Social media has brought charity shops back to life – and made second hand shopping even more addictive

Online groups are revolutionising the second hand market, and sharing your finds has become somewhat of an addiction. What does this ‘phenomenon’ say about our most fundamental human desires, asks Irena Barker

Second hand shopping can be a highly emotive and not entirely rational experience (Getty/iStock)

For me, the charity shop obsession started with velvet blazers. It was about 1994, I was 16 and I was desperate to complete my female Jarvis Cocker-in-a-floral skirt indie look.

As a student, I went through a silly ornaments stage – the bigger and sillier the better: the mocking face of a drunk plaster of Paris pirate stared down at us in our student house for an entire year.

When I lived in France after graduation, I furnished my shared house with heavy baronial dining chairs from the Emmaus second hand depot in Limoges.