‘I Had This Z-Splained To Me’: Older People Are Sharing Things That Are Seriously Confusing About Younger Generations

It’s a tale as old as time: Every generation is different from the one that came before. Older members of the BuzzFeed Community have shared many things that confuse them about their younger counterparts. Here’s what they said about some of the most baffling generational differences.

1. “Taking fake candid photos. Instead of actually living in the moment or immersing in an experience, Gen Z seems to fake it for the photo op to post on social media and move on. I don’t understand how they miss the irony in this.”

—Anonymous

2. “Using words like toxic, narcissistic, etc., they are buzzwords that have lost all meaning and completely undervalue how complex people are.”

—Crizzy444

3. “Rather than having an actual conversation, all you ever see is the younger generation scrolling on TikTok at any get-togethers, numbing their brains. They can’t live for five seconds without looking at their phones.”

—Liz, 30

4. “I work in healthcare and make a lot of phone calls. Whenever I call a client younger than 20 for work, they don’t know how to answer the phone. They will pick up and wait for you to say something first. There’s always a temptation to yell, ‘You’re supposed to say hello!’”

—angrygoose50

5. “I just don’t understand the fascination with watching people’s morning and evening routines on TikTok. It’s enough for me to look at my own puffy, sleep-ridden face in the morning. Why would I want to watch someone else’s?”

—natalias48cc3635c

6. “My 20-year-old daughter takes selfies of her face or sometimes just her forehead and snaps them to people she’s not close with or even texts regularly in real life, but she’s friends with them on Snapchat and needs to keep a ‘streak.’ So, every day, they make all this effort for people they don’t even hang out with. It blows my mind!!!”

—Alex, 51

7. “The way they are constantly seeking validation through others. Everyone is so preoccupied with taking pictures for their social media platforms that nobody appreciates the people and places they see. Attention is an addiction, and most people will do anything to get it.”

—Ralphie, 44

8. “Young people love their labels and to be simultaneously offended by everyone and everything.”

—Heinzy Baby

9. “As a millennial who recently did some ‘upskilling’ at a local university, I was shocked at how computer-illiterate many of my Gen Z classmates were. They seem to know how to operate a smartphone, but that’s about it. On a group project, several didn’t know how to make Google Scholar work, and one didn’t know how to Google at all. Their attempts to write essays (or even comprehensible paragraphs) were hot garbage. They just could not comprehend how to tell if a source was legitimate. I think we somehow failed to teach this generation computer literacy, and it’s had a knock-on effect on actual literacy.”

—violettelafleur

10. “The way today’s youth puts everything on social media. I’m a boomer and am so grateful that my youthful behavior is not recorded anywhere. I probably would not have had the life I’ve had if my past was living in cyberspace. I was an idiot, and all young people should have that option. I suffered for my indiscretions, but once I had moved on from certain people and places, that suffering moved entirely into my head; nobody knew what an idiot I had been (and believe me, I came up with many new and exciting errors to make). I was allowed fresh starts. Today’s kids are not, and that’s a shame and a societal problem.”

—NYC4EVER

11. “I find that it’s strange that young people have a hard time using punctuation properly. Why are we adding spaces before the period? Also, some Gen Z folks put the dollar sign behind the number (for example 700$). It’s so strange! What’s going on in school?!”

—Chrys, 37

12. “I was cleaning my windshield as my vehicle was filling with gas, and a young lady looked at me perplexed and asked, ‘What is that thing?’ I replied, ‘It’s a squeegee.’ She asked me if it was free. I said yes. ‘How do you know how it works?’ she said. At this point, I offered to teach her…how to use a squeegee. I left shaking my head.”

—Leigh

13. “Recording every moment. Sometimes, I’ll tell people at work (all much younger than me) about an event or something I went to, and they’ll ask me if I got pictures. Most of the time, my answer is no: I enjoyed the event. When I stop to take out my phone to take a picture, I find it takes away from the moment. And I don’t post on social media…”

″…Years ago, a coworker and I attended the same event on different days, and I barely took any photos but had a great time. Meanwhile, she had many pictures and tried to shame me by comparing the number of pictures we both took at work a couple of days later. It feels like people take pictures not for their enjoyment but to show everybody else what they did. To me, that’s a burden. I find immersing myself entirely into something I am doing more enjoyable than trying to capture it…for what? Is it better to watch it later on your tiny screen?”

—Ginny Jensen

14. “Their new language. I never thought I’d be the old guy who couldn’t understand them, but it’s hard to keep up with terms like ‘Stem/Stemming,’ ‘GOAT,’ and ‘Cap/No Cap.’”

—Aaron, 32

15. “The high school students I teach (grades 8–12) can barely function. The kids have no self-regulation, problem-solving skills (even at a basic level), or perseverance. I’ve been a teacher for almost 20 years, and I’ve never seen a generation so helpless. Many of these students are babied by their parents so heavily. I’m a little scared for them.”

—jh2424

16. “The constant need to talk about self-care. It’s like they refuse to believe life should ever inconvenience, frustrate, or challenge them or their beliefs.”

—Jim

17. “The younger generations don’t spend time together in person. They have full relationships and hangouts over their phones, gaming consoles, or whatever. They don’t get together and muck about as often. It’s weird.”

—Alie, 31

18. “Today’s young people get all their self-worth from how many likes or follows they get from social media. I wonder what the younger generation would do if an apocalypse occurred and there was no longer any electricity, therefore no more online instant gratification?”

—Robin, 53

19. “Today’s youth think they created something for the first time just because they’re wearing it or using it.”

—Xavier, 31

20. “If someone disagrees with what you are doing or saying, they are not automatically ‘a troll.’ You are not always being bullied.”

—Jill, 66

21. “The work ethics of younger generations. I changed jobs from working with a workforce nearing retirement to a job where most of my staff were in their early 30s and younger. They didn’t want to be told what to do or that they were doing something incorrectly. They wanted to work when it suited them and were shocked when they had consequences for missing work or being late excessively…”

″… This was nursing staff, so these were ‘professionals’ and should have had these soft skills fully developed. Using the excuse of your cellphone battery going out, causing you to be late to work every couple of weeks, is unacceptable. I was told by a fellow administrator that I needed to change my management style. They had no advice when I asked them for examples, and I could not find training online. I was not a micromanager, and since nursing crews typically run on staffing requirements set by legal minimums, staff’s lack of attendance, tardiness, and unwillingness to cover shifts for each other when needed was and is baffling to me. I retired.”

—RL, 67

22. “The way they talk in incomplete sentences. ‘It’s giving *blank*.’ It’s ‘giving’ what??? Finish your sentence, please! I had this Z-splained to me. No, you’re just lazy.”

—Anonymous

Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.