Performance Wealth: How Social Media Made Luxury Feel Like Necessity

Scroll through TikTok or Instagram for five minutes, and you'll witness young people casually showing off weekly nail sets costing more than some people's monthly grocery budgets, and hauling shopping bags full of clothes they'll wear once for content. What's striking isn't just the spending but how ordinary it all seems.

We're witnessing the rise of wealth as a performance, where a generation has been algorithmically trained to believe that luxury consumption isn't aspirational anymore, it's baseline. The monthly facial, the fresh set of acrylics, the constant clothing hauls aren't treats or special occasions. They're presented as basic self-care, as normal maintenance, as what everyone their age are doing. But here's the disconnect: this "everyone" exists primarily in the carefully curated world of social media, where the most visible voices belong to influencers, and people whose job is literally to consume and display products. 

The curation of impossible standards

Social media has created a feedback loop where the most engaging content showcases consumption. The algorithm rewards excess, and users learn to perform it. Previous generations might have compared themselves to celebrities or the wealthy elite, people who were obviously living different lives. Today's Gen Z and young millennials are comparing themselves to peers, or at least people who present themselves as peers.

The beauty and fashion industries have capitalised on this shift brilliantly. Mintel research shows UK consumer spending on beauty and personal care products reached £12.5bn in 2024, while the British Beauty Council's Value of Beauty 2024 Report indicates the personal care industry will support a total GDP contribution of £28.1 billion, an increase of 3% from 2023. This growth is largely driven by social media influence, particularly among younger consumers who've been conditioned to see luxury as necessity.

Here's where the performance crashes into reality: the maths simply doesn't work for most people. The monthly expenses that have become "normal" in many social media circles include lash extensions costing £80-150 monthly, nail appointments at £40-60 fortnightly/ monthly, hair appointments ranging from £150-300 monthly, regular facials at £60-120 monthly, and constant clothing purchases totalling £200-400 monthly. This adds up to £800-1,500 monthly just on beauty and fashion maintenance.

For someone earning £25,000 annually, this represents 38-72% of their pre-tax income. Yet these expenses are presented not as luxury choices but as basic upkeep, as necessary as paying rent or buying groceries. The language around them has shifted from “I'm treating myself” to “I need to get my nails done” or “I'm due for a facial”.

The reality of recession

This collision between social media-driven consumption expectations and economic reality is happening at a particularly challenging moment. Britain's young adults are taking years longer than their predecessors to reach life milestones including leaving their parents' home and having babies because of the high cost of housing, childcare and student debt, according to Bloomberg analysis.

Government data from the English Housing Survey shows that younger renters aged 16 to 24 were twice as likely to find paying rent privately difficult in 2023-24 (32%) compared with 2019-20 (16%). Just under a third of private renters (32%) reported finding it either fairly or very difficult to afford their rent in 2023-24.

The disconnect is jarring. On one screen, influencers are casually spending hundreds on weekly shopping trips. On another, headlines warn of a housing crisis and economic uncertainty. Yet the social media algorithm continues to serve up content that treats luxury consumption as routine maintenance.

This isn't just about individual financial decisions but about how an entire generation has been conditioned to see wealth. When luxury consumption becomes the baseline for normal life, anything less feels like deprivation. The person who can't afford monthly lash appointments doesn't feel like they're living without a luxury but like they're falling behind on basic self-care.

The influence industrial complex 

The most insidious aspect of this phenomenon is how it masquerades as authenticity. Unlike traditional advertising, social media consumption is wrapped in relatability. Influencers share their “morning routines” that happen to include £150 worth of skincare products, or their "quick outfit changes" that showcase thousands of pounds worth of clothing.

This creates a form of stealth marketing where the message isn't “buy this product” but “this is how normal people live”. The consumption isn't presented as aspirational but as documentary. The beauty and fashion industries have evolved to support this illusion, with fast fashion allowing for constant clothing hauls at seemingly affordable prices, and subscription services making expensive beauty treatments feel accessible.

Whilst it's tempting to frame this as a problem of individual responsibility, that misses the broader cultural shift. This generation has grown up with social media as their primary window into how their peers live, algorithmically fed a distorted version of normal that treats luxury consumption as baseline existence.

The solution isn't simply individual financial literacy. It's recognising that we're living through a fundamental shift in how lifestyle expectations are formed. Social media hasn't just changed how we communicate but how we understand what normal life looks like. The challenge for young people isn't just learning to budget but learning to distinguish between algorithmic reality and actual reality. In a world where the most visible version of your peer group is the wealthiest, most consumption-focused slice, developing realistic expectations requires active resistance to the algorithm's version of “normal”.

Written by Vanessa Twerefou