IRL with Arielle: TikTok Shop is the next step in social commercialization

Arielle Andrews, Staff Writer

TikTok. The doomed app once designated for cringey dances and vine-reminiscent humor is now set to rival Amazon. Open the app and you will quickly realize that everyone is trying to sell you something. 

If you have been on the internet at all during the last two months, you have probably heard of TikTok Shop. The seller incentive program was introduced a few months ago and allows creators to earn commissions off the products they boost and businesses to earn more exposure and income.

Since its release, TikTok Shop has burst in popularity and has likely taken over your For You page. As capitalism blossoms for the girlies and the gays, everyone raves about the same 10 products and begs you to try them. 

It makes you wonder, is the infomercial back in style? And is it creeping into our social circles? 

One of the many appeals of buying something off TikTok Shop is the instant research or endorsement for a particular product. Most TikTok sellers use a quiet “infomercial” style, testing out the products as your friendly, neighborhood girlfriend letting you in on her secrets. 

She starts out either skeptical or overly excited, overall curious to test out the latest trend or let you in on a new find. She will give you all the details surrounding the product, show you how it works, and in the end, offer her enthusiastic endorsement. 

You will trust her because she is just like you — or who you would like to be. 

Jim McGuigan, a scholar and former professor of cultural analysis at Loughborough University, wrote about the concept of “Cool Capitalism,” which can somewhat explain the phenomenon of TikTok Shop. 

Cool Capitalism essentially takes things that are antithetical to capitalism and repackages them for profit and pleasure, according to McGuigan’s book of the same title. Essentially destroying its very nature.

Everyone knows that word-of-mouth is the most effective marketing tool. One of the most human things about us is we love to talk about the things we love. This wholesome, natural interaction stands against capitalism’s strict car salesman, multi-level-marketing girly, grind culture mindset. 

TikTok sellers capitalize on this by pretending to be your friend, building a relationship and using the faux trust built to sell you something. Now, instead of talking about Chamoy pickles because you genuinely love them and want other people to experience the joy, you are talking about it to get that sweet commission, internet clout and the fragile satisfaction that, for one moment in time, you existed and were valued. 

I cannot be the only one who can no longer trust the perfectly quaffed girlies I see on my For You page. But strangely enough, I can no longer trust my friends either. 

Concepts like TikTok Shop, personal branding and hustle culture have everyone acting like an influencer. Everyone is trying to sell you something — even if it’s themselves. 

I call this social commercialization. Capitalism is creeping into our social circles and enabling everyone to repackage and sell themselves, their lives and their hobbies for consumption. 

In past years, humans simply existed. Now, in an age where capitalism abounds, productivity is our main purpose, and everything is a product. And I do mean everything. People have become accustomed to proving the value of their existence. 

Online or in person, we are constantly “selling” ourselves to various audiences. 

Previously, we sold ourselves, rather authentically, to our small circle of friends and family and maybe the people at work. 

Increasingly, however, we are feeling more pressured to package all that we are into a neat little commercially viable product and sell it for all to see. With the awareness that everyone is a product, we now expect people to come perfectly packaged. “Please be palatable to me,” we say. “Please make commercial sense.” 

This is what social commercialization does. It turns our everyday lives into infomercials. Every interaction is a transaction. 

The false friendly nature of TikTok Shop is not some rare phenomenon, it reflects the exact condition brewing in real life. 

I open my app to see some girl selling me glueless wigs and promising me well-spent coin. I close the app to talk to my friend who’s selling me her cool girl, bimbo aesthetic and promising me she’s worth the friendship. 

I could not tell you which one is actually worth it. Probably because neither of them is real.