Why Everyone’s Talking About “Gen Z Vision” and Why It’s Probably Bullshit
The term “Gen Z stare” has been making the rounds on and off social media this week. It refers to a blank expression that’s supposedly characteristic of people between the ages of 13 and 28, and is especially common among retail workers . Gen Zers are said to respond to formulaic greetings and small talk with blank stares instead of a smile or nod. While the term isn’t new — a video explaining the phenomenon dates back nearly a year — it’s gone viral in recent years. But is it a genuine shift in cultural behavior or a pointless online campaign of age-based nitpicking?
Is this Gen Z gaze even real?
Maybe? When it comes to something as amorphous as people writing online, “The barista gives me weird looks when I order Starbucks,” it’s impossible to know whether it’s a widespread anxiety trait across a broad demographic or just a meme used by older people to pick on fucking kids. So until more research is done, I’ll say this: It’s probably a small behavioral change that’s been blown out of proportion. Kind of like how millennials killed off casual dining (and a hundred other things), fried potatoes , jenkem , rainbow parties , switchblades , and the “overly dashing” beat of Bing Crosby’s “ Deep in the Heart of Texas .” (To be fair, that shit is pretty damn dashing .)
In the musical Bye Bye Birdie, Mr. McAfee describes children as “unruly, disrespectful oafs” who are impossible to control, then asks plaintively, “Why can’t they be like us? Perfect in every way?” That was written in 1960, but a 35-year-old could have easily posted it on TikTok yesterday. Much of the informal online cultural discourse about the Gen Z gaze has the tone of a generational critique that played out 40 years ago. Millennials are people between the ages of 29 and 44, the prime age to be gripped by the “I’m not young anymore” anxiety that so often leads to envy and criticism of the young. So the Gen Z gaze is probably mostly about that. But then again, there may be embers that blow away all the smoke.
If the Gen Z stare is real, what’s causing it?
If Gen Z is indeed more prone to blank stares, what’s behind it? It all depends on who you ask. Forbes rounded up the opinions of “generation experts,” so take your pick:
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Susie Welch, director of the Stern Initiative on Purpose and Thriving at New York University , believes this is because Generation Z actively avoids winning, competition, and status.
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Joe Galvin, chief scientist at Vistage , “the world’s largest CEO training and peer advisory organization,” attributes Gen Z’s scrutiny to “a growing generational gap in employee communication and expectations.”
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Sujay Saha, president of consulting firm Cortico-X , which “helps clients realize meaningful business value through a human-centric approach to solving business problems,” says the view has become ubiquitous because “Gen Z has entered the workforce in an era of screens, social distancing, and remote communication.”
No offense to these experts (I’m sure they’re great), but if a researcher from a coaching organization, the head of the Purpose and Prosperity Initiative, and a consultant who tries to “realize meaningful business values through a human-centered approach to business problems” tried to explain my generation to me, I’d give a blank stare, too. Staring requires being stared at , and maybe that’s the problem.
A gentle dance between tara-er and tara-i-i
Most examples of Gen Z’s online gazes involve interactions between customers and consumers, or between entry-level employees and their boss. Given how some people treat others, maybe they should be glad that the waitress at Applebee’s gives them a blank stare rather than, say, jabbing them in the eye with a steak knife. As anyone who’s ever worked in the service industry knows, sometimes a blank stare isn’t contempt, it’s mistrust.
“We stare when we don’t understand common sense,” explains Caleb Worley, who posted this video to explore the observer perspective:
Another theory: Maybe Gen Z’s gaze is more like Meursault’s from The Stranger than Buddy the Elf’s from Elf ; it’s not one of stupidity but one of fatal indifference, because life has reached depths of absurdity that would horrify even Camus. Imagine you’re 22 and working a low-paying job in the year 2025. You’ve spent your “teen years” hiding at home from a deadly virus, you’re saddled with student debt, ICE agents are evicting your neighbors, and you’ll probably never be able to afford a car , let alone a house. And then the middle-aged CEO of Flowishing says, “Your problem is that you don’t smile enough .”
Or maybe it’s just the face. Either way, don’t worry too much. You should see the way they look at you behind your back .