A lot of Gen Z/Gen Alpha weirdness is simply a reaction to a deteriorating society
A lot of Gen Z/Gen Alpha weirdness is simply a reaction to a deteriorating society
Hello friends, if you're a Zoomer like me (Well maybe, I was born in '96 so I'm either the last Millennial or the first Gen Z) you may have noticed that we're often the butt of many jokes. "The worst generation of snowflakes ever" or something of that nature. I will admit, we seem a little strange compared to old folks but when you actually take a step back and look at the facts it makes perfect sense.
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Zoomers have dumb language. One of the biggest things Zs get mocked for is lingo: Skibidibop rizz with the gyatt, deadass smh at my goofy ahh uncle. Took me a while to realize it, but when's it's not just memespeak the reason there are so many nonsense words floating around now is because big tech and social media has become so ludicrously censor happy that you need to talk like a fucking baby to avoid getting your post flagged for one reason or another. Even saying too many normal words in the "wrong order" is enough to get shadowbanned these days.
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Kids are inside and on their phones too much. What the fuck else are you expecting them to do? Putting aside the 2 year lockdown due to a pandemic, there's not many options for outside activities. Parks and playgrounds and other things just aren't safe a lot of the times. Whether it's animals, shady characters, or the jungle gym being delapidated. Teens can't go to the malls anymore because they're all closing and anywhere they gather is immediately swarmed with the cops. Nowadays, you go to any big city and the most happening spot is a McDonald's or something because at least you can eat and socialize without getting dirty looks.
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Z's are immature and rely on their parents for everything. I had a professor tell me that a not insignifigant amount of zoomers show up to job interviews with their parents and that's bad. I'll admit that everyone needs to grow up eventually but...when did attentive parents become a bad thing? Most older people I know had a bad relationship with their folks or they passed away early, so they were forced to mature sooner. Now this one is purely subjective because I can't speak for every 20 something and their parents but this just seems like another generational gap that's caused by shifting social values.
I can go on but I just had to jot all this down. The kids aren't crazy, you're just just not noticing how hard they've been hit by the downward spiral of the western world.
To your first point, most Black millennials either made up 99% slang used today (with some residuals from the previous gens, gotta give credit), i.e. "goofy ahh" is how you'd sound if you said goofy ass out loud irl, with certain accents sometimes skipping over the "s" sound (personally I say the whole joint but it's personal preference)
So really it's just AAVE being stolen, watered down and regurgitated so all the white suburban kids can sound cool. And they just chalk it up to "online speak", like nah you're appropriating a whole dialect, and that's why you sound so goofy.
I grew up in Philly so when people online started actually typing out the "ahh" I wanted to die.
I was mad confused when I started seeing that shit online....then I realized it doesn't make sense out of context like that..
It makes me cringe every time
Pretty much and after years of calling it “ghetto” too
Yeah racism and classism at once
Yep, and now people can make fun of it without the obvious dog whistles because it has been so far removed from Black people. I've seen people make fun of the way Black influencers talk online under the guise of making fun of "Gen Z speak".
It's the reason we keep having to make up new shit tbh but the problem is that with the internet giving people such easy access to our culture it's impossible to do anything about...at the end of the day it would be nice for people to just respect our culture but can't have that 💀
I remember when people were saying that texting and abbreviations like LOL were the end of books and language as we know it.
A lot of this is just old people looking to blame the woes of society on a group they are definitively not part of. Can't be because of capitalism that people are living with their parents, if that were the case then maybe old people would have to accept some blame.
My view is that every generation has a definining trait (or several) that is result of qualitative development from the development of society, in this case boomers defining trait is having no accountability.
Everything they say about GenZ is also things they said about millenials, of which I am, and which I'm sure they said about Xers and before as well.
Especially going to job interviews with your parents... I actually learned it was super common for Xers to have their parents negotiate everything for them, including jobs. Sometimes they might not even take you to the interview with them lol, at least there's some progress.
When I was young it was the walkman that was gonna be the ruin of society. You actually had psychologists on TV giving their theories as to how the youth uses the walkman to further alienate themselves from society or whatever. And in the 80s they had the Satanic cults panic lol.
They also said we were lazy, that we wanted everything handed to us, that we didn't want to work... and the same people that said that 10 years ago are saying that again but against GenZ. 20 years ago we spent too much time on the TV and it was gonna rot our brain, and now kids apparently spend too much time on the phone and it's gonna melt their eyes lol.
Looking into the job stuff specifically, it kinda sounds like the employers in question are mad that college graduates have a sense of self worth and don't want to get paid peanuts. One of the big complaints is that young people have "unreasonable salary expectations" and that could mean a billion different things in this economy.
You actually had psychologists on TV giving their theories as to how the youth uses the walkman to further alienate themselves from society or whatever.
Capitalism systematically atomizing society in a coordinated drive to extract profits: I sleep.
Young person listens to music while outside: REAL SHIT.
There were even movements in Europe to ban walkmen when they first came out. Some authors even wrote horror stories about it.
Maybe the real question is not whether this or that generation is the most spoiled, etc. But whether boomers are the most brainwashed into thinking they got everything through their own personal hard work, grit, and determination. I'm sure it wasn't always easy but the mere fact of workers being able to get an affordable education and nice house is pretty much unheard of in any other era. To hear them tell it, everyone else is a weakling for not building their own house while working 16 hours a day without nutritional food.
Either that, or we only hear so much about boomer complaints because their kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids are all online talking shit about the general lack of boomer self-awareness. (There are some good boomers, mind you.)
danged kids reacting to material conditions! back in my day we were motivated by pure ideology and that's the way we liked it!
I had a professor tell me that a not insignifigant amount of zoomers show up to job interviews with their parents
I will never be convinced this happens with any frequency. I remember reading the original story and it screamed bad methodology and interpretation in service of creating another "kids bad" story.
The claim was something like "10% of interviewers reported having a zoomer bring a parent to their interview."
- What does "bring a parent" mean? If it can be stuff like "got a ride from a parent," then this is completely meaningless.
- Even if they're measuring the actual weird thing of having a parent sit in on the conversation part of the interview, the actual incidence could be nowhere near anything significant. Say they surveyed 10 interviewers who did 100 interviews each with zoomers. One person -- out of 1000 total zoomer interviews -- bringing a parent is now laundered to "10% of interviewers report."
Yeah it sounded like bullshit slander honestly. Especially if the kids is like 18 and it's his first interview, of course his parent or guardian is going to be nearby.
Also on that third point, how the fuck is it the kid's fault their parents hover over them like a helicopter? All of this "the kids these days are entitled and spoiled" stuff blames the kids, but the kids aren't the ones spoiling themselves, it's the previous generation that raised them that is at fault for being shit parents.
It's the same thing Millenials had with boomers criticizing them for receiving participation trophies. Like bruh who the fuck was giving out the participation trophies? What do you want kids to do, reject them?
One of the biggest things Zs get mocked for is lingo:
Okay, I'll cop to this one, but that's because these little hee-haws, huly-hoops, and other et cetera won't stop lifting AAVE and bastardizing it even worse than millennial 4channers do.
THIS. Nevermind where do you think they got "deadass" from in the first place? Been talking like this since high school (Class of 2010), I remember it being much more natural and cool then but now..."rizz"....? Really....? I don't remember signing off on that one at the last AAVE meeting 😂 ion know if that's ours
As a millenial looking in, I think point 2 is due to the fact that you guys have even less wealth as a whole. You can't afford to do anything besides be on your cellphone and play videogames.
I and many other millenials were lucky enough to be able to go to concerts, clubs, travel, ski, etc. if we came from median income families in the west and went to college. Your gen, whether through the fruits of your own labor or from the support of your standard white/blue collar parents, cannot really afford that.
We were able to blow $200 on a weekend for fun once in a while, but I don't think most of your gen can do that anymore. Also the same activities are much more expensive these days so it's more like $350 I imagine.
350 might still be low
Too busy blowing $200 on toilet paper, rice, and cat food every grocery shopping trip.
I teach 16-18 year olds. This group is the hardest working group of teens I've ever seen. Well, they have to, the way the job market is going. Also they seem to have the lowest level of bigotry (queerphobia, racism, etc) that I've seen. Fuck anybody who's shitting on this generation.
They’re gonna need PhDs to get a retail job with the way capitalism is unfolding lately
I completely agree with what you're saying. When I look at my teenage kid's friends I get optimistic about the future in lots of ways. Kids today are much nicer and better than they were when I (early millennial) was their age.
God bless em
Maybe, but people have also said this about the new generation since forever.
I don't know if she was hyperbolizing, but my Ancient Greek professor told us about how in ancient Greece people complained about a new generation lazily writing and reading everything instead of memorizing it. This would be the downfall of memory, performance, and all civilization, so on and so forth.
There is a good post somewhere with articles going back hundreds of years of people complaining that the new generation just 'doesn't want to work anymore' and how 'no one knows the value of whatever'. It's honestly always happened. My advice to you as your elder Generation Y'er: Try not to internalize it, Generation Z and Alpha. It's not you. It's them approaching their death.
One of my favorite little tidbits is that ancient Roman graffiti is indistinguishable from modern day shitposting.
The entire concept of generations was invented to complain about young people. The only real generational cohort was the post world war 2 baby boom.
I think the first point is moot anyway because every generation has stupid slang. Half the shit that was popular in the 80s would be pretty cringe these days
Mondo! Totally tubular!
I physically recoiled
I do have to say that you see a lot of these made up words on twitter and tiktok to sidestep the rules against talking about murder or suicide, but yeah generational lingo is also a real thing as well
Z's are immature and rely on their parents for everything. [...] Most older people I know had a bad relationship with their folks or they passed away early, so they were forced to mature sooner.
When I worked in teaching I noticed a thread of parents who were desperately trying to not replicate the lack of support they had as kids, which often manifested as helicopter parenting because that lack of support meant they hadn't gained the skills they needed to support their kids in developing the same skills. Z's aren't immature, their parents were neglected.
Also, "kids talk weird" and "kids spend too much time on their object" go back to the dawn of civilisation. I'm pretty sure Plato or Socrates complained about kids writing things on their stelae instead of just memorising things while weight lifting.
Was just talking to a lib friend last night and they said their sibling is a college prof and the last few years kids have just stopped doing homework and attending classes, then freak out when they fail…
Dunno what that says but they indicated this hasn’t happened before in their decades of teaching
This could be new but my peers did the same when I was in college. And while I didn't cry about it because I knew exactly why it happened, this also describes me for my biology credits. Maybe the new thing is expecting to pass without any work. In my day, we knew we wouldn't pass if we didn't work, and sometimes didn't work, anyway.
kids have just stopped doing homework and attending classes, then freak out when they fail…
hahaha literally me fr tho
1: "I can pick up what you're putting down!" "Back off you, jiive turkey!"
2: kid goes outside to play, is either shot by a property owner or arrested by cops for loitering/being suspicious/trespassing
3: Would be awesome to have a friend who was a master at Legal Law and have them sit down next to me during a job interview and whisper things into my ear like I'm some mafia don or CEO in a boardroom. If your parents are willing to do that, fuck yeah!
Any female born after 2013 can't cook, all they know is Skibidi toilet, Rizz they gyatt, griddy, be kai, mog cenat prime, and mew
you may have noticed that we're often the butt of many jokes
This is not a new phenomenon. You can find ancient Greek writings complaining about the youngest generation. "Kids these days" is just what happens when you're not one of the kids. It happened to us and it will happen to you.
None of this behaviours was developed in a vacuum, these are all qualitative changes result from the development of society.
I don't know every single cause for these changes but i do know that people being addicted to social media comes from the lack of attention from parents and the surrounding community.
Not getting what the kids are saying/wearing/doing is inevitable. Becoming your [general, not aimed at anyone here and apologies if your parents were cool] dorky-ass parents by complaining about it and pretending your generation was better is a choice.
One of the worst aspects of being a fan of 60s/70s music is the large amount of the fanbase who have to insert the classic "all modern music sucks" line into absolutely every discussion. I like 60s/70s music, I also like music from the 50s, 80s, 90s, and even bands and artists that have started their careers within the last 5-10 years. It's so annoying lol
skibidi toilet is pog
For point 3, I feel like Gen X helicopter parents are to blame... seen so many of my relatives spoiling and micromanaging their kids into young adulthood and i'm like wtf? I felt like I was basically raising myself at 14 as a middle millenial
Gen Z/Gen Alpha weirdness isn't really any weirder than previous generations
I'm a Zoomer and I never thought about this
I feel like there are more poignant things to notice about gen z and gen a like how they're increasingly conservative, kind of like how gen x were more conservative than boomers
Boomers grew up in times of rapid technological progress, with wars threatening to destroy humanity and fought with the utmost brutality, while AES countries were in their most prosperous phase and reform was improving quality of life in the west. Truly a groovy time to fight the stale elites for socialism with real freedom to do whatever you want to do.
GenXers grew up in a time where the warmongering of the boomer era seemed to bear fruit, as one of the sides of the conflict basically gave up. Thus, communism was "proven" "not to work", and that also meant adjacent organizations like unions or the same reforms from the 60s and 70s. Growth was high, so getting kicked in the ass by capital seemed justified, and even necessary because there was no alternative.
Millennials saw the promises of neoliberalism not get fulfilled in the biggest recession since the 1920s, while adventures around the world brought back terrorism, dead soldiers and budget holes in the west. The 1% did what it wanted, and the 99% suffered for it.
Zoomers grew up in a time where climate change was getting progressively worse and the ruling class was completely uninterested in doing anything about it. That was not the only crisis. Everything kept getting worse, so it was time to start searching for old ideas. The few remaining boomer leftists have interesting ideas... I'm sure they will live up to expectations.
Gen Alpha is growing up in a time where there's a renewed battle between good (we) and evil (they). We must fight to the last Ukrainian to ensure morality wins. The decline our society has two causes, the forces of evil from abroad, and the forces of evil within.
Basically, it's not a characteristic of something as nebulous as generations, but is caused by material conditions present in the affected times.
Can your model explain why the generations are getting progressively more ass-hungry? Not a joke, even scientists have no clue why.
The way I see it, humans are naturally ass hungry. Big hips has always been a prized trait in a wife, but the last 100 years was all about Americans and Europeans pushing this idea that skinny as a twig is the most desirable a woman can be.
