not millions

of dollars per year, more people end up

going bust. Consider some of the

comments on the business subreddit about

drop shipping. You need to be a customer

service black belt to drop ship. Margins

are low and volume has to be high. You

spend most of your time fielding

questions about products and late

deliveries. The enthusiasm is there for

selling, but so is the negativity and

ability to adapt to people's needs

beyond a salesman's point of view. Most

people who make money from drop shipping

aren't drop shipping at all, but selling

courses on how to do it. The easiest way

to spot these people, by the way, is

that they do a fast Zoom at the

beginning of all their videos. There are

hundreds, if not thousands of people

teaching others how to build these kinds

of businesses. Michael Craig, founder of

the co-working space dojo, said of these

gurus, "My main gripe is that you're

selling a course for $6,000 to a person

from middle America who's put all their

funds into this." And you're teaching

them to sell avocado slicers online with

40 other people who are also selling

avocado slicers. While free native

content posted directly to Instagram or

Tik Tok can work for creators who

already have an audience, most newcomers

start with zero followers and have to

pay for ads just to get their product

seen. That means that a 60 times markup

on a toilet seat cover starts to erode

pretty quickly once you factor in things

like ad spending, payment processing,

shipping fees, refunds, and customer

service. In the end, a few people sure

end up winning big, but the majority

spend their time managing unhappy

customers and watching their margins

disappear. Underneath all this is the

unspoken, slow spinning wheel of

consumerism. It's the undercurrent of

the entire system. The conversation in

these communities is all about making

money and nothing about how they're

making money. It's never about ethics or

what's right or the fact that the ads

they're buying are hunting people from

sight to sight, hammering them with ad

after ad trying to get them to buy

another useless product. Millions of

products flood timu, Amazon, Alibaba,

and AliExpress every year. It's a

constant conveyor belt of in,

out. It fills our homes, gives us a

flicker of satisfaction, and then gets

shoved into a drawer or tossed in the

trash. As one expert in the documentary,

By Now, the shopping conspiracy pointed

out, you can't just throw something

away. There's no magical place called

away. It all ends up somewhere,

landfills, incinerators, or oceans. But

I also understand that some people

watching this are starting to feel a

little bit jaded about saving the

environment. We don't really feel this

need or personal responsibility to save

the planet when billionaires burn

through more CO2 in a weekend than we

ever could in a lifetime of purchasing

cheap shitty products online. I know I'm

not perfect myself. I mean, I bought a

banana slicer as a prop for this video.

And you better believe that I'm going to

return that as a change of mind because

Jeff Bezos. But I think there's another

more compelling and slightly selfish

reason to stop buying this crap. And

that's because it's all just a

distraction. It eats your money, your

space, your attention, and it trains you

to chase the next musthave instead of

appreciating what you already have. It's

hard to live slowly and intentionally

when you're being hit from every angle.

But you still get to decide how you

spend your time, your money, and your

attention. Having less, and more

importantly, wanting less, frees up

space in your home and in your mind,

making it a little easier to focus on

what genuinely makes you happy. Then

again, that banana slicer looked pretty

cool.

[Music]

>> So, I've been having a lot of fun diving

into these topics and I'm going to do

more of them. I've got so many ideas,

but I also know that with the lack of

time that I spend on social media, I

could use your help. So, if you've got a

video idea or a topic that you want me

to cover or something that you want me

to look into, I've opened up a new tip

line. Just shoot me an email at just the

[email protected].

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
consumerism /kənˈsuːmərɪzəm/ C1	noun - a social and economic order that encourages increased consumption of goods and services
sophisticated /səˈfɪstɪkeɪtɪd/ B2	adjective - highly developed or complex
marketing /ˈmɑːrkɪtɪŋ/ B1	noun - the action or business of promoting and selling products or services
viral /ˈvɑɪrəl/ B2	adjective - spreading rapidly and widely, especially on social media
clutter /ˈklʌtər/ B1	noun - a crowded or confused mass of things
tactics /ˈtæktɪks/ B2	noun - an action or strategy carefully planned to achieve a specific end
algorithm /ˈælɡərɪðəm/ C1	noun - a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations
absurd /əbˈsɜːrd/ B2	adjective - utterly or obviously senseless, illogical, or untrue
intentional /ɪnˈtenʃənl/ B2	adjective - done on purpose; deliberate
affiliate /əˈfɪlieɪt/ B2	noun - a person or organization officially attached to a larger body verb - to officially connect with or join
niche /niːʃ/ B2	noun - a specialized segment of the market
dropshipping /ˈdrɒpˌʃɪpɪŋ/ C1	noun - a retail fulfillment method where a store doesn't keep the products it sells in stock
markup /ˈmɑːrkʌp/ B2	noun - the amount added to the cost price to determine the selling price
ethic /ˈeθɪk/ C1	noun - a set of moral principles or values
distraction /dɪˈstrækʃən/ B1	noun - something that diverts attention

Key Grammar Structures

• Consumerism **is getting** out of hand.

  ➔ Present Continuous

  ➔ Describes an action happening now or around now. The form is 'subject + **is/am/are + verb + -ing**'.

• These products **are** the spiritual successors to the as seen on TV era.

  ➔ Present Simple of 'to be'

  ➔ Expresses a general truth or fact. The form of 'to be' is **are** in the plural.

• On social media, that same formula **works** even better.

  ➔ Present Simple (third person singular)

  ➔ Describes habits, general truths, and facts. The verb takes an '-s' or '-es' ending in the third person singular.

• These short clips **are made** for the algorithm.

  ➔ Passive Voice (Present Simple)

  ➔ The subject is acted upon by the verb. The structure is 'subject + **is/are/am + past participle**'.

• It **is** not that people **are** stupid.

  ➔ Present Simple of 'to be' and Verb 'to be' in Present Continuous

  ➔ The forms of the verb 'to be' are used to describe states of being or to indicate an action in progress.

• Underneath all this **is** the unspoken, slow spinning wheel of consumerism.

  ➔ Subject-Verb Inversion

  ➔ In some sentences, especially those beginning with a prepositional phrase, the subject and verb are inverted for emphasis or stylistic effect.

• It **eats** your money, your space, your attention, and it **trains** you to chase the next must-have...

  ➔ Present Simple (third person singular) and Infinitive of Purpose

  ➔ The verb takes an '-s' or '-es' ending in the third person singular. 'to + infinitive' is used to express purpose.

• Having less, and more importantly, wanting less, **frees** up space in your home and in your mind...

  ➔ Present Simple (third person singular)

  ➔ Describes a general truth or fact. The verb takes an '-s' or '-es' ending in the third person singular.