A Disconnected Adult’s Guide to Children’s Culture: Gen Z Goes to Work, but Finds It Time-Consuming

This week, the internet is talking about one young woman’s path to career disappointment, particularly her shocking discovery (shared via TikTok) that having a job significantly reduces your personal time. Meanwhile, youngsters in Britain are using the internet to egg on their American cousins, and famous YouTubers are scaring themselves silly.

Gen Z’s reaction to full-time work sparks online debate

This week, TikTok user @Brielleybell123 posted a simple video that has become an internet flashpoint for debate about labor in a capitalist structure. In the video , Brilli says she started her first full-time job, which included a two-hour commute, and it took up a lot of her free time. “I don’t have time to do anything,” she says in the video, fighting back tears. “I don’t have the time or energy to cook dinner. I don’t have the energy to work out, so that doesn’t count… the 9-5 schedule is crazy.”

Her video was then embedded in a Twitter post by user Endthemisery1 , which read: “OMG, poor little girl got her first job. Like…she has to go to work?? Like…she needs to make dinner?? Like…don’t have the time and energy to train?? Like… she works in person and not remotely??? Like… She. It has. K. Work. 9. K. 5 ??? What????”

From there it spread far and wide and divided the online world into two camps: people who say, “You know what I blame for this decline? Society! In my day, we worked 28 hours a day and said “thank you” when the boss threw hot coals at us.” Another reaction is more like: “You know, she’s not wrong . And just because you’ve resigned yourself to your grim fate of “working yourself to death” doesn’t mean you shouldn’t feel compassion for people who are experiencing the excruciating misery of an entry-level job for the first time.” (The latter, by the way, are right.)

Study: Children want less sex in media

Everyone loves to talk about the relationship between young people and the media, but the real study was conducted by the UCLA Center for Scholars and Storytellers. According to a CSC survey of 1,500 people aged 10 to 24, young people want to see less sex and more friendship in the media. More than 47% of survey respondents said sex was unnecessary in the plot of most movies and TV shows, while 51.5% of teens said they would like to see more content focused on friendship and platonic relationships. The least popular type of content is “aspirational,” with only 10% of teens citing stories about rich and famous people as their favorite. Their top choice is content that “reflects their personal [life].” Children prefer “hopeful, uplifting content with people beating the odds” over any other type of story. More than half—56%—of teens also say they prefer original content to sequels, franchises and reboots. (Someone will tell all of Hollywood.)

Such original, realistic, hopeful stories that reflect the real lives of teenagers, but with friends, not romance. This all sounds great, but it reminds me of the scene in The Simpsons when a children’s focus group helps create Poochie the rock dog. In real life, nine of the ten highest-grossing films this year are sequels or based on existing intellectual property (Barbie, Super Mario Bros., Guardians of the Galaxy , etc.), and none of the ten highest-grossing films are even does not remotely reflect anyone’s personal life. Maybe Hollywood isn’t creating this kind of content, but then again, maybe Roger Meyers Jr., CEO of Itchy & Scratchy Studios, was right when he said, “You kids don’t know what you want; that’s why you’re still children, because you’re stupid.”

Barbie, Taylor Swift and Wednesday Addams are expected to be the most popular costumes

According to Marie Claire , this year’s top Halloween costumes included Barbie, Taylor Swift and Wednesday Addams, giving young people an archetype and style for every personality and temperament. For Halloween lovers who are too iconoclastic to choose the most recognizable pop culture images, Style Caster suggests dressing up as Joan from the Black Mirror episode “Joan Is Terrible.” And if you’re a total nerd, try Wanda Maximoff from Wandavision . However, I have a feeling that young people are less into Halloween this year than in previous years. Perhaps more of the real-life horrors that surround us have taken some of the shine off the spooky season.

TikTok asks: “Do the UK really have alarm clocks for tea time?”

Here’s a fun blink-and-you’ll-miss-it slice of online culture that exploded this week: British teatime alarm clocks . People in the UK are trolling Americans by posting videos claiming that alarms go off across Britain when it’s tea time. According to these Anglo-Saxon boys and girls, the king presses the red button to turn them off, and failure to drink tea at the appointed hour is punishable by arrest. They say alarms are such a ubiquitous part of British culture that they are rarely even mentioned.

The best of these videos do a great job of simulating anxiety and appearing very genuine , but in reality they are response videos and comments from people who don’t know it’s a joke or aren’t sure, so they ask their fellow Brits. Friends who are obliged to answer: “ Of course, there are alarm clocks for tea time!” I thought everyone knew that.” But before you attack stupid Americans too harshly, remember that people in the UK eat toast and baked beans for breakfast, and the entire nation agrees to pretend that one family is the best family of all, so they can do anything.

Viral video of the week: “Let’s spend a week in a magic house”

YouTube superstars Sam and Colby are celebrating Halloween and hitting 10 million subscribers this week by spending an entire week in the house from The Conjuring – not where they filmed the movie, but the house where the “real-life events” of The Conjuring take place. happened .

Based on the first two episodes, this series will be around 15 hours long, which is a bit long. But still, the boys seem sincere about it all. They seem really scared and it’s interesting to watch people being afraid of ghosts. Not because it’s sadistic, but because we all know ghosts aren’t real, so we see people who are innocent and alive enough to believe in magic.

This type of video wouldn’t work at all if it featured people over 40 because they’d think, “I’m broke, my mortgage payment is late, and I’m going through my second round of chemo this week, so get on with it.” Ghosts, try to scare me.