As an elder millenial I might have some insight. You know how when we were kids people used to get all up in their feelings when you weren’t smiling. That’s this. “Gen Z stare”, is just “Resting Bitch Face” or “You look prettier when you smile darlin’” repackaged and rebranded. They’re mad that the young people in general and women in particular aren’t running around with goofy forced smiles on their faces to make them feel special.

I’ve encountered what I think of as the Gen z stare once or twice.

It skews more towards the younger end of Gen z, and honestly might even be more of an older gen alpha thing.

What I’m talking about isn’t the blank look given after being asked a stupid question, although they are absolutely masters of that as well (and I love that look and use it as myself)

It feels like more of a lack of understanding that someone is asking you a question and expecting an answer, or perhaps an inability to process that question and come up with an appropriate answer.

My friend who works at a bank has what I think is kind of the quintessential story that shows this version of the stare looks like, a younger person walked up to the counter, he asked some variation of “How can help you today?” And just got a stare back, like it never crossed their mind that they’d have to answer a question and say “I need to make a deposit/withdrawal,/etc.”

And I don’t think it’s necessarily a feature of the generation as a whole, not that gens z and alpha don’t have their quirks, but I have plenty of Gen z friends and coworkers and I don’t think they’re much worse off in any particular way than my fellow millennials. I have somewhat less exposure to gez alpha, but overall my opinion of them is largely the same so far.

I think it’s a very specific subset of the generation with a perfect storm of social isolation/anxiety issues, maybe some neurodivergence, probably some overbearing helicopter parents, and COVID kind of hitting at exactly the wrong point in their lives so that they missed out on some kind of social development milestones.

I’m a millennial too and tbh I’ve done the gen z stare, sometimes there are just things that dumbfound you.

Nobody is always going to have the answer to everything and be immediately quick on their feet at all times.

Nah, it’s “old man yells at cloud”. Blank face is a long standing tradition in the retail and service industries. Ignore 'em and keep being yourself.

GenX here. I think it’s the name that’s given to a small collection of social mismatches between the generations’ expectations of one another and their social behaviors.

Gen Z in my view do not place much value on social graces as I define them. They’re under no obligation to please me, I realize. But yeah they do not seem to care much for social graces as I define them. Things like “greet someone before you ask for something,” and “say thank you before you leave.” I try to do these things at all times and I find GenZ do not always return them or give any sign they even saw them. When a cashier hands me my change and it’s time for me to go, I will say “thank you,” and imho it’s good social graces for them to say “thank you” as well or “you’re welcome” or even just “have a nice day.” But with GenZ cashiers, I say thank you, and then realize they had stopped paying any attention to my presence even before I said it. The second the change has been handed to me, it seems they consider the transaction over, period. It can feel abrupt. And in that moment, someone like me can be waiting to hear that “you’re welcome” and instead see the other person staring off into space. I have also heard of worse cases where someone is asked a direct question and instead of answering they just stare. I think those are more extreme cases but it’s believable to me and I’ve heard it enough times for it to be credible. It’s obviously not a universal, constant thing.

I also think that for this generation, being a retail worker is much more of a misery than it was when I was their age. Wages suck more now. People may be less polite now. And corporations have really tried to squeeze the most out of every employee. They have to do a bunch of different things. It seems they schedule the bare minimum number of people they can get away with. Maybe in my day kids enjoyed their job more because they could literally only stand at the register talking to customers when there were some, and in between horse around with the other workers. I think a lot of that slack has been squeezed out of the system. Frankly a lot of service has also been squeezed out of the system. I remember when waiters would pack the rest of your meal to go for you. They still did this when I visited Portugal last year and it was so nice. Many things like this have disappeared. Maybe this is part of why customers are less polite now. Service isn’t what it once was. Not always the fault of the workers.

The bit about the Stare is not always true or even most of the time. But it’s something that happens often enough to notice as a pattern. Once you’ve heard the stereotype of the “GenZ stare” you can start to experience confirmation bias of it. And really you never know if the person you’re facing is GenZ or not.

So it’s not a thing one should over-think. But yes I think there is something real behind it. Like a lot of stereotypes, it’s not fair to apply to everyone, but it may have some origin in reality somehow.

I’m an older millennial and I’ve been doing the gen z stare since the late nineties. I often find the stupidity that spews forth from not just my peers, but what seems all humans, to be disarming to the point of disbelief. That translates to me staring at you blankly for a second. The times i don’t stop and recover for that second results in insults spewing from mine own mouth before my brain can restrain. The pause is for both our sake.

I’ve seen a lot of this over the last few years, esp since covid.

Part of it is: “That’s the most absurdly stupid thing I’ve heard in a while, let’s allow this to echo for a bit and maybe when the speaker thinks on what they said, they’ll reconsider.” But there’s a range, from that to grey rock - just deny the other party any kind of reaction, much less satisfaction. just be a blank space. grey rock is really useful vs narcissists and people who feel entitled (why don’t you just smile more).

we weren’t as sophisticated in this way when I was a kid; if your parent was emotionally manipulative or abusive, we generally had to just eat shit. kids these days can do research and find strategies, and I respect that. on the other hand, I’ve never had a problem just picking up the phone and calling someone, which my kid thinks is absolutely deranged. when I told her we’d call people on purpose for pranks - just dumb fun - she thought I was full of shit; pointed out all the bart-calls-moe as examples - well yeah that’s a cartoon…

it’s funny how times change.

Oh my god leave the poor fuckers alone.

Nah. The “Gen Z stare” is the blank-faced look we give people that we think are idiots. It’s not that we lack self-awareness…it’s you. Gen Z doesn’t tolerate stupid. We just can’t be bothered to call you out on it, because that’s drama we don’t need. So we just stare at you, instead.

Nope. It’s always safe to ignore any articles about “kids these days”

I’ve seen it a few times. Each time I immediately thought “damn this job must suck” and then later I realized I was the moron customer who asked a dumb question.

As an elder millennial, I’ve neither witnessed nor even heard of this “phenomenon.”

I remember when I was 16, some middle aged guy at work accused me of having no personality. In reality, I kept all conversations short as possible with him (like almost everyone in the store) because they were casually racist and misogynistic.

lol sounds like an asshole to work with. I would have handled it the same way.

Only encountered it once maybe two years ago. Was in a part of town I am not often around anymore and dropped in a coffee shop I used to frequent. The staff couldn’t have been much older than 20, all with bare midriffs that I have never seen in food service before (this is kind of a grungy art district spot, but still). Ordered my coffee and asked about their food which used to have some gluten free options, and got a blank stare for maybe 10 seconds.

That’s it. Just once. Not a general stereotype but I’m not exactly well traveled so maybe more regional?