The post-pandemic boom of digitized transactions is still in full force today. Many continue to opt for online shopping, especially with the growth of e-commerce like Shopee and Tokopedia that provide one-stop shops for everything imaginable, often with a cheap price on top of even more discount vouchers. Nowadays, even social media has a dual purpose with the rise of social commerce—Facebook Marketplace, Pinterest’s recommended products; you can’t even catch up with your TikTok For You Page without the jingling of live sale bells urging you to “check out sekarang!”

While this opens up issues such as the promotion of post-capitalist consumerism, another problem permeates Indonesia specifically with the proliferation of online loans.

Amidst Gen Z’s housing crisis and inflation without wage adjustments in Jakarta, finances might as well be at a peak of instability. Yet we are constantly exposed to cues that foster a subliminal hobby of shopping—no longer in need of malls or brick-and-mortars, restaurants and stores now rest under one fingertip, only a couple clicks away from making a sale. And, while those who started adulting in the 2010s would know how tricky overspending can be with credit scores and bank loans, that has also been replaced by its digitized counterparts, the online loan system. Further complicating things is the fact that these systems are set up by the very corporations that shove excessive shopping in our faces, integrating PayLater features into their e-commerce platforms and offering promotions exclusive to this payment method, rife with enticing promises of instant (and oftentimes fleeting) gratification.

At the rapid rates consumerism is increasing, many struggle to keep up, especially younger people with low to no disposable income.

To make things worse, kids nowadays are growing up alongside the rest of the world, raised by an onslaught of unfiltered content on social media. Generation Alpha are often referred to as “iPad kids,” since the letter blocks and puzzles prior generations grew up with have been replaced by screens playing Cocomelon videos. The age range of kids getting their first mobile phones tends to skew younger, too, that it becomes common to spot third graders with the latest iPhone.

Media psychologist Dr. Grant, PhD told Glamour that the accessibility of social media to children develops what he calls the parasocial-media relationship—a phenomenon where kids at early teenage years replace friends with internet personalities to seek self-actualization. Their exposure to these social media stars come with a side of promotional products being pushed, and it’s more likely now that they want every item from a TikTok influencer’s PR package rather than a classmate’s new Smiggle pencil case.

Indonesian youth are no different. Social media is now dominated by younger children, with individuals between 13 and 25 years old making up over half of Indonesian TikTok users. Shopee, one of Indonesia’s leading e-commerce platforms, is also dominated by Gen Z. While online loans do not target younger audiences specifically, all the previous factors can work against them in making sound financial decisions. Yes, online loans do require an age limit for transactions. Yet there are no evaluations of financial merit the same way applying for credit cards do. This may set up a dangerous scheme of financial instability on an already low-income generation of impressionable kids. In rare, extreme cases, online loans might get paid in blood.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that while Indonesia has a high GDP per capita, 25 million people across the nation is still considered poor—and that’s a gross oversimplification that doesn’t consider socioeconomic and human resource development in small cities and rural areas outside of Java.

Indonesians may be producing a high monetary value, but a deeper look into the financial status of its citizens reveal just how discrepant the economic welfare is.

The dangers of online loans can sometimes go unnoticed, so much so that evangelizing against it is Pay Later, a Netflix show about an influencer in debt from online loans that she herself became a debt collector. And, the show topped the Indonesian Netflix charts for multiple weeks as of September 2024. While only living once means it’s the only chance to enjoy the gratifications life has to offer, living in a capitalist society where the middle class will always be oppressed warrants a step back to reevaluate if it really is worth it to buy now and pay later.