“What Is The Deal With The Gen Z Stare?” (23 People Chime In)

The Gen Z stare is exactly what it sounds like , and somehow also so much more. It's the blank, neutral, completely affect-free expression that Gen Z deploys in situations where previous generations would have nodded enthusiastically or laughed politely. Instead, there is just a face. Waiting. Giving absolutely nothing away. It's not angry, it's not sad, it's not bored. It simply is.

The phenomenon went viral after people started posting videos online capturing the expression in the wild, mostly in customer service, classroom, or workplace settings. The person on the receiving end of the stare is usually mid-sentence, visibly waiting for a social cue that is simply never going to arrive. The contrast is, depending on your perspective, either deeply funny or mildly destabilising.

What makes it particularly interesting is that Gen Z doesn't seem to think they're doing anything at all. And that might actually be the whole point. Where older generations were raised to be attentive, Gen Z apparently skipped that chapter entirely. Whether that's emotional honesty or just really effective passive aggression is, as of publication, still completely up for debate.

To understand the stare, you have to understand the generation behind it. Gen Z grew up chronically online, tethered to smartphones, and navigating more digital noise before breakfast than most Millennials experienced in a whole week. When your entire existence is one long stream of overstimulation, the logical response is, apparently, to become extremely selective about where your energy goes.

According to etiquette expert Kate Heussler for Body+Soul, what looks like rudeness is actually something closer to self-preservation. She classifies it as a generational shift from performing politeness to protecting peace. Which, when you say it like that, sounds less like a character flaw and more like something a therapist would charge you $200 an hour to work towards.

Where Millennials were out here apologizing before asking questions, prefacing every work email with "hope this finds you well," and smiling through every uncomfortable interaction to keep the peace, Gen Z simply did not absorb that particular lesson. They watched the people-pleasing generation burn out in real time, and quietly decided they'd rather just stare.

If you think the Gen Z stare is a lot to process, buckle up, because Gen Alpha is already in the waiting room, and they did not come to play nice. Born from 2010 onwards, this is the first generation to have grown up with a smartphone essentially as a fifth limb. They have never known a world without TikTok, algorithmic content, or the ability to skip an ad in five seconds.

Weirdly, Gen Alpha are actually pulling back from screens in ways nobody predicted. According to GWI, physical toy wishlists are up 16% since 2023, board game interest has climbed 8%, and cinema has become their single favorite way to watch a film. A generation raised entirely on streaming apparently decided the big screen was cool again.

What's particularly fascinating is how they handle social media. They are mostly watching it rather than participating in it. Only 1 in 10 Gen Alpha kids say they post everything they do. They have grown up watching cancel culture, viral pile-ons, and the full chaos of the internet at its worst, and decided that maybe they won't be putting themselves out there like that. Honestly? Respect.

Here's a comforting thought: none of this is new. Aristotle complained that young people "think they know everything, and are always quite sure about it." A letter in an eighteenth-century magazine raged about a generation of "effeminate, self-admiring fribbles." Every single generation, without exception, has looked at the one behind them and thought: What is wrong with these people?

The Millennial playbook is almost too on the nose. Lazy, entitled, a crippling avocado toast addiction. This is until everyone acknowledged that a global financial crisis, student debt, and an impossible housing market might have had something to do with it. According to The Ringer, blaming an entire generation for being broke during a historically devastating economic collapse was, in hindsight, a little reductive.

And yet, we learned absolutely nothing. Gen Z is now "boring" and "antisocial," which somehow ignores a pandemic that hit during their most formative years, and alcohol prices at a 40-year high. Sociology professor Pamela Aronson says that the blame doesn't recognize the larger picture about the way Gen Z came of age, and the incredible stresses they face. And then need to speak to a therapist about.

Here's a wild idea: what if we just… talked to each other? Not in a "let me explain why your generation is doing it wrong" way, but in an actual, curious, genuinely interested way. Millennials have a lot to learn from a generation that decided burnout wasn't a personality trait. And Gen Z, occasionally, could extend a small mercy nod to the person who just told them something mildly interesting. Just one.

The generational divide looks a lot more dramatic on the internet than it does in real life, mostly because the internet's entire business model relies on making everything a fight. In reality, most people across generations want the same things: to be understood, to not be dismissed, and to get through the day without someone asking them to do something that isn't in their job description.

The truth is, every generation is handed a world they didn't design and then blamed for how they cope with it. Boomers could stand to acknowledge that. Millennials, currently in the process of becoming The Establishment, really could stand to acknowledge that. And Gen Z's stare, as it turns out, might just be the most honest response to inherited chaos that anyone has managed yet.

Respect it. Or don't. They'll just stare at you either way.

Have you encountered the Gen Z stare in the wild? Tell us all about it in the comments!