Gen Z is killing the millennial hit piece

The time has come to pass the torch, and I couldn’t be more relieved: my viciously stereotypical age group – the so-called ‘millennials’, born between the early 1980s and the mid-1990s – will no longer have to bear responsibility for the relentless flow of social changes. Because while the 2010s saw a ridiculous parade of clickbait headlines based on the basic formula “How Millennials Killed (Thing),” that era is quickly fading. Today, the oldest members of Generation Z are in their mid-20s, and any shock to our collective consciousness is undoubtedly their fault.

Studios blame Gen Z for the ‘death’ of TV. Generation Z is on its way to ‘killing’ middle management. Zoomers have supposedly stopped wearing mascara, ditched the dating apps, no longer want to drive a car and have wiped out bars and clubs with their stubborn sobriety, perhaps moving us towards the “extinction” of the big, sloppy night out led. How could they? It’s a carnage unlike anything we’ve ever seen before, well, the generation before.

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Previously, millennials have been accused of killing everything from business dress codes and hotels to weddings and American cheese—all of which you may have noticed still exist. It’s almost as if all the whining about young adults shattering cultural norms seems more like panic across several industries that are having a modest impact on their bottom lines thanks to an overall shift in public opinion or priorities. But don’t think about it too much.

Moreover, traditional media also needs these stories. Take the Venerable New York Postfor example, currently the leading publisher of horrified Gen Z generalizations. To hear this newspaper tell it: zoomers are too afraid to go to the toilet at work, refuse to send emails, reject wine as an ‘elitist’ drink and – wouldn’t you know it – never enjoy being happy hour heard. The choice to blame these sparsely documented trends on bad parenting, the radical left, or TikTok addiction is of course entirely up to the reader, and that’s what keeps the stories coming: every time you discover that the next generation is on the live somehow wrong (differently, that is), you still have a chance to pathologize them the way you want.

It’s a cynical business, there’s no denying that. But maybe the original, lasting impetus that gave us the usual millennial shaming, which has lately given way to 24/7 zoomer shaming, represents some kind of honest concern. We as a species feel protective of the relatively inexperienced young, and when they don’t seem to understand or care about what it takes to maintain the status quo to which the old have become accustomed, we panic. Look what they are doing! They will certainly never make it in the real world that way!

Of course they will. The real world kept turning as millennials started texting “here” instead of ringing the doorbell, left on its axis while the same demographic group collectively decided they didn’t really like golf. The ominous articles about these supposed crises became entirely strange in their predictability, nothing more than a template for the most reproducible millennial artifact: a meme. Saddled with student debt and extra roommates, this group found humor in the idea of ​​having such a negative impact on the economy, and they reveled in their latest “murders,” each an irony of limited purchasing power.

Memes are no more immortal than casual dining chains (yet another victim of millennial indifference), and I have to admit, I’m already nostalgic for a decade when my peers were described as inveterate navel-gazers who would rather gorge on avocado toast than sign up for a mortgage. Really, it went by in the blink of an eye. Old fart that I am, I’m not quite sure if Gen Z is annoyed or amused at having inherited this particular generational burden, although I hope they will achieve Grim Reaper status – because there is no room for growth without the cull, no progress without a cleared path.

My advice, not that any self-respecting zoomers asked for it: you don’t get any points for bowing to the current standards of consumption, labor, appearance, and ambition, so you might as well not try. The worst people in the world love pronouns, so there’s no way you can give them up. Don’t just give the hack commentators an angle for criticism based on a few hazy anecdotes; let them write even dumber columns. It took a while for millennials to see the absurdity of the hit pieces about us, while the Daily mail To warn that Generation Z has declared war on regular sandwiches and prefers ‘luxury wok fillings’ is undeniable hysteria. It is impossible to predict the madness with which you can tempt these idiots to publish.

At the very least, enjoy your moment in the sun. Millennials are heading into grumpy middle age, and more than a few will make broad, unfounded accusations at you. It is simple jealousy, the eternal longing for eternal youth, that special interest and attention. Before you know it, you’ll have an opinion about what’s wrong with Gen Alpha, and the torch will be passed again – in one of those rare traditions that apparently can’t die out no matter how history progresses.

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