30 Things Gen Z Does That Older Generations Can’t Understand
Every generation reaches a point where younger people start doing things that make absolutely no sense to them. Right now, a lot of those conversations seem to center around Gen Z and even younger.
Someone asked Reddit, “What’s something Gen Z does that older generations just don’t get?” and the answers turned into a pretty entertaining mix of confusion, observations, and accidental self-owning from people realizing they might officially be old now.
Here are some of the funniest and most relatable responses from the thread.
1.
I’m a mom of Gen Zer’s and love that generation for a variety of reasons. But I don’t understand why their verbal skills are so poor. And yes, I know everyone’s going to say “screens” but these kids haven’t been locked in solitary confinement their whole lives. They have families. They’ve been out in public.
I run into this with my own kids, and I know I’ve taught them differently. But when I call them, they answer the phone with complete silence. Who does that? You say hello when you answer. The silence is bizarre.
Or the ones in customer service – I ran into a friend of my daughter’s at the store. They rang out my purchase in silence, which is fine. But before walking away, I said “thank you” and I don’t get what’s so difficult about responding with “you’re welcome” or “have a nice day.” Instead, d**d silence.
I feel like we’ve wound up with a whole generation of Lurch from The Addams Family. Lol.
2.
Awkward conflict avoidance and ghosting.
Job interview, but changed your mind. Ghost the potential employer instead of calling to cancel.
Not feeling the date you’re on. Ghost the other person instead of being upfront so they get closure.
It’s such a waste of everyone’s time to be so inconsiderate. I run a small business and had tens of potential interviews no-show with no answer. We confirmed the day before, and I blocked out my schedule to set these up, and people just decide my time is worthless. I reach out after 10-15 minutes of not seeing them with no response. Maybe I’m old school, but I actually try to make my employees and future employees feel appreciated and valued. I set aside this time to interview you and give you the attention you deserve cause I feel you’re also interviewing me and my practice the same.
Then, I see so many dating people scratching their heads wondering what they did wrong on their date to be ghosted. What’s the issue with their own self that made them incompatible with the other person? It would be nice for these people to learn whether they did something wrong or not. I’m sure these youngans don’t like being left in the dark with no rhyme or reason, so why are they straight being so awkward in avoiding being upfront with the other party?
Why is ghosting such a normal way to deal with uncomfortable discussions?
3.
My father in law owns a publishing company. They moved office about a quarter of a mile up the road.
An INTERN approached him with a “I’m disappointed and invalidated. You didn’t consult me that it would be okay to move. ”
I don’t even think it’s “entitlement”; there’s just a complete disconnect from how the world works.
4.
Generally speaking, communication skills are below par. I have almost got used to silence after asking a follow up question trying to be nice.
5.
Being weirdly puritanical while wearing hideous mullets and mustaches.
6.
Very awkward social skills. When you try to be friendly or bubbly to them, they often look horrified or very confused
Edit : to clarify, I mean this in a very basic interaction scenario. For example, if you’re ordering a coffee and just smiling or making a small friendly comment, it’s often met with no response or a blank expression. I am very introverted , so this is definitely not an over the top extrovert thing.
7.
Call millennial cringe but dress like how we did in the 90s and 2000s
8.
I don’t understand the obsession with age. When I started working at 19 I had coworkers who were 30, 40, 50 and never really treated them differently. They were all just coworkers to me. Now I’m 30 and I’m treated like a different species by my coworkers in their early 20s. It’s bizarre.
9.
The Gen Z stare.
Like they are just currently disengaged. You’ll be asking them a question and have to prompt then further for any human like response.
It’s bizarre.
10.
The complete lack of personality in the younger Gen Zs is what gets me. Like, I’ve seen more personality in a rock in some cases. It’s like they don’t really know how to be social.
11.
Gen Z appears to lack intellectual curiosity. In earlier generations knowledge and information was a scarce commodity. You had to seek it out. That might mean going to the central library and reading microfiche or similar. Now that information about everything is right in your pocket when you want it what’s the value in knowing things? What’s the point of asking questions out loud that might invite people to speculate and talk when you can just ask your phone? There are social costs to this. Conversation is gone.
12.
As a millennial, I don’t understand their shift toward more conservative values and religion. It really felt like our generation made such strides toward progress, only for the younger generation to make fun of us while voting for Trump (or not voting at all) and going to church on Sunday.
13.
Scroll tiktok at the movie theatre.
14.
Getting their news and information from TikTok.
15.
I take classes at a community college and they don’t take notes. Just come to class and stare at the professor or be on their phone. If the professor is drawing diagrams or something on the board they don’t follow, just take a picture after. I’m taking a biology class and it’s easy to get lost. I don’t know what super power they have or if they learn by osmosis but it’s mind boggling to me. One day in lab the professor put the directions on the board and one of them kept asking me how I was getting my answers. I repeatedly told her the formula was on the board, but she couldn’t grasp that concept?? I literally had to explain to her the exact thing that the professor explained to us 15 minutes ago and wrote directly on the board. They’re a confusing group of people to interact with.
16.
No replies
They would rather ignore your text.
“Hey we still doing that thing today?”
If they know they are gonna flake they just don’t reply. And now I’m over here, having to wait on your response to replan my day. It’s inconsiderate. Just communicate.
I’ve been told by many Gen-Z that it’s cringe to double text someone or to be the last one to send a text. You always want the other person to text you last, so you can ignore them and feel cool.
17.
For me it’s the total lack of shame in taking selfies at the gym. They’ll be in the locker room posing to get the perfect pic without a care who’s around to see. The millenial in me just could never, like I’d have to wait until I’m at home or there’s nobody around at least.
18.
Constantly track each other while in a relationship through cell phones. That’s just insane to me and feels like tech based borderline personality disorder.
19.
I’m a college professor, and a bunch of my Gen Z students are friends or even roommates… but when they enter our seminar room, they don’t greet or talk to each other at all– just sit down and stare at their phones until class starts. *Then*, once the structured part begins, they’ll have a discussion.
20.
They text
in short bursts
so that you get
ten messages
for one simple question
I got six texts from my daughter yesterday. All she wanted was to let me know the time to pick her up. .
21.
Get together with friends just to all sit their looking at their phones.
22.
You hate on millennials but play our music in the clubs…the clubs they attend but don’t dance at.
Yep, standing around a sensory overload factory sober while literally listening to “Move” by Ludacris.
“Why don’t they move?!??
23.
They are obsessed about gender and sexuality but no one is getting laid.
24.
As a millennial with a gen Z stepdaughter: wearing band shirts of bands they don’t actually listen to. This one drives me up the wall.
25.
An alarming percentage of Gen Z males voted conservative/MAGA.
I don’t understand if they’re doing it for the lulz or they genuinely believe in those ideals, but it’s confusing either way.
26.
As a millennial with a lot of Gen Z coworkers, I don’t get the memes. In our work group chat they’ll post reaction gifs and deep fried memes that are completely incomprehensible to me. I don’t understand what is being said or implied by them at all, but they seem to understand one another.
27.
Holding those tiny little microphones in their hands when making videos.
28.
It seems like they force themselves into a position where they don’t get to enjoy anything earnestly, for being of being called cringe. I think that’s so sad.
Like come on babies, go live your lives! You don’t get a second shot stop wasting your time acting cool, you aren’t cool and you are just depriving yourselves of joy.
29.
Flaking out on plans at the last minute because the are “stressed” or had a hard day.
30.
They are so restricted by social rules it’s better to do nothing than to do something lame. There’s a strict code of conduct, a strict code of dress, and if anything is deemed cringe, they get shunned, which has resulted in their overall inaction. I think this is the reason for them drinking less, having less romantic partners, the gen z stare, not caring about work, etc.