This Person's Perfect Demonstration Of "Gen Z Stare" Is Going Super, Super Viral
The "Gen Z stare" is essentially the blank, vacant look that members of Gen Z often give when they're being asked a question.
You've definitely seen it before, and it looks something like this:
This:
Or this:
People in the comments are pointing out that it's like speaking to a "shy toddler."
"The stare looks like they were just born into the world," one person said.
And this person compared it to staring at a "newborn that just woke up."
People in the comments are blaming the expression on Gen Z's inability to do things in real life.
This person said, "They can't communicate without social media."
And this person blamed it on them growing up on iPads.
The overarching question to the whole thing is: "Why are they so SCARED."
Thoughts?
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I've taught college students. The 'Gen Z stare' is real, but I don't blame them.
Doug Weaver, 36, is an artist who, until 2024, taught at several colleges in the St. Louis area as an adjunct professor and, at times, experienced the so-called " Gen Z stare," a phrase that's recently gained traction on social media. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity. At the start of any class, I've always had jitters because you never know what the class dynamics will be. There were a few years where it was hard just to get students to interact with each other, especially for those who were in their junior or senior year of high school when COVID-19 hit. With my students, I would give instructions, and they would just stare at me. Or, we were going to do introductions, and I would be like, "OK, it's your turn to introduce yourself," and they would just stare at me. I'm like, "Am I asking wrong?" After COVID, I did see an increase in the amount that students who just don't engage, and it makes it a lot harder to get the class going. 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And if you won't tell me, if you won't interact with me, then I don't know what your values are or what kind of interaction you want. Why videos feel more comfortable You need students to ask questions when they don't know what to do. Sometimes it's good for them to say, "Hey, I'm a little lost." During COVID, when everything was online, I made video versions of a lot of my in-class demonstrations and lectures. I still made those videos after students came back to class. Yet the in-class demo was better because you can ask questions, and I can talk to you more specifically about what I'm doing. But I would find that, instead of asking questions or asking me to clarify things, I would have students watching the videos during class. I would even have students watch the video of me doing a demonstration while I am doing that same demonstration in class. It's mind-blowing to me, but it almost just felt more comfortable for them to look at that on a screen. 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With colleges and universities, what you pay for is the way the information is presented, and for the interaction that you have with professors and with experts, and to have opportunities to meet people and to just have experiences that you wouldn't be able to have otherwise. A tarnished experience This group of students had a really bad situation because of COVID. For some of them, their high school experience was really tarnished, and, for some, their college experience was tarnished. Their education was lacking, and their social interaction was lacking. Their ability to enter the workforce was affected. It really just negatively impacted every social aspect of their lives. I know how much COVID negatively impacted my mental health, and I am far past my most-formative years. So, there's no way that couldn't have a huge impact on their mental health. There's all this conversation about them staring at you in a social interaction when it's just like, the world failed them. Society failed them in a major way. The larger discussion should be that we need to figure out better ways for all of us to have access to the mental health services that we need, because I don't think we have recovered from COVID.
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