Is The “”Gen Z Stare” Actually The Right Response?

I'm also tired of the woke Gen Z idiocracy and all of its related insanity. The Gen Z stare is part of this stupidity. Staring out into space like you have dementia isn't the solution to the world's problems.

They're not used to human interaction.

If young people would rather stare out into space like they’re having a mini stroke than give their two cents about politics then I say OK.

I am sick of social media and how it allows everyone to give a hot take on whatever issue is big that day.

It’s all about context.

If they’re asked a rude or confrontational question like “Do you do that Woke Pronouns shit?” then sure.

If asked by a customer “Do you take AmEx?” then no, not ok. Even if there’s an AmEx sign within the customer’s eyesight.

I think these responses are spot on. You have to use that fucked up stare cautiously, or you will be labeled a mental patient. Only use it as a reaction to outrageous behavior, not as R4 correctly points out, when someone asks a reasonable question.

No, it isn't appropriate to blankly stare at people as a restaurant host, cashier, etc.

Did any of you understand OPs intent? He is suggesting a good use for the Gen Z Stare. Not knocking it.

There is no good use for it.

We are knocking it for them.

And they think they deserve 100k salaries and to be able to own homes at 22. Yeah, good luck with that.

You could also just blind yourself and gain some inner peace

Gen Z Stare is very common I've noticed.

Gen Zs are a cohort whose baseline is quasi-Spectrum Disorder and both emotional as well as verbal cues cause them to short-circuit, thus the "stare".

Before even comprehending a conversation they've already started thinking of who might be offended by this conversation, feeling victimized themselves, and feeling duped because they were told this was "supposed to be a safe place"!

That sounds like therapistspeak. If they’ve been enabled with that no wonder they do it. I bet if you cut off their food and water they’d suddenly learn to ask for some immediately. It’s a miracle!

The person in OP’s photo is likely on the autism spectrum. The eye gap gives it away.

The first cinematic Gen Z stare

I think it should be renamed The Dementia Stare.

Bruce Willis has that stare now.

My uncle had that stare when he was in the last stage of Alzheimer's Disease.

My family doctor had that stare in the late 90s right before he died from Lewy Body Dementia.

And now Gen Z has it. How lovely to have an entire generation that thinks it's cool to look brain dead.

I heard if you do it too many times your face freezes like that forever

Nothin a good slap can't fix. Snap out of it! - Loretta C.

I'm far beyond Gen Z (whichever one that is) but I find that this stare just comes naturally to me on occasion. Like yesterday, as I approached the front door of the supermarket, where 2 middle-aged women were trying to decide which cart to take into the store -- both big fat ladies, blocking everyone else's access to the carts & the door. They were standing there when I drove up, parked, & walked toward the building -- & they continued to stand there debating the relative merits of the big cart vs the smaller cart, totally oblivious to other people streaming by & crowding around them. I'm much too polite to shout "MOVE IT ALONG, TOOTS!" & too tired to trudge all the way over to the other door at the far end of the supermarket (which doesn't have a line of carts parked near it), so what am I to do? I found myself staring at them as if I'd been struck dumb, which indeed I had been. And it worked! And I felt a little better, so there's that.

I experienced the Gen Z stare 1 week ago at Five Guys. All of the employees were Gen Z alien pod people. They just waited for me to give my order and didn't say anything. Then, while I waited, they all stared at me. I now understand why the movie The Invasion of The Body Snatchers was remade 3 times. There are 4 versions of this movie. Someone knew this was going to happen. Wait until Gen Zer's start pointing and screaming at people.

It probably would have been better to say, “excuse me, I’m in a hurry”

To me it reflects how they are socially awkward and inept. They grew up on phones and being anxious about the future. Their parents coddled them and they are lazy. I fear for the future when they are in charge but hopefully they’ll be skipped over in Influence.

R21 Gen Z has a tough road ahead of them. Really tough.

I’m falling into a spiral, destination unknown

Help, I’m slipping into the Twilight Zone

Resting Blank Face 😑

I've noticed they don't know that one should greet people like the above cash register people. Just staring creepily in your face is pleasant enough for them. The thought of being "friendly" is disdainful to them.

Hey, at least they’re out there working

[quote] I found myself staring at them as if I'd been struck dumb, which indeed I had been. And it worked! And I felt a little better, so there's that.

That’s not the Gen Z stare. They weren’t speaking to you. The Gen Z stare comes when some kind of polite verbal response is called for.

If you had done the proper thing, and sought to resolve the bottleneck with “Move it along, Toots!” and their leader had turned to face you and responded with a curt “Fuck you” as expected, and THEN you looked at them with a blank stare, that would have been closer, but still not quite it because all bets are off in an altercation.

So when I'm 85 and needing a diaper change, will they give me the stare?

Being proactively friendly to customers and speaking to them first is soooo cringe. .

[quote]To me it reflects how they are socially awkward and inept.

You may be right, but it registers as contempt to me.

Circa Parkland, the media was fawning over them, making bold declarations that they were going to be young leaders and saviors. What happened to all of that?

R19 My version of that film was obviously the best version.

The most effective way to end the Gen Z Stare is a vicious face slapping, up *and* down (slap, slap!).

They are, except for the idiots among them, aware that they have no future, that there will be no jobs for them, and that the planet will become less and less habitable in their lifetime. The ones that went into many of the business and tech fields that were safe bets five years ago now find AI taking over the entry-level jobs. The ones who do customer service jobs are facing ruder and more violent people. Their brains have been rewired by smartphones, TikTok, and the algorithms that make choices for them. Their dumbass parents gave them tablets and phones to use as children and businesses and local governments in a lot of places have basically criminalized allowing your kids outside without supervision.

They also came of age during and after Trump. The eldest among them may have memories of the Obama Era, but largely they've only known fascism and COVID.

So yeah. They spend a hell of a lot of time dissociating. It infuriates me when I encounter it, but it's not surprising.

R34, maybe those are some things they should have considered before pulling for Trump?

[quote] The Gen Z stare comes when some kind of polite verbal response is called for.

If you ask Gen Z, they'll say that the stare people are referencing is often because the person is saying something stupid, but ...

[quote]No, it isn't appropriate to blankly stare at people as a restaurant host, cashier, etc.

They do this because they can't actually confront you and say something or they will lose their job.

However, there are some socially awkward Gen Zers who can't communicate properly because of various issues like too much tech growing up, social media and COVID.

From having to deal with them a lot at work, I've never gotten the stare. I've seen them do it to other people, usually when they get too much information at once. Sometimes they do just blank out completely. What I've also noticed is that they absolutely, positively, can not handle any actual confrontation or criticism.

r36

[quote]they absolutely, positively, can not handle any actual confrontation or criticism.

So they do something that invites confrontation and criticism.

my college students can take feedback and criticism because that sort of thing is baked into prof-teacher. BUT. A lot of them ignore and discredit feedback and criticism as completely irrelevant. It is pretty important to say something nice but true to them. That gains trust. "Your answer is complete and developed, and interesting to read. Let's talk about some writing techniques to improve your style...." (means it's 9th grade writing skill and I'm appalled).

I actually have encountered the stare a few times,but I never realized it was a generational thing. When I have encountered it I shut up and stare right back. That forces them to respond. Ive had whole transactions where the clerks have never said a word. That used to irk me but now I just respond in kind.

The fallout from helicopter parenting.

This is all Gen X's fault and their shitty parenting. I'm not sure why that generation keeps escaping blame.

Maybe. It's supposed to be a non-verbal response to disbelief at what they're seeing or hearing. Not a lack of customer service. So in OP's case, yeah probably.

I really want to punch OPs model.

It makes absolutely NO SENSE to stare at waiters and waitresses like that when they are asking you what would you like to drink.

The only time I’ve encountered such stare, as a milennial, was not from Gen.Z folks but from two Gen. Alpha children supposedly “on the spectrum”; I personally think it was just another case of FAKE AUTISM and badly socialized/adjusted children.

My generation Alpha Niece also used to do that, until one time I repeated out-loud what my cousin had asked her, she then looked at me and said “I’ve already heard it, I’m not deaf…” That’s when I looked at her and said “Then you’ve got to answer, answering is NOT optional.”

My sister and brother in law said nothing of the interaction, this was in mid 2022 I think, and I believe my sister spent 2023 and 2024 working on this issue, as my niece is a lot more sociable now and replies when greeted or when asked questions.

Just my two cents about these odd stares, life isn’t a tv scene or a tv movie where you can be “cool” in every scene.

I give these kids a lot of leeway. Working in retail / waitstaff / customer service was shitty enough when I went through it 20-30 years ago. I can’t imagine how much worse it’s become since 2015 now that an entire half of the country is in a race to the bottom for who can be the meanest and most boorish and insulting and entitled and vulgar and demeaning and bigoted and childish. Not to mention them defiantly carrying their AR-15s and their mumps with them everywhere and flouting any rules or guidelines the rest of us willingly comply with as part of the social contract.

I was getting out of my car at the grocery store a few weeks and some old cryptkeeper looking asshole takes a break from loading bags into his hundred year old pickup truck and starts cussing at me about how people are only ever going to be able to buy electric cars from now on because of people like me (?). I pointed out that my car is not electric and he told me to go to hell. I told him he was a retarded cunt and if he ever came up to me again I’d break his legs.

I can’t imagine if I’d been on the clock corralling shopping carts or whatever and not allowed to respond in kind to his abusive, idiotic behavior. So good for gen Zer’s adopting this thousand yard stare to let Magat trash know they’re not getting the rise and the attention they so desperately crave.

I agree though that they can fuck right off of they stare at you like for asking a perfectly benign, situationally appropriate question like “Do you take amex”.

GEN Z IS WATCHING YOU

White Lotus Gen Z Stare Scene

Millenials will always be superior to Gen Z.

All those Gen Z boys who voted for Trump just fucked around and found out.

^To be fair they don't really want or care to work so that's part of reason.

Did Aubrey Plaza create the stare on Parks and Recreation or was she aping something she’d seen? Anyway, that was years ago, so it’s nothing new.

It's because they're all stoned out of their gourds 24/7.

R46 Was she a victim of a lobotomy?

I see millenials, who were already way too bubbly and people pleasers, freaking out and feeling attacked over the gen Z stare. Meanwhile Gen Z has nothing on Gen X nonchalance and surlyness. I ain't scared of you snot noses.

In general, I like GenZ - they are certainly more fun than that "Harry Potter is my whole identity" or Disney-adults generation. The stare is only one thing. Many also never practised to have an actual conversation, and when they have to be on the phone, it becomes the most apparent. The equivalet of the stare is then to just not answer at all because what is normal for us is not normal to them and they don't realize it's expected or it's their turn to carry the exchange. Uncomfortable silence and irritaion ensues. It's like trying to play tennis with a person to whom the concept of doing-like-the-the-other-does or not dropping the ball is entirely alien.

R53: None of us are "feeling attacked." We just don't get why these little shits have such an attitude.

But then again, when I see who their parents are, it all makes sense.

And btw, what the fuck did Gen X have to feel so surly about? Was it Roe v. Wade that allowed them their multiple abortions? Or the draft being outlawed? Get the fuck over yourselves. No wonder your spawn are such shits!

I. Just. Can’t.

This went viral on Reddit.

Zoomers and Alphas are apparently like this because they have a phobia of "cringe".