Top 10 Gen Z and Alpha Trends in 2025 (so Far)
If you’re over, say, 28, chances are you’re completely baffled by what young people are doing offline and online — I write about youth trends for a living , and I still don’t know; you can’t know completely unless you’re in it. The culture of 2025 is so fragmented, ironic, algorithmically driven, and contradictory that it can seem alien, even fictional, to outsiders. But then, we’re all human, and the human spirit endures even when bent into impossible shapes by machines, greed, and carelessness. To help you make sense of it all — or at least give you a list of things to Google — here’s a snapshot of the trends shaping Generations Z and A in mid-2025.
AmIAlive Core
Coined by writer Kyle Raymond Fitzpatrick , the term “ AmIAlive core ” isn’t exactly popular among young people, but if there’s one concept that describes how Gen Z is different from previous generations, I think it’s this. Simply put, AmIAlive core argues that young people aren’t living life, they’re playing it, so they’re subconsciously unsure whether they’re actually living people. Living entirely mediated lives, where “experiences” happen in video games and the outside world is seen through the vertical window of TikTok videos, has made it impossible for young people to live authentically, so they play life and adopt styles and philosophies based on whether they find it compelling content. A vacation is a chance to pose for exotic Instagram photos. A concert is a chance to whip out your phone instead of dancing. It’s grim, but that’s our life.
Death (and Continuing Life) TikTok
If there’s one space that Gen A and Gen Z share, it’s the social media platform TikTok, and TikTok is going through some things. In January 2024, the Protecting Americans from Foreign-Controlled Apps Act went into effect. It required ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company) to either sell the app to a U.S. company or cease operations in the U.S. by January 19, 2025. In response, TikTok briefly disappeared from the U.S. on the day of the deadline. For young people, the death of TikTok would be like the loss of a shared universe; the world would die. Some responded by flocking to other social media platforms like RedNote or lashing out at the government. But thankfully, nothing has happened — yet. President Trump announced a 75-day hold to allow ByteDance to find a buyer. On June 15, that deadline was extended by 90 days by presidential decree, leaving the platform in limbo: technically alive, but existentially precarious.
AI is everything
The relentless cultural takeover that is AI affects everyone, but no group will feel its impact more than Generation Z and Generation A. They are the first to grow up interacting with AI, learning from it, competing with it, and questioning it in real time. Whatever AI becomes, they will inherit it and help shape it. AI is already being used to cheat in school, spread religion , make Bigfoot jokes, and create disturbing kitten videos. Meanwhile, more and more young people reject AI outright, especially when it comes to AI art. Prediction: Serious resistance to AI will grow among young people.
The 80/20 Rule and Gender Wars
Social and cultural conflict over gender roles is certainly nothing new, but Generations Z and A add a unique twist to the quagmire, most notably with the 80/20 Rule. Simply put, the 80/20 Rule is an axiom that states that 80% of women are only attracted to 20% of men. The 80/20 Rule is so often discussed, memes, and repeated in online spaces for single guys that it is rarely questioned, even though it is essentially complete nonsense .
Burning Chromebooks and Other Dangerous Hobbies
Young people have always been drawn to stupid, dangerous stunts, and there was a time when many of them were amplified by social media sites, especially TikTok. These days, however, TikTok is shutting down trends like “The Skull-Breaker Challenge” with ruthless efficiency. But the school laptop-destruction trend slipped under the radar for a couple of weeks as the school year ended . That these cheap laptops became the target of mindless teenage vandalism makes sense — they’ve become an instantly recognizable symbol of educational conformity, circa 2025.
Nostalgia for the early 2000s
People tend to be nostalgic for a more innocent time, but the youth fascination with the early 2000s seems to indicate otherwise. Through the lens of a teenager in 2025, the politically incorrect, crude, unapologetic pop culture of the early 2000s represents a kind of lost freedom. “You could do whatever you wanted back then without getting cancelled, arrested, or ridiculed,” is the vibe. Obviously, that’s not entirely true, but there’s something to it. Most people didn’t have smartphones back then, so it was the last time kids could do stupid things without ending up on Instagram.
Nostalgia for the 2000s goes hand in hand with:
The Rise of Neo-Puritanism
Kids may be yearning for wilder times, but for the most part they keep their impulses in check. The trend for kids to be more conservative than their parents and grandparents showed no signs of abating in the first half of the year. Young people are drinking less , smoking less , using less drugs , and having less sex than previous generations. Whether these trends are due to greater concern for personal well-being or the result of a closed culture and lack of freedom is up for debate, but the numbers speak for themselves.
Millennial Greens and Millennial Burger Places
While there’s little evidence of the vast cultural generation gap that separated kids and parents in the 1960s, that doesn’t mean today’s youth don’t look witheringly at the generation that came before them. Some may be trying to emulate the early 2000s, but others want older people to know they’re being ridiculous, whether it’s millennials’ obsession with Harry Potter, the boring beige-and-green decor aesthetic that defined the era, or the faux-hipster simplicity of “ millennial burger joints .”
100 people vs gorilla
This meme is based on a simple but compelling question. Who would win in a fight to the death: 100 regular guys or one gorilla? There are plenty of theories , but no ethical way to answer that question. The meme sits at the intersection of absurdist humor, male insecurity, and simulation brain thinking. I’m not sure why, but it feels like a revelation about a younger generation in the same inexplicable way that the popularity of “pet rocks” feels like a revelation about baby boomers.
The continued rise of ‘brain rot’
The above trends mostly apply to Generation Z. Generation A, people born between 2010 and 2024, is a different animal. This generation is defined by “brain rot,” an online style that is nearly impossible to understand. Brain rot describes online content that has no educational, social, or artistic value. It also describes the effects that repeated exposure to this content is supposed to have on the audience. Brain rot content often includes references to other memes, which themselves are often based on other memes. The end result is expressions that are impossible to understand for anyone other than their intended audience.
Here’s how Cookie King , the brain-rot pioneer, described the inspiration for the video he posted: “There was a new meme on Instagram. It was about a chopped-off chin and property in Egypt, and people were having battles between the two. I thought, ‘Wait, what if I just combined them with Johnnie Walker and Friggin’ Packet Yo?’ There’s never been a better explanation.