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People Break Down Which Gen Z Trends They Just Don't Understand

People Break Down Which Gen Z Trends They Just Don't Understand
person holding black smartphone taking photo of pizza
Photo by Yoav Aziz on Unsplash

Every generation has its own trends.

As a millennial, I’ll be the first to admit we had our fair share of silly or stupid trends.

Remember the cinnamon challenge? Or all the Harlem Shake videos? We were not the brightest crayons in the box.

Girls wore only skinny jeans, boys adopted Justin Beiber’s side-swept haircut, and we spent more time on YouTube than any other social media site.

Those who belong to Generation Z think we were pretty stupid too, but everyone else thinks Gen Z have their fair share of weird trends. Tide pods, anyone?

If we turn to Reddit, those Gen Z trends can be easily identified.


Curious to find out more, Redditor Distinct_Bee_4580 asked:

“What’s a trend among Gen Zs you find weird?”

Pictorial Evidence

"Documenting themselves committing crimes then posting them to social media."

– Shaveyourbread

"was at a (car) accident reconstruction engineering office this summer and a 20 ish yo guy drove of the edge of the road and died and his snap story from the night was a video of his speedometer at 100+ in the dark in the rain and he was bragging that he was going fast (and also drunk)"

– Puzzled_Passenger_34

Look How Stupid I Am!

"They film EVERYTHING"

– AnOkFella

"I went out drinking with a mixed age group. We got silly drunk, and had a good time. A few months later, one of the younger girls posted a "hilarous" video of me blackout drunk and acting stupid. Nothing illegal, just embarrassing. It was horrifying. Like, why would you video someone that vulnerable, and then put it out in public? Like, what other videos did they take? She took it down, but didn't understand at all why I was so angry at her - because "she posted dumber sh*t of herself all the time!""

"Never again. I'll just stick with my older friends who know not to film anyone doing stupid sh*t."

– Lexi_Banner

"this. gen z getting themselves fired from work over tiktoks is such a common occurrence."

– sane_fear

Be Sensitive

"Gen Z here. Romanticization of mental illness or crime."

– Justatroubledgirl

"fr it’s embarrassing because they treat it like it’s a competition or something quirky like… no it’s not? stop making your mental illnesses your only personality traits"

– yeehee087

Evolution Of Hair

"Brocoli haircut. Will definitely age like milk"

– ehjtarretetoutdsuite

"Ahh the “Meet me at mcdonald's haircut”, no seriously that’s it name, you can google it"

– ElOliLoco

Like e.e. cummings

"Finally I can ask this. Why do a large amount of gen Z's not use capital letters? Is capitalization going the way of cursive writing?"

– Themanwhofarts

"It's probably because of texting. Over time, texting with capitalized letters became seen as too formal, and people began to intentionally remove capitalization to seem more laid-back and informal."

– SignificanceBulky162

"Millennial here and a lot of people my age used to not use capital letters either in our early twenties. Might be regional, might just be a general "trying hard to appear chill" kind of thing"

– LatelyTea

Use A Dictionary

"Saying gaslighting every f*cking day with no comprehension of the word."

– joshjamon

"I know what it means stop gaslighting me"

– Technical_Watch2137

Here's My Life Story

"Oversharing personal struggles, overdramatizing common anxieties/struggles, and flaunting "going to therapy" to the point where it's clearly a means of seeking attention and staying relevant."

"On a related note, since I see it on dating apps all the time, when every other bio puts "going to therapy" as a green flag. Like yeah, that should be normalized, but mental health practices are turning into a new form of virtue signaling."

– WrongSperm95

Not Funny

"Bothering people just trying to go about their day in the name of "pranking.""

"I've seen one that regularly goes into a store like Home Depot and pretends to be an employee and then films the real employees who seem to be going a little overboard in their reactions; but I'm just like this poor guy is just trying to get through his workday without this bullsh*t."

"I just saw a man was getting charges pressed against him for attacking a kid that was "pretending to steal his luggage as a prank." The 'prankee' grabbed the kid by the hair and probably did go a little overboard but the number of comments I saw defending the kid amazed me. JUST LEAVE PEOPLE ALONE!!"

– steelbydesign

Feel The Beat

"Stupid Tik tok dances"

– greenok12

"At least they're getting some exercise"

– ImNotTheBlitz

Times Change

"Trying to “cancel” singers/rappers/actors for things they said 30 years ago when social norms were different"

– WhosMurphyJenkinss

"Gen z is the most pretentious moralistic and puritanical gen since maybe the lost gen"

– muldervinscully

The Capacity To Care

"For me it’s the insinuation that I’m supposed to care about every problem/issue in the world. It’s not realistic- we as humans don’t have the emotional bandwidth to care or even keep track of all the issues in todays world. Social media is constantly bombarding these kids with the most recent catastrophe and everyone is expected to be an activist for it until the news cycle breaks. Pick an issue you’re passionate about and do something, but letting every atrocity in the world affect your emotional state is counter-productive and makes you feel like the boot is against your neck at all times"

"My opinion is that this contributes to the rise of mental health issues like depression-"

– br0therbert

Let People Be Who They Are

"Queer discourse. Not in general, but the way I see now. People fighting each other over Pronouns, attacking each other because they don't believe someone else should go by the label they use."

"It feels like the LGBTQ community is running around in circles, nibbling at its tail and not realising its bleeding to death."

– confused-as-f-boi

Cause And Effect

"For me it's claiming everything as abuse..."

"*got punished for doing or not doing something they were told/asked to do or not do a thousand times... gets punished... that's abuse... wtf... actions and inaction have consequences... Don't want the consequence then don't do or do what I asked/ told you to do or not do... It was that simple when I was growing up..."

– SecretaryKey3923

The Internet Can't Help You

"As a gen-z myself, I'm also confused on why everything has to be posted on social media:"

""OMG I'm gonna die 😭😭😭""

""He made it into my house 😭😒🥺🥺""

""Idk what I should do now 😔😔😟😭😓""

"So you decided to post about it on social media rather then calling the police or ANYONE ELSE FOR HELP?"

– DaGamingTurtleB

Invited In

"Or the other way around"

""Look what a fun life I have, I'm here on the mountains with my entire family" nobody is home for 2 weeks pls come rob me"

– QBekka

"They are really the first generation with the capability to do that easily. They’re like the oldest siblings who makes all the mistakes so the younger ones can learn from it. I salute their sacrifice."

– littlegreenb18

Fascinating…or questionable.

Do you have any trends to add? Let us know in the comments below!

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