How to avoid being influenced into spending your hard-earned money

Kim Kardashian agreed to pay €1.3 million to settle charges with the US securities regulator for promoting a cryptocurrency on her Instagram - without revealing she was paid $250,000 to do so. Photograph: Michael A. McCoy/The New York Times

Have you taken the bait on the jersey, barrel leg pants yet? If you’re a midlife woman with an Instagram account, they’re hard to escape. “These sell-out Uniqlo trousers have Instagram in a chokehold,” screamed a headline in Grazia last week. So #obsessed are influencers with these pants, it’s taking all my willpower to resist.

These pants are just the latest and the merry-go-round of products being flogged by influencers, filling your feed and draining your wallet. Scroll for five minutes and you’ll see it: the must-have mascara, the indispensable boiling water kitchen tap, the luxury hotel stay.

Social media content has become one long ad break – though it’s not always clear that “advertainment” is what you’re watching. What seems like harmless scrolling is actually a constant stoking of your impulse to spend. This is creating a cycle of swipe-shop-regret, research shows, eating up not just your time but your money, too.

Purchase regret

Two-thirds of people who follow influencers have purchased a product as a result of them talking about it, says Laurie O’Keeffe, head of investigations in the enforcement division of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC).

“Influencer content can significantly shape consumer opinions and purchasing behaviours online,” says O’Keeffe.

Ex-rugby player Brian O’Driscoll is among throse influencers who have been served with CCPC compliance notices for failing to disclose the commercial nature of some of their post