Treat culture: Millennials and Gen Zers are rebelling against the rough economy with little purchases that keep the malaise at bay

That’s because being an adult doesn’t seem to have the promise of agency and purpose it once did. At the risk of sounding like Debbie Downer at Disney, millennials and older Gen Zers are doing the non-fun adult things like working without the added benefits of being able to afford a house, much less a comfortable life or even a world that isn’t subject to the chaos of climate change, political extremism, and a pandemic. Why not get a treat—maybe some ice cream, a little plant, or even a Garfield phone—to wash the bitter taste of reality all down? 

That’s how Gen Z and millennials are dealing with their difficult economic reality. Younger generations, who lost multiple key years to a locked-down pandemic world, have noticed life is short. Their response: Buy the treat, and lose the pretense that it’s a bad thing.

They’ve taken to Twitter and TikTok to talk about how buying a treat helps them get through the day, even with low savings. They say little indulgences aren’t making the already hefty price of living all that much less affordable, and it helps give them a sense of control over life. Also, treats are just fun. 

pic.twitter.com/OYVTSQDD4M

— 1984’s George Whorewell (@EwdatsGROSS) June 2, 2023

Treating yourself “isn’t a new or generational phenomenon, but I do think it holds a special appeal for a lot of people my age,” explains Liat, a 27-year-old nonprofit worker. She requested her last name be withheld to minimize her digital profile, even though she has a “Google-able enough name as is.”

“Treat culture,” she says, “is related to burnout, hot girl walks, and being young in a decaying empire.” 

Treats are helping us escape the economy

The “Treat Yo Self” meme from NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation is the likely origin of the “ubiquitous girlboss saying that gets printed on mugs and shirts and various wine mom merch,” Liat says. Now, the word represents a much-needed salve for workplace and general existentialism during a time of high employee malaise. 

“We’re of a generation that’s coming to terms with the fact that nothing—the ability to buy our own homes, the promise of being paid a living wage, a habitable planet—is guaranteed to us the way it was to our parents’ generation,” Liat says, adding that turning to treats is a logical response to the financial worries and general anxiety pervading young adult life. “California is burning to the ground, Social Security is gonna run out of money before we’re even eligible, housing and health care and education are all getting more and more expensive.”

another day upholding the Treat Economy pic.twitter.com/C6ruMHOEwq

— multitude container (@bartleby_era) June 1, 2023

Kiana Davis has seen evidence of the treat economy in her clothing store, Kiki The Brand. The 26-year-old says she releases new pieces once or twice monthly—a drop style her customers clamor for, signifying they feel they deserve the indulgence of a limited item, she explains to Fortune. “I really love that, because that is how I live my life.”

“I don’t mind spending the money if it results in me being happy. It could be $5 or $100. It doesn’t really matter if I’ve had a big workload or a relaxed day, a treat is deserved whenever I feel like I need one,” Davis says. Usually that’s Health-Ade’s Pink Lady Kombucha, an affordable and healthy way of getting her daily boost of happiness.

Her below viral tweet explains as much, with 2,500 people backing her up. She believes that young women are especially starting to push against treat stigma: “We value our money but most importantly, we value our happiness.”

i need a treat and a little gift regularly in order to be happy and there is nothing wrong w that

— curry queen (@loookatmeimkiad) May 31, 2023

But there isn’t a true generational trend on the rise, says Douglas A. Boneparth, a financial advisor who specializes in HENRYs, or “high-earning but not rich yet” clients who draw big salaries but haven’t saved enough to be considered truly wealthy. However, he noted that credit debt is at a record high. “The American consumer is unstoppable,” he tells Fortune, adding that the notion of treat culture can have an anti-millennial bent: “[There’s] this notion that these kids can’t control their spending and will never retire because they’re getting a cup of coffee or breakfast out,” but many of them are now approaching their forties.

At the end of the day, if you’re in control of your spending, Boneparth says, a treat doesn’t really make all that much of a difference. “If a $3 cup of coffee in the morning is the thing that gets you through the day and you’re working really hard, I don’t think that’s going to make or break your ability to achieve your financial goals” compared to bigger items like a car or mortgage. In other words, go ahead and treat yo’ self.

‘Life is short, so we decided to buy that extremely cute dress’

The pandemic might have jump-started this more relaxed view of spending, if you ask Mark Sabino, a 26-year-old-product and ad designer from New York who sells jewelry and accessories on social media. Quarantine and economic uncertainty made thinking about the long term fraught for many, he explains. Purchases became more about fixing the immediate—“How can I cheer myself up right now, if only for a little while?” he says.

Davis agrees, saying that quarantine showed just how short life is. “So we decided to buy that extremely cute dress that went viral on Twitter, get a day pass, get that massage, eat that A5 wagyu with the lobster tail on the side, and go on that trip!” 

A Diet Coke can be the difference between a truly monotonous day and an okay one, a way of asserting agency over one’s finances and life. Liat says that even before the pandemic she never brought her own lunch, instead looking forward to the escapism from an exploitative and underpaying job.

“The only way I could get through the day was to have something to look forward to, a moment where I could leave the office and eat something that I couldn’t make—and hadn’t made—myself,” she adds. 

Such a mentality has become more pronounced as some workers had the flexible work schedule they’ve enjoyed over the past couple of years taken away from them during a wave of return-to-office mandates. There’s a push for freedom in seeking a treat to shake up your schedule, seen in Gen Z’s very similar penchant for snacking. “Whether it’s trying something new you wouldn’t have before, or splurging on the ‘deluxe’ version of a product, if you’re feeling like you’ve been stuck in a routine or a rut, it’s almost like your Sisyphean existential rebellion via artisanal ginger ale,” says Sabino.

How it feels to not get yourself a little treat at the grocery store pic.twitter.com/Cd9s4fH9N9

— ⛓️⛓️ (@marksnotnice) May 30, 2023

A little treat goes a long way

Treat culture recalls the larger phenomenon that journalist James Greig remarked upon in his essay “Everyone needs to grow up” for British lifestyles magazine Dazed: that young adults are becoming progressively more infantilized due to the adulthood denied to them by today’s economy. It has a paralyzing effect, he argues. Sabino agrees, saying that part of what’s happening is that our idea of what an adult is is changing radically, and it’s obvious that many adults in power have failed future generations. Davis says she loves the word “treat” for its youthful and fun nature and regards it as a somewhat “healing” way of accessing her inner child. 

In 1899, economist and socialist Thorstein Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class surmised that all consumptive acts in a market economy are intended to signal a particular status. Young millennials and Gen Z are signaling through their treat consumption that they’re over it—or they need a sugar rush to get through the day. It’s an internet trend with long legs, because it’s not really a trend at all but rather a signal of greater disenchantment, if not discontent.

“Treat culture is probably the product of more late-stage capitalism than the other way around,” says Boneparth, adding that younger generations usually have a distrust of the financial system, and might have an even greater one in light of recent bank runs. But they and everyone else still need to “participate in the game of capitalism to survive,” he adds. 

To be fair, Boneparth adds that many young people he works with are still planning for the future, citing those looking to save in the long term. It’s hard to get ahead for all generations, he adds, saying he sees plenty of people who are very highly motivated and hardworking. “I’m not really buying into this notion [that] entire generations of young people are simply just fed up, but I’m also not dismissing that there aren’t many, many people who feel like there’s no way to win,” he says, citing housing prices’ inexorable rise as a major stress.

The phrase “treat culture” itself is an acknowledgment of younger generations’ powerlessness in the face of macroeconomic trends, Sabino says, concluding that most people are self-aware enough to know it’s a “fleeting fix for a much deeper problem.” 

“No amount of abstaining from avocado toast will be enough for us to afford to buy houses when the cost of living has far outstripped wages for decades, so we may as well enjoy the little indulgences that make life pleasurable,” explains Liat. “Our economic prospects as a generation are so fucked that we may as well just live large to whatever degree we can afford.”