The feud of generations: Gen Z vs Millennials

There’s nothing wrong with a little rivalry, right? In case you haven’t opened social media for the last couple of months, let me inform you about the ongoing feud between these two generations. This internet feud started taking place on the platform where all of us get our daily dose of entertainment, TikTok. For the past couple of months, Gen Zers have been bullying Millennials for the older generation’s sartorial choices, hairstyles, and emoji usages. So far, the younger generation has been able to deem skinny jeans, side parts, and the laughing emoji extremely uncool and “cringe”. Some TikTok users are burning their own skinny jeans and banning emojis from their feeds as a whole. But, why is this rivalry even taking place?

Tensions have been high between Gen Z (those born from 1997 to 2012) and Millennials (those born between 1989 to 1996). At the start of this feud, Gen Zers were the ones mocking the older generation, making TikToks joking about them using “adulting” as a noun or being slightly too obsessed with their Hogwarts house. Millennials have started to strike back and stand up for themselves, bullying the younger generation about their slang words (“cap”, “bet”, “simp”, etc.) and for eating Tide Pods. “I'm sorry, But the generation that ate Tide Pods does not get a say in where the part in my hair goes or what pants I wear”, says fellow Millennial, Taylor Rains, on TikTok.

Gen Zers are known to be the current trendsetters of the 2020s. Whatever we say ‘stylish’, goes and becomes a trend. We can perfectly see this with the rise of 90s fashion. 90s fashion has skyrocketed and become one of the main styles of modern celebrities. Bella Hadid rocks the style by wearing low-rise jeans, skinny sunglasses, and the classic Prada nylon shoulder bag. Despite the uproar from Millennials about how Gen Zers chose these trends, this isn’t actually shocking. As we all know it, fashion is cyclical, and many things that were popular 20 years ago are coming back. As a result, the middle part was considered a relic of the late 90s, and many Gen Zers are encouraging users to ditch their side part. Creating even more commotion from the older generation, who are apparently very overprotective of their side parts.

One of the most fascinating things in life is watching someone grow, develop, form opinions, and open their eyes to the modern world. But in some way, both generations struggle to acknowledge the changes in the world and move on from the past. At a time period, Millennials were the ones deeming what was cool or not. And soon enough, Gen Zers will lose this privilege to Generation Alpha. And the cycle continues, and the rivalry will keep growing and growing. This is normal in human nature; humans enjoy the aspect of a friendly rivalry.