Latte-shaming is a form of financial advice, albeit not a good one, made popular by Instagram personalities and influencers that are intended to shame someone for spending their money on a high-end coffee rather than investing it in other ways. A financial advisor named David Back published a book in which he discussed the practice of latte-shaming in particular.
Keep reading to learn more about noun-shaming, latte-shaming, how to use it properly within a sentence, and why it is not a good practice to use it.
What is (Noun)-Shaming?
When someone is unfairly criticized for a particular trait or characteristic, the phrase “(Noun)-shaming” is overused to describe the practice. Many coffee shops, such as Starbucks, offer “fancy” coffee drinks such as lattes, which are available at a higher price point than regular coffee drinks. When it comes to the surface of things, “latte-shaming” appears to be a way of criticizing people for purchasing coffee beverages.
You can (noun)-shame anyone for just about anything these days. There can be mom-shaming, pet owner-shaming, teacher-shaming, and so on and so on. While it is perceived as a passive-aggressive overture, it has become prevalent more recently in society.
Latte-Shaming Is Not About Latte’s
As we mentioned, latte-shaming, on its face, seems to be a criticism of someone’s choice of coffee beverage. However, latte-shaming is more a criticism of how someone chooses to spend their money. Back, in his book, pointed out that if people stopped spending their money on fancy coffee, they could be rich. As we are all well aware, this over-simplifies a very complicated concept.
While latte-shaming, when first coined, was a popular way to point the blame of society’s failures on individuals, in more recent times, latte-shaming has fallen out of favor with the general public, and those who continue to use the practice are at risk of being regarded as out of touch with reality.
How to Latte-Shame Someone
If you are going to choose to latte-shame someone, it is important that you understand how to do so gently and correctly. Here are a few examples of how you can latte-shame someone.
- I’m sorry you are not able to buy a house. If you stopped going by Starbucks every day, you could buy one tomorrow!
- If you want to build your wealth like me, you should stop going to those fancy coffee shops.
- Save your coffee money for a house, then you will have money to buy one!
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