Signs you’re ‘old’ according to Gen Z – from side parts to skinny jeans and laugh-cry emojis

First it was the laugh-cry emoji. You know, the one where the face is smiling with tears coming out of its eyes, (this one: 😂), which is likely among one of your most-used.

Then it was skinny jeans and now, it’s the side parting.

Gen Z have declared skintight denim and asymmetric hair are a sure-fire sign that the wearer is “old” and “out of touch”.

As a life-long side parter, ouch.

Read more: The little things we’re looking forward to post-pandemic

Social media platform TikTok has been the fuel to the fire of most of these so-called “cancellations”.

The side part jibe in particular was spurred on by TikTok user @missladygleep who posted a video stating: “Prove me wrong, but I don’t think there’s a single person who looks better with a side part than they do a middle part.”

Gen Z – those born after 1997 – have largely agreed with @missladygleep, touting the middle parting as the more superior hairstyle of choice. 

Cue millennials desperately trying to appear cool by changing the way they wear their hair.

Gen Z sure do like to “cancel” a lot of things.

Perhaps it all started with the phrase “OK Boomer” – a Gen Z term for criticising anyone over the age of 25, by suggesting they are part of the baby boomer generation (people born from 1946 to 1964, during the post–second world war baby boom), – which began circulating a few years back.

Read more: TikTok’s viral wrap hack now comes in pancake form

While Gen X – the parents of Gen Z – have remained largely unscathed, the younger cohort quickly moved onto their predecessors, Gen Y – a.k.a. Millennials.

Before they began to cancel our emojis, fashion and hairstyles of choice, they started making jabs at millennials for our love of Harry Potter, the way we consider “loving pizza” to be a personality trait and our prolific use of the word “doggo”.

Gen Z have also lamented millennials’ use of the word “adulting”, our devotion to take-out coffee and avocado toast, and the fact that we refer to ourselves as “90s kids”. So, in short, we can’t win.

Story continues

Maybe the reason we are feeling so attacked is because Gen Z has a myriad of social platforms to be able to call us out on.

But it’s not like millennials are innocent in all of this.

Read more: What are gongbang videos? An explainer

With the youngest millennials being around 24 or 25 by now, we have been making fun of Boomers for years for their lack of digital skills, their overuse of emojis and their love of a good Facebook meme. Again, Gen X has remained largely unharmed.

What we do need to remember is that this is (mostly) all in good jest. It’s just one generation poking fun at another. Just don’t cancel our oat milk lattes, winged eyeliner and love of star signs, we beg you.

Watch: William and Kate share student nurse’s TikTok daily diary