Social media, and fear of failing to ‘keep up with the Joneses’
Spending money to flaunt one’s success is nothing new. Indeed, the phrase “conspicuous consumption” was coined over one hundred years ago by economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen. Nowadays, these overt displays of wealth and exuberance tend to be referred to as ‘peacocking’. Although a term originally coined to describe the act of attracting a mate with tactics to distinguish oneself from the crowd, it’s now used more generally to describe overt, attention-grabbing behaviour. But the terminology isn’t the only aspect