Millennials have once again become upset over a classic Gen Z gesture.
What started as the middle versus side part debate, and then evolved into the “Gen Z is lazy and doesn’t want to work” discussion, has now become an issue with how the young generation interacts with others, particularly through staring at them instead of speaking.
But other generations are noticing, too. Over the last few weeks, people across multiple generations have turned to social media to talk about what has been dubbed the “Gen Z stare.”
For non-Gen Zers, this is the inability of younger people to make small talk and speak to others — though Gen Z claims the stare is what they do when a person doesn’t realize how “stupid” they may be.
“I’m so sick of the new style of customer service where people just stare at you when you walk up to the counter/service desk that the car service guy saying ‘good morning, I’ll be with you in a minute’ immediately made me start thinking ‘wow, THIS is how you run a business,’” one X user described the Gen Z stare.
Another X user agreed, writing, “There is new phenomenon that when you walk into food place or coffee shop etc, they just stare at you and don’t say anything first.”
However, Gen Z has responded to the accusations, claiming that they are staring at customers because of how “stupid” they are being in an attempt to give them time to realize the error of their ways. “Fair. A lot of Gen Z don’t know how to talk to people,” Efe Ahworegba, 19, said in her viral TikTok where she discussed the Gen Z stare. “But a lot of older generations talk too much, too rudely, and too proudly while being too stupid.”
“You have to work in the food industry to fully grasp how stupid people can be,” she added.
The TikTok comments continued to echo Ahworegba’s point, explaining that the Gen Z stare doesn’t come from a place of malice. “The gen z stare is the ‘are you deadass,’” one person commented underneath the TikTok, while another person agreed, writing, “The gen z stare, in actuality, is just gen z trying to make it make sense.”
“And the GEN Z stare is mainly developed by the fact that older generations disallowed GEN Zs to speak up for themselves especially when they know their [sic] in the wrong,” a third commenter pointed out.
Others have highlighted that specific factors, such as being isolated during the Covid-19 pandemic and the rising use of technology, could be a problem.
“Social skills take thousands and thousands of hours to develop, and adolescence is a critical period for developing social skills,” Jean Twenge, the author of Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers and Silents — And What They Mean for America’s Future, told The New York Times.
“And Gen Z has spent much less time with their peers in person during that critical stage.”
