Origins
This phrase describes competing with others’ wealth and status.
What is “keeping up with the Joneses”?
In Europe, social status depended on this.
What is family name / connections to royalty?
One positive effect is that people can move into this.
What is a higher social class?
A widely known and important person is described as this.
What is prominent?
The article uses this device as a modern example of social pressure.
What is a smartphone?
The phrase is considered this type of expression.
What is an idiom?
In the U.S., people could improve status by buying these.
What are luxury goods (cars, homes, technology)?
One negative effect is people become obsessed with this.
What is wealth/status/material goods?
Fancy and highly decorated is called this.
What is ornate?
Today, people compare themselves more easily because of this.
What is interconnected society / social media / technology?
The wealthy family connected to the phrase had this last name.
What is Jones?
This term means the ability to move up in social class.
What is social mobility?
People who can’t keep up may feel this.
What is inferior / dissatisfied?
To encourage or cause something to happen is to do this.
What is spur?
This feeling may occur when seeing what others have online.
What is jealousy?
Elizabeth Schermerhorn Jones built this type of large home.
What is a mansion (or 24-room mansion/Wyndcliffe)?
The “Four-Hundred List” showed this about a person.
What is status / popularity / being elite?
The phenomenon can occur in any place where people compare themselves to these.
What are peers / neighbors?
To think about something too much is to do this.
What is preoccupy?
The desire to buy goods to show status is called this.
What is consumerism?
This region in New York became known for grand mansions.
What is the Hudson Valley?
The U.S. idea that people can “buy their way to the top” relates to this concept.
What is social mobility (through consumerism)?
The article says inequality makes this harder to achieve.
What is upward mobility?
Collecting or gathering things is called this.
What is accumulation?
The idea still matters today because it continues to do this for people.
What is influence how people compare themselves / shape behavior?