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.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  • CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml
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    8 months ago

    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.

    • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
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      8 months ago

      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.)

    • Mzuark@lemmygrad.mlOP
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      8 months ago

      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.

      • Its the no body wants to work, I dont know anyone who doesn’t want to work, i know people who dont want to work for penuts, or cannot magoc 5 years experience right out of collage, and no one with 5 years experience want an entry level job

        • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
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          8 months ago

          That’s it. Many people would be glad to work their way up from an entry level position that doesn’t need years of higher ed and a pricetag of $000s. Those jobs just don’t exist unless you’re connected. And if you’re connected, you’re not really working you’re way up, anyway.

    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      8 months ago

      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.

      • CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml
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        8 months ago

        There were even movements in Europe to ban walkmen when they first came out. Some authors even wrote horror stories about it.

  • Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    Can your model explain why the generations are getting progressively more ass-hungry? Not a joke, even scientists have no clue why.

    • Mzuark@lemmygrad.mlOP
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      8 months ago

      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.

  • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    8 months ago

    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.

  • D61 [any]@hexbear.net
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    8 months ago

    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!

  • Jennie@lemmygrad.ml
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    8 months ago

    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

  • ped_xing [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    8 months ago

    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.

    • Jennie@lemmygrad.ml
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      8 months ago

      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

  • ProfessorOwl_PhD [any]@hexbear.net
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    8 months ago

    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.

    • motherofmonsters [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      8 months ago

      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

      • SovereignState@lemmygrad.ml
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        8 months ago

        kids have just stopped doing homework and attending classes, then freak out when they fail…

        hahaha literally me fr tho

      • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
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        8 months ago

        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.

  • Amerikan Pharaoh@lemmygrad.ml
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    8 months ago

    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.

    • taiphlosion@lemmygrad.ml
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      8 months ago

      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

  • kivork [he/them]@lemmygrad.ml
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    8 months ago

    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.

    • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.ml
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      8 months ago

      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.

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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        8 months ago

        ngl I pick up zoomerisms despite being millennial - posters are ageless strings of text, the concept of “generation” is now even more absurd

        • ghost_of_faso2@lemmygrad.ml
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          8 months ago

          I do too, its just inspiration and I think its a positive thing. I pick them up usually because I find them funny and want to share it.

  • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.ml
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    8 months ago

    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.

  • Kultronx@lemmygrad.ml
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    8 months ago

    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