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Meeting a friend can quickly become expensive. Dinner, coffee, or a night out can turn into a noticeable expense. For some young adults, that cost is changing how often they see friends and even which friendships they maintain.

“When I meet friends, I feel pressured that I have to do something — eat or go somewhere,” said Kong I-seo, a student in Kyung Hee University(KHU)’s School of Global Communication. She added, “And doing anything always costs money.”

The pressure has recently been described as “friendflation,” a combination of “friend” and “inflation.” The term refers to the rising financial burden of maintaining friendships as the cost of everyday social activities increases.

How Has Friendflation Changed the Way Young People Socialize

Kong is not the only student feeling the pressure. Choi Yae-won, a student at a university in Seodaemun-gu, said, “As meeting my friends has turned into a financial burden, I have spent time deciding in advance whether to meet them.”

A July 2026 survey of 601 people in their 20s by Mediawill Networks Inc. found that 93% felt burdened by the cost of meeting friends because of rising prices. Among them, 78.4% identified meal expenses as the biggest source of financial strain. The same survey found that 71.2% had reduced spending on gatherings during the previous year.

Kong said she has responded by calling friends more often and meeting less frequently with people whose spending habits differ greatly from hers. Choi also said she has cut back on meetups because of the cost, and when she could not avoid meeting up, she has tried to keep them shorter by meeting briefly in the evening.

However, before giving them up, both students first look for cheaper ways to maintain their friendships. Choi has been looking for affordable places to meet with friends before deciding not to meet. Kong also explained, “But when possible, I try to find more efficient ways to see friends. Nowadays, when I have something to do or somewhere to go, I have reached out to friends who need to do similar things.”

Body 2: Why has Socializing Become So Expensive?

Besides high prices, other factors, such as a decline in free meeting spaces added to social media-driven overconsumption culture and economic insecurity among young people, can cause socializing among the young to become expensive.

Professor An Jae-wook of the Dept. of Economics at KHU pointed to the growing role of commercial spaces in everyday social life. “In the past, people could spend time without spending money, like at a park or on a campus bench, but now a meetup often happens once they step into a commercial space like a cafe or restaurant.” On top of this, a social media culture centered on finding photogenic places—trendy hotspots, popular restaurants, aesthetically pleasing accommodations—has made meeting up with friends expensive. 

An also said that youth unemployment is adding to this burden. Because young people who have not been able to secure stable jobs have a weak income base, they are less able to cope with inflation and are hit the hardest by its effects. As prices rise while a stable income base fails to keep pace, even everyday meetups with friends are becoming a burden for young people.

Friendflation That Leads to the Social Gap

For some students, the problem goes beyond spending less. Prof. An predicted that friendflation can increase the imbalance of social relationships and opportunities. Although socializing is essential for the young to get useful information, as An pointed out, even the easiest way of socializing, meeting friends, requires economic capital.

Kong has experienced such a relationship gap. She ended a friendship just because of the expense gap this year. “My friend had chosen a restaurant where all the dishes cost more than 20,000 won even on the day when I had promised to pay. Even though I knew her usual expense was higher than mine, I decided to end this relationship,” she said. She called this a depressing experience which was a first for her and illuminated how important money can be to friendships.

Finding Cheaper Ways to Stay Connected

However, the higher burdens do not necessarily mean young people are giving up on friendship. Prof. Choi Hyung-sun of the Dept. of Economics at KHU asked, “Was this term also widely used in the late 1970s or the 1980s, when inflation was even worse?” His point is that young generation’s expectations around socializing have also changed. Because they want to oppose the conventional show-offish meeting way, they may simply replace expensive activities with cheaper ones. As an example, he said that if cafes or restaurants are too expensive, people could have meals together at home instead of eating out.

In practice, Choi Yae-won was able to maintain her social life more efficiently by actively seeking out affordable alternatives. She said, “I used to choose restaurants that were popular on social media when meeting friends. These days, my friends and I carefully check online reviews and choose places that offer good value for money. Surprisingly, I find it more satisfying this way.”

For students like Kong and Choi, efforts to cut the cost of meeting up can be interpreted not only as severing relationships, but as their desire to maintain them by finding affordable substitutes. Furthermore, it shows young people are active agents who are already changing their environment.

Friendship on a Budget

Generation Z's friendflation phenomenon—an effort to reduce the burden of everyday meetups with friends—has been triggered by underlying social problems: a decline in free meeting spaces, social media-driven overconsumption culture, economic insecurity among young people and high prices. This could deepen the relationship gap caused by income inequality. At the same time, it could also help young people overcome past limitations by finding new ways to connect.