Pop culture, lifestyle, demographics: friendflation

Self-tutoring about Millennial and Gen-Z trends: the tutor mentions friendflation.

I used to think that the mindset of Millennials and Gen-Z (which I find pretty similar to each other; see my post here) was new and different compared to earlier generations. More and more, however, I’m suspecting that the Millennials and Gen-Z actually think the way people historically have, while instead it’s perhaps Baby Boomers and Gen-X that are exceptions.

For instance, the tendency to ignore bad news and cheerlead instead is something I’ve observed among Millennials and Gen-Z, but I didn’t see much in the 70s and 80s. Yet, cheerleading – though not by that name – is referenced in the Bible, Isaiah 30:10: “Which say to the seers, See not: and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits.”

Today I’ve encountered the term friendflation – a word which, to my mind, only a Millennial or Gen-Z could invent. Millennials and Gen-Z are highly intelligent; they seem to excel, particularly, at people skills as well as naming things.

While it seems Millennials/Gen-Z have invented the word friendflation, its concept, which is the rising cost of socializing because of a friend group’s expensive activities, is ancient. Sumptuary laws against it have existed since at least 215BC, in Rome.

I didn’t hear too much about the concept of socializing being expensive during the 70s and 80s. Everyone I knew was budgetarily limited, so we all did cheap things together. To Millennials and Gen-Z, though, friendflation is apparently a thing, just as it was from ancient times all the way up into the 19th century.

So why are the Millennials and Gen-Z so noticeably different, at least to some people, from Gen-X and the Baby Boomers? Why, on the other hand, might Millennials and Gen-Z actually be more representative of the way people have been since civilized times? Such are questions I contemplate, and hope to opine about in one or more future posts.

Source:

britannica.com

betches.com