From "The Psychology Behind the Gen Z Stare/Have you seen the Gen Z stare? What's really behind it?" (Psychology Today).
There's something called the "aesthetic of resistance."
१ ऑगस्ट, २०२५
"To other Gen Zers, the stare may signal a cool detachment, showing that they understand the irony..."
"... especially when selfies are paired with absurd captions or filters. In sum, the Gen Z stare isn’t just a blank look—it’s an important signal. It pushes back against older norms of digital self-presentation, reflects changing attitudes toward visibility and authenticity, and may also be a subtle form of emotional boundary-setting in an age of constant exposure."
From "The Psychology Behind the Gen Z Stare/Have you seen the Gen Z stare? What's really behind it?" (Psychology Today).
From "The Psychology Behind the Gen Z Stare/Have you seen the Gen Z stare? What's really behind it?" (Psychology Today).
पोस्ट्स
४० टिप्पण्या:
Parmigianino did it better
"Aesthetic Of Resistance...so hot right now!" - Mugatu
Perhaps this is a simple rejection of "smile for the camera"?
I have a chronic obsessive photo-taker in the extended family - and she drives everyone up a wall with her non-stop obsessive demand for photos.
Unlike Scientific American, once a truly great magazine that has been brought low by Woke, Psychology Today has always been a reeking farrago of idiotic lies.
Reminds me of some people in the '90s. E.g., Alanis Morissette. Sort of a blank look.
Out: Heroin Chic
In: THC Glaze
Smilin' like Andrew McGann?
I hate to tell them this, but resting bitch face goes back to the invention of cave painting.
I kind of like the mugshot style.
BUMBLE BEE mentions Arkansas double-murder suspect McGann.
That story has made the national news, but the murder of four people (and roadside abandonment of an infant) in Lake County north of here has not AFAIK. The suspect is still on the loose I think, and his photo is everywhere.
Go figure.
Psychology Today is a good reminder why, once the grievance studies programs are removed from our universities, departments of psychology should be next.
This is focused on selfies and social media, but I first heard of it exclusively in the context of in-person interactions, where Gen Z reacted to all conversation, discussion, and instruction with that blank, unfocused, cow-like stare. One speculation I've heard is that they're accustomed to interacting with the world (or video games, etc.) through a screen, even from their early childhood, so they haven't developed the sorts of facial communication (like expression mirroring, etc.) that prior generations have. That's a channel of communication that they just didn't use or observe much growing up.
Anthony and Yancey, ref it not being that old: yes, the kid in the article's photo reminds me of a young Robert Plant on an album cover. Or a boy about to march to Antietam, holding still for a daguerrotype.
But the difference with Gen-Z is they do the stare in real life, not just in pictures. They apparently don't mean anything by it - they just have never been taught how to look at someone with a neutral but respectful and interested expression. And it is a learned skill. Losing 3 academic years of in-person teaching probably didn't help.
Also a lot of these kids don't watch long-form fictional TV, even 30-min sitcoms, which might give them at least a fictionalized model for what store clerks do.
RR
JSM
Cecile's scalpel suggests there is less in the stare than meets the eye.
The absurd results of publish or perish.
"...cow-like stare."
In their defense, cattle aren't trained to be suspicious or think critically about what's coming. Neither were they.
They apparently don't mean anything by it - they just have never been taught how to look at someone with a neutral but respectful and interested expression. And it is a learned skill. Losing 3 academic years of in-person teaching probably didn't help.
This is probably a big part of it - they interact with their peers primarily through texts or social media, and they were forced to hide in their rooms with masks hiding any facial expressions for a significant part of their developmental years, blank is all they know.
“From "The Psychology Behind the Gen Z Stare/Have you seen the Gen Z stare? What's really behind it?" (Psychology Today).”
Maybe they’re just imitating Bob Dylan from all the times he was on one of his album covers. Though not the one (I think it’s a compilation) where he’s actually smiling down into the camera; it’s the exception that proves the rule.
Proof that Idiocracy was a documentary.
fleg9bo said...
“Psychology Today is a good reminder why, once the grievance studies programs are removed from our universities, departments of psychology should be next.”
There is a lot of overlap there.
I'm convinced that it's a reaction to the Millennial Generation's constant mugging for the camera. A lot of what I get from my Gen Z step-daughter is that there seems to be a Hippies/Yuppies dynamic going on between the two generations.
I thought Gen Z was just projecting ennui for the camera. In the comments, I learn that Gen Z does this IRL. They sound like they were raised by the wire-mother rather than the cloth-mother from those monkey psychology experiments in the 1960's.
Used to be called the “deer caught in the headlights” stare. You know - just before getting run over.
I was prepared to come here and make snarky remarks of one sort or another, but while the Psychology Today article is "cringe", as Gen Z might say, I do suspect that this particular affect may indeed be a result of being raised by computer/phone screens instead of natural play, especially outdoor play. Unfortunately, certain social skills are exceedingly hard to learn once their preferred developmental windows have closed.
My Gen Z son, who has a lovely smile, has been making that face for the camera since he was 6 months old.
I am a renowned lousy photographer. I did take one of the best photos of him, when we got a new digital camera (when digital cameras were new) and I asked him to smile for the camera. He was smiling because he was amused about the idea that I could actually get the thing to work properly.
Maybe the look is a Walter Mitty moment. Fantasizing a possible viral Walmart, McDonalds moment, but stirred back into reality, remembering that there are precious little Starbucks viral videos. Who knows.
I will say that this is 10x better than the millenial open-mouthed soyjak gayface that showed up in every selfie since century's turn till recently.
Whatever happened to "Resting Bitch Face"?
They say autism is on the rise. Flat affect. Fuck them and their facial expressions. No soul.
"Resting Puzzled Face." Maybe they learned it from Tucker Carlson.
I always just assumed it was a blank look from a blank mind, or at least a mind set in neutral. Not present. Is it more than that?
Let them look the way they want. Beats nose rings and tattoos.
The image looks like Kurt Cobain, and the "Gen Z" stare explanations in Psychology Today just seem to be repeating the explanations for the Grunge era.
Always figured these folks were either stoned or slow on teh uptake.
The so-called "Gen Z stare"—a deadpan, unsmiling facial expression often seen in selfies and social media videos
And often in mug shots.
- Krumhorn
“The Gen Z stare is characterized by a neutral or blank facial expression.”
So is brain death. I suspect there’s nothing more than a dial tone behind that face. Which accounts for many other aspects of Gen Z.
"Have you seen the Gen Z stare?"
Yes.
"What's really behind it?"
Don't care.
The Gen Z stare owes a lot to The Brown Sisters.
"Ironic or authentic, or both"? What does that even mean? How can it be both? Just another seemingly clever phrase, one of many that were sufficient to get this writer through college and land a gig at Psychology Today.
They’re all on the spectrum?
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