Do people really think that people born between certain years invented…staring?
Seriously, you could change the dates on an article like this, make it about Gen X or Gen Y, and it would be the same thing. Or about boomers. Or fast forward a bit and it will be articles like this about Gen Alpha.
“The older people just don’t understand the ways of the younger people. It’s like this is a completely novel thing between these two generations.”
LOL, Gen X here. We saw a lot of that kind hand-wringing about how we were a “slacker generation” that was not taking up ad campaigns in expected ways and/or playing video games too much and not being career-minded enough, etc. and how we thought there was “no future” because of things like the Cold War and nuclear annihilation, kids of broken homes and latchkey kids, homes needing to have two incomes to get by, and the dystopian movies we grew up on.
Then they mostly skipped over us because Gen X is not as large of a group as Gen Y.
That’s why when I see articles like this about Gen Y/Z/A, I just lauuuuuugh. It’s all so very unimaginative, but the people writing these galaxy-brained things seemingly have no fucking idea how recycled it all is.
ikr TFA says “…Gen X might have been taught to be overly friendly and polite in customer service settings…” and I was like: wat? Maybe they TRIED, but our stereotypical response was always “…meh.”
And then there’s the look. If we were in public and I got out of line I’d get the warning look. I never needed another warning from my dad and was grateful to have a warning. My mom’s second warning was the subtle pinch. The odds were about 50/50 that dad would hear about it, if it got to the pinch. Not falling in line after the pinch, well that was just unfathomable. I guess in my mind I felt like I would not survive the resulting punishment for that transgression so it always ended there.
As long as the line wasn’t crossed, they were a blast to be around and were very engaged, especially dad. But being a latchkey kid meant a lot of unsupervised time where I could get into trouble.
LOL, right? Have any of these people even met Gen X or watched some of the media aimed at Gen X?
It’s not like we invented disaffected youth, but it’s like plenty of music and movies captured that and made it an aesthetic for us. I recommend anyone thinking otherwise watch something like Repo Man.
I’m sure plenty of boomers in their youth had some of the same fuck you attitudes. They were the people that said “don’t trust anyone over 30” and “hope I die before I get old”?
Does anyone really think they were super bubbly in their teens and twenties while carrying out McJobs for The Man?
That’s a good one for sure. I would submit that Repo Man is an overlooked gem that may have done one of the best jobs in capturing the zeitgeist of its time into one movie. Disaffected youth, working McJobs? Repo Man has got you.
I really don’t get that one… I fucking love avocado toast. I make it at home quite often for my lunch. It costs me less than $3 for the meal which is really quite a bit cheaper than many/most of my other lunches and it’s more healthy than many other meals.
You seen the cost at restaurants? That’s the cost they are talking about. But that’s also true for most restaurant items. Memes are only tangentially based on reality.
I think at some point, someone noticed there was a bit of markup on it when eating at restaurants, associated Gen Y with it, and then the narrative took off from there?
It reminds me of the same finger-wagging that seemed to be aimed at probably Gen X in the 90s over things like lattes. If people at that time and at that age were struggling financially, it was not because of the occasional latte.
Also, hearing people talk about spending is wild. Especially when it comes to things like toast, Netflix subs, smart phones, and televisions.
Avocado toast. Okay, discretionary spending is something everyone needs to keep an eye on, sure. But I don’t think toast is why people are finding things unaffordable for things like housing, health care, transportation, etc…
Netflix subscription is as low as something like $108/ year. Not even worth talking about.
Smart phones are not really optional in today’s society. People that pretend that they are cannot even be serious. Also, you’ll see boomers glued to their fucking phones, too, so it’s not like “constantly scrolling” is some exclusive trait of {generation younger than mine}.
Televisions. This is the one that seems to unhinged to me. Adjusted for inflation, TVs have never been cheaper, especially per square inch. Consider that the first color TVs were 12 inches in size and apparently $12,000+ in 2026 dollars. I think people that have their mind frozen on those kinds of economics are the ones talking about it. Suppose you had the room for it and splurged just a bit, and got a mid-range 85 inch television. That’s still $1000-$1600, and a one-time cost (well, not counting the electricity). That is not going to be the difference between a down payment on a house or not.
My greatest generation grandmother could not get it through her head that long distance calls didn’t cost anything extra. A lifetime of worry about long distance charges is not an easy thing to stop, especially if you lived through the depression.
My kids are on my ass all the time about not responding to text messages or phone calls. IDGAF about my phone and only make sure I have it with me when I leave the house.
I still don’t get their outrage about me reading a text and then not replying for hours or even days. Why do you care? It’s just a text message, if it was important that you get my reaction right away, you’d call.
LOL, we had some gathering at our house a while ago and it was a mix of Gen Y and Gen X and the concept of a “party line” came up. Some of us Gen Xers knew of it (I distinctly remember we had one with several neighbors - possibly 3 others?) and had to explain the concept. Basically, if you lived in a rural area and are old enough, you likely had no other choice. (Just searched, and it apparently was finally phased out by the late 90s.)
I experienced it as a young kid for several years and it still boggles my mind. We had a bored elderly neighbor who seemed to have the hobby of hogging the line a lot and picking up and listening when others were making calls. I remember many times where my mom had to tell her to hang up the line because she had to make an important call.
The fear of making a non-local call was an ever-present concern for sure. I remember my mom quizzing me over and over if a new girlfriend I had was a local call, since she lived about 20 minutes away and it was another prefix, but same area code.
Also, you had to basically rent your phone and the choices of that hardware were rather limited…but built like a tank. Ma Bell and the baby bells had a lot of control.
People have a tendency to sometimes “freeze” their experiences and I could see how someone might really not understand how long distance is not really a thing.
I often wonder how people might cope if something like electricity/power went through something similar - where the abundance of solar and/or wind power backed by batteries and other improvements drove the cost down to such a point that younger generations will wonder why anyone ever rode the thermostat or agonized over leaving on lights…
Who the hell even writes articles like this? 🤣
Do people really think that people born between certain years invented…staring?
Seriously, you could change the dates on an article like this, make it about Gen X or Gen Y, and it would be the same thing. Or about boomers. Or fast forward a bit and it will be articles like this about Gen Alpha.
“The older people just don’t understand the ways of the younger people. It’s like this is a completely novel thing between these two generations.”
😒
Y’all missed out on the “Millenials killed the (insert here) industry, and are broke due to avocado toast” articles of yesteryear.
LOL, Gen X here. We saw a lot of that kind hand-wringing about how we were a “slacker generation” that was not taking up ad campaigns in expected ways and/or playing video games too much and not being career-minded enough, etc. and how we thought there was “no future” because of things like the Cold War and nuclear annihilation, kids of broken homes and latchkey kids, homes needing to have two incomes to get by, and the dystopian movies we grew up on.
Then they mostly skipped over us because Gen X is not as large of a group as Gen Y.
That’s why when I see articles like this about Gen Y/Z/A, I just lauuuuuugh. It’s all so very unimaginative, but the people writing these galaxy-brained things seemingly have no fucking idea how recycled it all is.
ikr TFA says “…Gen X might have been taught to be overly friendly and polite in customer service settings…” and I was like: wat? Maybe they TRIED, but our stereotypical response was always “…meh.”
Oh no, I was taught to be polite, or there would likely be violence. The threat of Dad’s punishment was always on the table.
Greetings, fellow child of working-class parents!
:)
And then there’s the look. If we were in public and I got out of line I’d get the warning look. I never needed another warning from my dad and was grateful to have a warning. My mom’s second warning was the subtle pinch. The odds were about 50/50 that dad would hear about it, if it got to the pinch. Not falling in line after the pinch, well that was just unfathomable. I guess in my mind I felt like I would not survive the resulting punishment for that transgression so it always ended there.
As long as the line wasn’t crossed, they were a blast to be around and were very engaged, especially dad. But being a latchkey kid meant a lot of unsupervised time where I could get into trouble.
LOL, right? Have any of these people even met Gen X or watched some of the media aimed at Gen X?
It’s not like we invented disaffected youth, but it’s like plenty of music and movies captured that and made it an aesthetic for us. I recommend anyone thinking otherwise watch something like Repo Man.
I’m sure plenty of boomers in their youth had some of the same fuck you attitudes. They were the people that said “don’t trust anyone over 30” and “hope I die before I get old”?
Does anyone really think they were super bubbly in their teens and twenties while carrying out McJobs for The Man?
The Breakfast Club comes to mind.
That’s a good one for sure. I would submit that Repo Man is an overlooked gem that may have done one of the best jobs in capturing the zeitgeist of its time into one movie. Disaffected youth, working McJobs? Repo Man has got you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9k09WPpNeo
It also was skewering boomers back in 1984…put it on a plate, son, you’ll enjoy it more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAO0owc4xeY
I really don’t get that one… I fucking love avocado toast. I make it at home quite often for my lunch. It costs me less than $3 for the meal which is really quite a bit cheaper than many/most of my other lunches and it’s more healthy than many other meals.
The boomers think avocado toast is ridiculous. They think tuna and vegetable Jello monstrosities are food though so 🤷♀️
Not the boomers in my family. We love avocado toast, except for my Trumper ex sister who has the taste of a McDonald’s connoisseur.
Come to think of it, a severe lack of taste in food, art, clothes, architecture, etc… seems to be a defining characteristic of MAGA.
And entitlement.
You seen the cost at restaurants? That’s the cost they are talking about. But that’s also true for most restaurant items. Memes are only tangentially based on reality.
Nope… I rarely go to restaurants.
I think at some point, someone noticed there was a bit of markup on it when eating at restaurants, associated Gen Y with it, and then the narrative took off from there?
It reminds me of the same finger-wagging that seemed to be aimed at probably Gen X in the 90s over things like lattes. If people at that time and at that age were struggling financially, it was not because of the occasional latte.
Also, hearing people talk about spending is wild. Especially when it comes to things like toast, Netflix subs, smart phones, and televisions.
https://www.cablecompare.com/blog/the-average-cost-of-a-tv-how-has-it-changed-over-time
My greatest generation grandmother could not get it through her head that long distance calls didn’t cost anything extra. A lifetime of worry about long distance charges is not an easy thing to stop, especially if you lived through the depression.
My kids are on my ass all the time about not responding to text messages or phone calls. IDGAF about my phone and only make sure I have it with me when I leave the house.
I still don’t get their outrage about me reading a text and then not replying for hours or even days. Why do you care? It’s just a text message, if it was important that you get my reaction right away, you’d call.
LOL, we had some gathering at our house a while ago and it was a mix of Gen Y and Gen X and the concept of a “party line” came up. Some of us Gen Xers knew of it (I distinctly remember we had one with several neighbors - possibly 3 others?) and had to explain the concept. Basically, if you lived in a rural area and are old enough, you likely had no other choice. (Just searched, and it apparently was finally phased out by the late 90s.)
I experienced it as a young kid for several years and it still boggles my mind. We had a bored elderly neighbor who seemed to have the hobby of hogging the line a lot and picking up and listening when others were making calls. I remember many times where my mom had to tell her to hang up the line because she had to make an important call.
The fear of making a non-local call was an ever-present concern for sure. I remember my mom quizzing me over and over if a new girlfriend I had was a local call, since she lived about 20 minutes away and it was another prefix, but same area code.
Also, you had to basically rent your phone and the choices of that hardware were rather limited…but built like a tank. Ma Bell and the baby bells had a lot of control.
People have a tendency to sometimes “freeze” their experiences and I could see how someone might really not understand how long distance is not really a thing.
I often wonder how people might cope if something like electricity/power went through something similar - where the abundance of solar and/or wind power backed by batteries and other improvements drove the cost down to such a point that younger generations will wonder why anyone ever rode the thermostat or agonized over leaving on lights…
What’s the odds that they’re a Gen-Z?
Gen Z? Boomers?
Cheesecake?
Tornadoes?
Cataracts??
At this time of year?
Localized entirely within your kitchen??
Can I see it?
Its obvious clickbait, do not share it. They get money from that.