A Little Treat

Submission 200

About

A Little Treat refers to a small snack, gift or purchase to treat oneself. In memes, buying a daily little treat is said to keep a person sane through a reward system, akin to the affirmation catchphrase, "I deserve a little treat." A little treat commonly challenges a person's "bank balance," which is often also object labeled in Little Treat image macros to oppose the subject's little treat purchase. In 2023, the so-called "Little Treat Culture" surfaced on TikTok and earned discourse about its benefits and repercussions. Little Treat memes spread en masse during the early 2020s on major social media sites like Twitter / X, Reddit and Instagram, among others.

Origin

The earliest discovered viral post about getting a little treat in the context of regrettably treating and rewarding oneself was a tweet shared by X^[1] user @NINETIREDBUGS on March 18th, 2021, that read, "ok the problem with thinking 'it's been a really tough week! why shouldn't I get myself a little treat' is that it's been at least 53 rough weeks in a row and the amount of little treats I now require to feel baseline happy is accelerating at a terrifying pace," receiving over 173,000 likes in three years (shown below).

Precursor

Before the abovementioned tweet, viral posts using the phrasal template called "I can have a little X, as a treat" were common on X^[2] and Reddit^[3] (among other sites). The phrasal template originates from the Cats Can Have a Little Salami meme (examples shown below).

Spread

Viral posts that referenced little treats continued in 2021, such as a tweet shared by X^[4] user @chismosavirus on December 11th, 2021, that read, "if I don't buy a little treat (coffee, tea, boba, or small snack) for myself every day I will literally die," receiving over 155,000 likes in three years (shown below, left).

On January 16th, 2022, X^[5] user @jzux tweeted, "me when I have a bad day: I think I deserve a little treat / me when I have a good day: I think I deserve a little treat," gaining over 241,000 likes in two years (shown below, right).

Viral tweets^[6] about little treats continued in 2022. The concept then spread via image macros. For instance, on May 16th, 2022, X^[7] user @shrimpjulia tweeted a Snail In My Ear meme reading, "Snail in my ear telling me to buy a little treat," gaining over 241,000 likes in two years (shown below, left).

On June 19th, Instagram^[8] user @sadasscats posted a cat meme about a little treat, gaining over 25,700 likes in two years (shown below, right).

Little Treat memes spread on TikTok predominantly in 2023, like a Pedro Pascal Eating Toast meme posted by TikToker^[9] @meghanspages on March 17th, 2023, gaining over 2.4 million plays and 416,400 likes in a year (shown below).

Little Treat image macros continued in 2023, like an object labeling meme shared by X^[10] user @RespectfulMemes on February 18th, 2023, that amassed over 102,000 likes in a year (shown below, left).

The memes continued in 2024, like a Silence X, a Y Is Talking meme shared by X^[11] user @OrwellNGoode on June 21st, 2024, gaining over 6,100 likes in a day (shown below, right).