There are too many op-eds out there about the “Gen Z stare.” In the last week alone, there have been seemingly critical thinkpieces describing the deadpan look as “a global phenomenon,” “the latest intergenerational spat,” or, and perhaps this is the worst one of them all, “a social disability, resulting from deprived social interactions during the Gen Z formative years.” Self-proclaimed experts have raised the alarm over a blank expression that, at least according to them, signals how this younger workforce is too socially inept to be hireable. These “experts” are quick to remind readers about Gen Z’s aversion to work, demand for work-life balance, and refusal to share the same work ethics as their older managers. What, was it a slow news week?
As a Gen Z child and a proud member of the generation that older experts seem to love to dunk on, let me politely say: Please stop.
The Gen Z reputation has rapidly deteriorated thanks to buzzword Internet trends like micro-retirement, quiet quitting, and lazy girl jobs. We are seen as unwilling to compromise our boundaries between our work and private lives, and God forbid if we’re asked to do anything outside of our pay grade. Now, with the “discourse” (I shudder) surrounding this stare that supposedly all of us Gen Z children do, talk has surged once again over how much we are fundamentally unfit for real life. Because my generation and I take perhaps five seconds too long to process a question, or because we don’t know how to contort our faces to pretend that we’re mulling a silly question over, critics latch onto this “apathy” and call it a hundred negative things: indifference, superiority, judgement, bitchiness, and a supreme dissatisfaction with the world.
@madelinewatson idk why it’s not clocking to you people… if everyone misinterpreted it that badly, maybe it’s not as much of a thing for the entire generation that you have generalized it to… gen z is literally 28-12…. most of the upper part of that has no clue what you meant. I edit: my bad fam. I misunderstood what it was. sorry kings and queens! slay on. #genzstare#genz ♬ Dramamine – Flawed Mangoes
But, aren’t we all a little bit dissatisfied with how things are going right now? The world, as of late, has been irreparably messy. As I write this, the thick, dark fog outside my window signals yet another storm approaching, as the Philippines tries to recover from two tropical storms in one week. The streets are flooding, there are wars abroad brewing, and every news headline that pings on my phone feels like another tiny apocalypse. It isn’t just a Gen Z “thing”: The gloom is intergenerational.
What’s more, “intergenerational spats” are not new. As NPR journalists Manuela López Restrepo and Mia Venkat so aptly put it, it’s “almost sociologically inevitable” that the older generation will criticize the younger. “Young people reject an established social norm,” they said, “for whatever reason, and their elders don’t seem to like that very much!” This friction can be traced back as far as the rise of youth culture in the 1950s, when rock ‘n’ roll, Elvis, and The Beatles were all seen as threats to the status quo. Defiance has always been a rite of passage.
Perhaps the Gen Z stare isn’t a symptom of dysfunction. We are not apathetic, nor are we quietly judging the people around us (although, sometimes, we are). It is just a face, nothing too deep, and it is yet another buzzword blown out of proportion.
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