Gen Z'ers Are Sharing The Trends They Wish Their Generation Would Stop Doing
Recently, we asked our Gen Z readers to share the trends and habits they wish their generation would stop doing. Because let's face it, nobody knows how to call you out quite like your own peers.
So without further ado, here are the things Gen Z wishes Gen Z would stop doing:
1.Side-by-side texting:
"Texting someone when you’re right next to them! It’s so annoying, like, they're right next to you. Be a normal human and talk to them!"
2.Feeding the trolls:
"The trend of believing whatever you see on the internet. Surprisingly, way too many of my friends are horrible at fact-checking. Despite being the generation that grew up with the internet, we don’t seem to remember that people can just straight-up lie online with no repercussions. They can say random facts, lie about a degree or life experience, or even pretend to be rude, annoying, or politically incorrect for clicks. I’ve also noticed that millennials seem to be more conscious of when someone is simply being a troll or controversial for attention, whereas Gen Z seems more eager to engage with and correct bad behavior, which usually just reinforces it."
—anonymous
3.Oversharing:
"I heard this from my friends (older Gen Zs on the cusp of millennial), but the younger Gen Z new hires at their jobs just talk about anything and everything, which makes people super uncomfortable. They've openly talked about super personal things — completely out of the blue, unrelated to any prior conversation — with coworkers they just met, initiated inappropriate conversations, and asked upper management dumb questions instead of their coworkers or direct supervisors.
I love that Gen Z is all about authenticity, openness, and normalizing things that are unnecessarily stigmatized. But there's a line, and I think Gen Z struggles to understand the line of decorum and that it's good to have those boundaries at work, for both yourself and others."
4.Saying "un-alived":
"Using self-censoring TikTok-speak elsewhere on the internet or (god forbid) IRL. You don't have to say 'seggs,' you can just say 'sex.'"
—anonymous
5.Flipping thrifted clothes:
"Making thrifting so goddamn expensive and gentrifying it."
6.Oversimplifying:
"This might be controversial, but I think we are too polarized. Often I feel Gen Z’ers interpret things as black and white, and have a hard time acknowledging gray areas in morals and ethics. This can be a good thing — it means that people and institutions are held accountable when they hurt people — but I also think that we end up oversimplifying conflicts and preventing forgiveness and growth. Also, I think sometimes we are too sensitive. People make mistakes, and that doesn’t necessarily make them a bad person or someone we should cancel."
7.Oversharing (on social media):
"I’m 18, and I wish everyone would stop posting every little thing on social media. Nobody cares about your bad rendition of a popular TikTok dance. No one wants to see you cry. No one needs to know every waking moment of your life. My friends wonder why I have limited social media: That’s why."
—anonymous
8.Labeling:
"Calling everything an 'aesthetic' and putting a label on fucking everything, like 'strawberry girl,' 'vanilla girl,' 'blueberry nails,' and 'cherry cola lips.' You aren't a fucking 'tomato girl,' you just like the colour red. Blueberry nails are not a thing, it's just light blue nails. Cherry cola lips aren't a thing, it's just light red lipstick with dark liner — a thing that's been around for decades."
9.Judging based on trends:
"Creating expensive fashion trends. AND acting like they are better than everyone when they own the items."
10.Being disrespectful:
"While not a 'trend' so to speak, I think the sense of entitlement and lack of basic respect has to go. I just graduated high school, and from what I’ve seen so far from a lot of my peers, they just feel like they can do and/or say anything they want whenever they want. I know very well it’s not everyone, but far too many people think it’s cool to just disrespect teachers and other people in authority (I know other generations have this too, but I think social media has made it worse), while their friends film it, for countless others to see and possibly copy.
Parents don’t do enough to discipline their kids anymore, and teachers are terrified to do anything about it because then they’ll have Johnny's parents coming after them and threatening to sue over something that should’ve been handled a long time ago."
11.Being the internet police:
"Policing other people online and feeling entitled to bully others if they step out of line. If someone is ignorant on an issue, you have to converse with them if you want a chance for their opinions and actions to change, not call them names/dox them/etc."
12.Bringing "main character energy":
"Talking so f***ing loud in public and taking up so much energetic space in general. I work at a coffee shop and get quite a few young people coming in and making a scene about every little thing they do. I totally understand (and appreciate) that some people are naturally more boisterous but a lot of times I can tell people are forcing it to get attention from strangers. The whole 'main character energy' thing has people acting like they’re in their own sitcoms or doing me a favor by including me in their plot. I think we could all stand to chill out a little."
—anonymous
13.Being uninformed:
"I have noticed many people my age thinking it’s cute to be uninformed. Several people in my class couldn’t name the Vice President of the United States. They all thought it was hilarious! It absolutely made me want to vomit. And if a well-intentioned person tries to explain an issue to them, they don’t care. I’m not saying this is true for all; this is just what I have seen in my day-to-day life."
—anonymous
14.Using AAVE:
"Talking in AAVE. It’s cultural appropriation taken from both the black and LGBTQIA+ community. So when some straight white person uses that slang, it’s just cringeworthy."
—anonymous
15.Calling off work too much:
"Calling out from work constantly, but wondering why we don’t get scheduled anymore. I have so many coworkers my own age (18-22) who do this and then try to say managers are unfair for needing reliable people to fill shifts. Yeah babes, if you keep calling out every Saturday, don’t get all shocked Pikachu face when you don’t get those shifts anymore. This is not rocket science; it’s just showing up for the job you applied to."
—anonymous
16.Ghosting:
"Hookup culture is out of hand, IMO, and it has made ghosting more common. No one seems to want to put in the effort to get to know people, and they don't communicate with people. It's rude, and my generation needs to let go of the 'I don't owe anyone anything' mentality. Yes, you do. When you're going out with them, you owe them respect as a person to communicate and not leave randomly."
17.Relying on parents:
"Relying on parents to help you and do the difficult things for you! As a Gen Z'er who has just joined the workforce, the expectations are on the ground for us, and older colleagues really are expecting the worst from us because of prior experiences. Not just with parents but in all aspects. A former employee at our company didn’t know how to quit a job, so his dad called his supervisor to quit for him. My colleagues now give me and others my age some not-so-kind looks when we even MENTION our parents helping us with anything."
—anonymous
18.Vaping:
"I’m 16. The vaping and casual drug use needs to stop, for multiple reasons. It’s just annoying because, yes, people are addicted, but when they vape in the bathrooms at school, it’s because they know they’ll eventually get got and just want the attention and notoriety from getting caught because they think they don’t get enough attention."
—anonymous
19.Virtue signaling:
"I wish Gen Zers would stop virtue signaling about complicated issues we know little to nothing about while reducing them to binary, either-or propositions. Virtue signaling does nothing to change the issues; reducing them to binaries is even worse because it stifles nuance and can prolong the issues."
—anonymous
20.And finally:
"Mullets. Just no."
—anonymous
Submissions may have been edited for length or clarity.
