"Obsession With Therapy-Speak": 36 Things Older People Don't Get About The Younger Generations

We were saying what we would do if we won the big lottery jackpot. The new 22 yr old hire said he’d become an influencer. Can you imagine winning a billion at 22 and that’s what you would do. Not start a business, travel the world, charity, sports, property… Learn something… but become an influencer… with a billion dollars. I mean like he’s gonna hire a marketing company to fabricate interest in his social media? He’s gonna spend money on stupid things to make people cringe or rage comment? With a billion dollars.

Just thought that was a weird and low bar and was hard to understand.

They don’t “go out”. Their friends are on social media or online, so there’s very little “going out”. Also, a marked disinterest in dating.

I don't understand why most of them want to look rich with expensive s**t and most of them act like they run businesses or something.
They take pictures with cars that are not theirs for example.

Dude chill, you're 16.

Why aren't they voting!?! Do they not know how much power they could have? Willing to go to protests (and that is a good thing) but not willing to go to the voting booth (and that's a bad thing).

Why do they go to the movies only to scroll through their phone the *entire time*?

Everything seems to have to have a label. Not just people and groups, but every concept or just generic thing that is popular has to be given a label or a hashtag. I find it so weird, especially when it's something that people have been doing forever, but now Gen Z have discovered it, it's got some brand new buzzy hashtag label as though it's just been invented.

Speaking mostly for the middle schoolers I work with, but not caring about being smart, understanding the world, achieving success, or having empathy. I cannot fathom what keeps them going without caring about anything. I don't know how to motivate these kids when things like getting something wrong loudly and publicly doesn't even give them pause or introspection. They just move on and continue not caring about what really is right and wrong?

They’ve apparently lost the ability to step outside their comfort zone, I think. All that happens have to be safe and secure, otherwise it gives severe anxiety. No need for exploration, adventure.

Will never understand the constant need for *external* stimulation.

I’m quite happy just to ponder my own thoughts. Love flying, because it gives me several hours to think on s**t without distraction.

Ask young people to put down their phone? It’s as if you asked them to chop off their left hand.

I'm manage a lot of fresh graduates in my job, and I don't understand how in the space of just 2 years (during Covid) we went from great graduates, able to operate independently and work things out themselves to graduates who need their hand held for the most basic tasks.

How someone can be over the age of 25 years and is very comfortable to be financially taken care of by another person like parents, other relatives or a spouse.

Why they can navigate through an entire digital universe with ease but can't seem to find the kitchen without a GPS.

The rapid pace of technological advancement leaves me baffled. How do they effortlessly navigate through endless streams of information while maintaining attention spans shorter than a goldfish?

They don’t seem to care about learning to drive. I couldn’t wait to learn to drive and we didn’t even own a car.

Their dependency on authority and lack of self-reliancy.

You have access to all the world's knowledge in your pocket, but you are only using it as a toy and when you need to learn something you are looking for a teacher.

The rule following! Oh my gosh. The rules. They're so sweet about it too.

I have this discord server. It's 18+ but it's more or less safe for work. I just wanted an adults only group.

Someone joined one day and immediately left. But they messaged me and said, "Sorry, I didn't realize it was 18+ I'm only 16."

Like? My generation did not care. We broke the little rules. We claimed to be 18, we pirated movies and TV shows.

But these new kids follow the rules. I wanna teach them a little bit of rebellion. But I think they're sweet kids.

Some of them do rebel and break rules of course. But most of the ones I've seen online seem nice and polite.

I hope they maintain that. I hope they find a kinder world than I did.