If you’re chronically online, you may have heard a newly coined term circulating on TikTok and Instagram: the “Gen Z stare.” It refers to a blank or deadpan stare that Gen Z gives when, most often, someone from an older generation asks a question, and there’s no response warranted.
The Gen Z stare is most often contextualized in the food service industry. For example, one of my peers who worked at In-N-Out said, “A customer came up and asked why there was cheese on his cheeseburger,” and he responded with the signature stare. While talking to friends in my generation, an overwhelming number said they have made this face, whether they were aware of this internet phenomenon or not.
I have been the perpetrator of the Gen Z stare many times, but I never considered it a response specific to my generation. Is this a rebranding of the “entitled millennial” stereotype, or just another opportunity to paint Gen Z as incompetent? Despite this all too common misconception, my generation is filled with some of the most determined and hardworking people I’ve met. When mentioning the phenomenon to my peers, many responded enthusiastically with thoughts and opinions, while others gave me the aforementioned stare.
Daniel Golub, a junior creative writing major, said that he has given the stare at work, but “it’s less intentional than it is a stunned reaction.” It may not be that Gen Z doesn’t know how to socialize, but that our reactions shifted after isolation during some of the most critical years of our development. Gen Z has faced repeated profound societal shifts and historical events, one of which is the COVID-19 pandemic. Being children and teenagers during COVID-19 shaped us—we missed years of socialization inside and out of work environments. This gap in socialization followed us into the workforce after the pandemic ended, as there was a stark shift from prior internet communication. In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Gen Z was between the ages of 8-23, fundamental years to figure out their relationship with technology. These years felt like a world where the internet was an endless communication platform. Many Gen Zers got accustomed to texting, FaceTime, and Discord calls only to then face the world head-on right as quarantine ended.
On the other hand, Kash Connors, a junior interdisciplinary major, describes that he gives his older family and friends the Gen Z stare more than anyone at work. He believes that it is an overarching characteristic of our generation to have a shorter attention span and to zone out or disassociate when someone goes on too long about anything that is not piquing our interest. He was right that our attention spans are lowering, and we can see that over the last 20 years, the human attention span has dropped rapidly from 12 seconds to 8.25 seconds due to many factors, possibly including increased technology usage.
Connors also mentions he has given the stare to peers. However, the response varies, and instead of varied frustration or confusion, he often gets an equally blank stare in return or a follow-up question. He says that more often than not, Gen Z understands what it means and can react appropriately. “Maybe we have our own method of communication,” he says. Gen Z communicates heavily over technology, and as many Gen Zers enter the workforce, they may be confronted with the fact that not everyone else is on the same page.
Kash and Daniel both theorized that if you gave “the stare” to another Gen Z, they would absolutely understand what it meant. As a generation, we seem to have cultivated our own specific method of communication. Yet, when it falters in the real world, it causes greater confusion. The question is, why has no one else picked up on why we do it?
As a generation, we are often upset, tired, and confused by the constant stream of information circulating in our world. It’s not that we don’t work as hard or that we cannot fathom a simple question about a burger— it’s the frustration of being misunderstood and not given any grace. I find that the expression is most often shown in defeat, and a plea for some universal common sense. Those in my generation are often highly critical of our world, yet simultaneously making unwavering attempts to make it better. So after hearing “I’m sorry, but that cheeseburger has cheese on it…because you ordered a cheeseburger,” just know there might be a stare coming your way.