Withdrawal from consumption: Generation Z's new consumption ethics, its causes, and economic implications

OpenAlex İngilizce

At the dawn of the twenty-first century, global consumer culture is undergoing a structural transformation driven by the markedly different preferences of Generation Z, the cohort born between 1997 and 2012. This study examines that transformation by tracing it from the historical foundations of consumption theory to its present manifestations, explaining it through the interlocking dynamics of income inequality, climate anxiety, digital fatigue, and value-based identity construction. Drawing on a critical literature review and conceptual synthesis, the study demonstrates that Generation Z's withdrawal from consumption is not merely an economic response to financial constraints but also a deliberate ethical stance, an identity declaration, and a collective act of cultural positioning. The study's central theoretical argument is that withdrawal from consumption constitutes a motivationally layered identity-forming act in which economic precarity, ethical commitment, and digital cultural capital mutually reinforce one another. The study discusses the short-term macroeconomic risks this tendency generates, its long-term potential for structural transformation, and the policy implications for a transition toward a more sustainable production-consumption system.