by CARA MICHELLE SMITH
The pressure to document the most interesting parts of their lives comes with a price tag
The phrase “keeping up with the Joneses” first appeared in 1850 in The New Yorker, describing how the neighbors of Elizabeth Schermerhorn Jones, a wealthy New York socialite, were so intimidated by her summer home in the Hudson Valley that many were prompted to renovate their own properties to, as the magazine put it, keep up with the Joneses.
Since then, the idiom has found a home in the competitive arena of middle-class America. For years, “keeping up with the Joneses” has conjured up images of a typically white, straight American family — husband, wife, two kids, a dog — standing on their front lawn, waving to their neighbors, the husband smiling as he clocks the neighbor’s new car and the wife wondering if the neighbors’ kids are dressed better than their own. It’s a nod to the pressure that comes when your home, family and a few key material possessions are treated as vital parts of your public presentation.
But for those who grew up on smartphones, social media has dramatically expanded what’s expected from their public presentation. Today’s young adults feel pressure to document every element of their life, big and small — breakfast, lunch, dinner, side hustles, weekend plans, vacations, friends, partners — in order to present a digital amalgamation of a fully-formed person, checking off the same material and experiential boxes of people not only on their street or in their neighborhood, but all around the world.
New research shows that keeping with the digital Joneses, and making purchases based on pressures from social media, is driving a significant portion of young Americans into debt.
“Minds on Money,” a new survey from Ally Financial of more than 1,000 U.S. adults, found that 40% of Gen Zers regularly take on debt for impulsive purchases of items or experiences they saw on social media. But social media isn’t just driving the purchase — it’s a key part of what comes next, with just as many Gen Zers saying that these purchases are made, in part, to be shared on social media.
“That blew my mind,” Ally Bank’s Jack Howard told Salon. She’s the bank’s head of money wellness, a new division focused on behavioral financial education and the intersection of psychology and money. Howard spent years developing it at the bank before its 2023 launch.
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