I am reading "How the Gen Z pout became armor against millennial cringe/It looks like the 'duck face,' a durable look born in the aughts. But it’s not" (WaPo)(gift link).
This is not my culture battle. I'm a boomer. I don't have to worry about the hostility between Gen Z and the millennials. I wondered whether this was a made-up problem — "googly, giggly millennials"?
But I went to the link on "millennial cringe" and, oh, no!
Posts
17 comments:
Young people having (mostly?) apolitical silly fun?
Can't have that!
Next they will be swallowing live goldfish and cramming themselves into phone booths!
Freeze frame is old school comic relief.
If the media hadn't given the generations names, it would never occur to any of us to be proud of our generation or to dislike or disrespect another.
Old people would complain about young people as they always have and that's as far as it would go.
Well, that was something.
@tim maguire In some sense that’s true of the labels “Red states” and “Blue states” as well. As far as I can remember, those labels didn’t exist before the 2000 election. But the media made sure that division has been part of our vocabulary ever since. Possibly one of the more damaging outcomes of that election.
When women exhibit the behavior described as Millennial Cringe they are frequently referred to as a Quirk Chungus. The actress Jennifer Lawrence used to behave like a quirk chungus and I think has publicly expressed regret for that kind of behavior.
Social media is a disease.
"Wince said...
Young people having (mostly?) apolitical silly fun?
Can't have that!"
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 1 Corinthians 13:11
I would agree with you that some silly levity is fine, but a lot of the criticism is that this behavior becomes too large a part of their personality. Social Media is driven by engagement and engagement is driven by extremes of behavior. People act in extremely childish ways to get views and the more views the people get the more likely they are and others are to mimic that same behavior to also get views.
On the Tik-Tok Millennial Cringe page, there is a satirization of Millennials, by some Gen Z that is pretty good. It is a short song called, The Millennial Anthem. The style of music of the song is very Millennial coded and now derisively referred to as "Stomp, Clap, Hey" music by Gen Z.
The pouting seemed immediately familiar and then I read this:
It reminds me a bit of Susan Bordo describing heroin chic in 1997 as “the allure, the safety, of being beyond needing, beyond caring, beyond desire.” There’s something a little sad about a (new) generation of young people that thinks smiling is embarrassing.
Heroin chic.
I can't figure out what the point of "millennial cringe" is.
"Well, that was something."
Exactly.
All of it is a direct result of the autism epidemic.
"Young people having (mostly?) apolitical silly fun?"
Not that there's anything wrong with having silly fun, but "30-somethings" are old enough (or nearly, anyway) to have teenage children. "Young people" makes me think more of teenagers themselves. Or maybe younger 20-somethings.
But that's just me.
Stop pouting, teens. You're turning James Taylor inside out.
Holy crap! I’m Gen Z and would generally just tell’em to get off my lawn and go back to my bunker and reload 6.8 SPC cartridges or inventory my MRE selection but I’m afraid this may have nudged up close to my last eff to give. If that representative of Millennials, we are in bad shape. I’m moved to do something. But now I forgot what it is. I turn 60 tomorrow. Eff’em and maybe we can salvage the minds of the Gen Z’ers.
Their face will stay that way
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