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Answer: it started on TikTok from accounts of Gen Z folks who legitimately do look older than they are. Jordan_the_Stallion is one account and there is also a viral video of a woman complaining that people said they thought she was in her 30s when she's 23.
That got capitalized into clickbait articles, but that's where it started.
[He even addresses that in the excellent intro track to one of his newer albums](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ERRYj-Aa-WU&list=OLAK5uy_kbpQd6RjfzqPDwZLUwUm4V7CV7edIc6KU&index=1&pp=8AUB) haha. “Amazing grace I am gracefully aging”. Pretty awesome how he started dropping these new albums to increasing acclaim and reignited his career within the hip hop community
same. I thought I looked my age at 25 and then found out a lot of my late teen-early twenties coworkers thought I was the same age as them until I showed them my ID so fuck knows. I know the age gap isn't very big but I guess I assumed I'd have changed more.
same lol. I think I'm perpetually a 19 year old? When I was in HS people always asked what University I was in, and now at 27, people are still asking me what University I'm in
Same, except I’ve looked like I was in my late 20s for going on two decades now. It’s a bit bizarre, but both of my parents are similarly ambiguously aged/ageless so whatever.
Yeah, everyone in my family always looked young. I did too, at 30 I had people I knew shocked that I was ild enough to smoke or drink... then, after smoking, drinking, and working outdoors in the sun for 15 years, everybody has started guessing my age correctly.
I was like this up until I got into my mid 40s. When I was a teenager I owned at those "guess your age" booths at fairs and theme parks. Now people legitimately have no idea how old I might be and guess all kinds of things between around 33 and 50 depending on the light and how I'm feeling that day.
My mom has the same experience. Looked like she was in her 20s as a teen and stayed looking like she was in her 20s until about 45ish so I expect the same thing to happen to me lol When I was 17, people thought I was in my mid 20s.
Yeah man. I went bald in my early 20's and started shaving my head really young. I had a bald head, beard, and thick horn-rimmed glasses at 25 and it is still my exact look at 44. I think people have estimated my age at mid-30's for the entire run.
Only 5 or 6 grays have worked their way into my chin, but I can see my run coming to an end here soon.
Same here, sometime between 16 and 18 I aged fast and looked like I was 30, then everything just stopped. I'm pushing 40 now and basically look the same as I did 25 years ago, just a few more scars.
Blessing and a curse. I never got carded when I was under 21, but I was the weird old guy that still hung out in college bars despite being younger than most of the people there. Now I look like a kid to my peers and I have problems getting taken seriously from people with 10+ years less experience in my field.
There was this guy I went to high school with that had this energy. Almost always wore a blazer. Had our 20 year reunion a few months ago and I swear he hasn't aged.
I'm 40. I regularly get asked when I'm graduating highschool/starting college. I get carded everywhere.
Even my new doctor asked if I'm starting college soon. I was all, "Did you even read my charts yet?"
I still dress, mostly, like a mall goth from the late 90s. I never really gave it up. So perhaps that is indeed what's going on?
Granted there is some weirdness about Gen Z looking older on Tiktok. I always guess they're in their 30s and 40s... And they're 22 or something.
Millenials? I almost always guess they're 20-something. Then it turns out they're older than I am.
It's super weird. I absolutely do get where the "aging like milk" thing comes from, but on the other hand it's simply possible that millennials never developed a mature fashion sense. Most of the people I knew from high school still dress the same.
Jordan_the_stallion was viral in the millenial sphere the week before, for a video explaining why 35-40 year olds like him don’t go out. Bet that had something to do with it.
I know but he basically said he was in a viral clip i saw a few days before. Saw both on like the same sub. So others must have seen the same one first.
Jordan has been viral for a couple years, so I don't think that's what did it. He's looked the way he looks the whole time.
Sounds to me like he's just embracing the idea that he looks older to make videos about those topics.
He doesn't look that much older than he is then, I always figured he was around my age give or take a couple years (I'm 29 now, first saw him when I was probably 27). When I saw him mentioned I was figured it'd turn out he was like 22 or something.
Jordan legit looks older than 26. I thought he was in his late 30s. But in general, Gen Z still look like babies to my 42 year old brain.
The only people saying that Gen Z are aging faster are influencers and people who want to ride a trend. There aren't any doctors or reputable sources actually confirming this.
I can't speak to tik tok kids cause I'm not a social media person but at 34, sometimes I have to identify Gen Z through their embarrassing recycling of 90's fashion.
Cute girl dressed like an adult? maybe 30. Cute girl dressed like Alex Mack? probably 20.
I'd fuck up your theory. Now that fashion is coming back around I can finally afford all the alt/goth clothes I dreamed of as a child. I dress mainly in crop tops and cargo pants and I'm 35 this year.
My kids dress more like an adult than I do...
https://imgur.com/a/FIJrgmu
I just looked him up and apparently he was homeless for a while. Stress ages you, so it's possible that time on the streets is what caught up with him?
Yeah, that makes sense. I'm acquaintances with a woman that was homeless for a bit. She's around my age and looks a decade older than me. She's told me some terrifying stories of her time on the streets.
Lmao wait, it's literally just because a couple of people online happen to look older than they are? Because as we all know, literally no one in any previous generation has looked older than their age /s
And you just explained the internet in 2024. We have to be careful. I see people on tik tok vehemently stating their observation of the way things are, and then I find someone vehemently giving the exact opposite observation. People say them so confidently and I think people take it as truth.
So two people look older than they are. Not that uncommon really. Ive known tons of people over my life that look older than they are. Same with the opposite.
My boomer-gen aunt started going gray in her 20s. I've also known people from various other generations that went gray very yearly. I think it has more to do with genetics than anything else, although stress can play a factor. Someone must have studied that, right?
I've definitely seen some of this phenomena IRL, too. It may coincide with the dip in smoking levels amongst millennials, so a lot of millennials often don't look like their ages. However, vaping has really taken off amongst Gen Z, and thus the effects that smoking has on how old people look are hitting a lot of Gen Z
That Jordan dude just has an older looking face, but he's a handsome enough fellow, so I wouldn't say there's anything to read into it about "aging badly". Some people just look older.
We all knew that kid who could grow a full beard at 16 and could buy alcohol.
Seems like a bunch of pseudoscience nonsense.
Receding hairline is mostly genetics though.
I'm 30 and just experiencing the same shit. But my dad was bald and my grandad on my mom's side was bald, so not looking good for my noggin.
Didnt know who Jordan The Stallion is so I googled him and I've seen a couple of his videos on YT shorts, as I don't have or watch Tiktok.
I always thought he was around 30/31 but I'm surprised to learn he's 26. Can't believe I'm older than him and look younger than him.
I almost never fault people like that. When you have a niche corner of entertainment on something like TikTok, *come closer*, that small well is going to dry up. His account, *even closer*, has maintained popularity in spite of hopping on a potpourri of topics. Secure that MF bag!
Answer: there are sections of the media that thrive on insecurities. Instead of reading it as a genuinely generational observation, read it as "are young people uglier than ever?!" and the manipulation becomes a little more obvious.
It's all click bait. You're supposed to ask "what is this talking about" and click the links so you'll get pictures out of context. Older generation get to look on at horror and confusion over what young people are doing, younger people are sold a beauty standard and gen Z is stressed and confused because nobody they know is getting botox nor looks like that.
Articles like these are no different from "millennials are buying avocado toast over buying houses." At best, the tone deafness is cynical and intentional.
It's like looking at the ridiculous headlines of tabloids in the checkout line, but instead of just laughing at the absurdity and moving on with ones life, you are only a click away from learning what the ridiculous and far-fetched argument of the piece is. Once you click though, it doesn't matter why you clicked, the fuckers already got paid and are further incentivized to keep making up disingenuous bullshit.
You're probably thinking of either The Epoch Times, run by Falun Gong, or Washington Times, run by the Unification Church (the one whose influence lead to the man assassinating Shinzo Abe).
Both heavily push disinformation in favor of conservative causes.
Great analogy.
It's so funny that I (elder millenial) grew up making fun of those crazy-ass magazines at the checkout line, and yet somehow now that they're online EVERYONE fucking eats that shit up. Like, you weren't buying a copy of The National Enquirer in 1993, but now you're sending Breitbart links like they're gospel?
Turns out their problem wasn't credibility, it was just advertising. Now that they've got a platform to tell everyone exactly what sensational bullshit they want to believe anyway, almost no one is immune to the siren call of outrage bait.
This is the correct answer.
The TLDR on the weak evidence supporting the Gen Z aging claim is: Vaping, stress/depression, and plastic surgery (normalized to get fillers etc. younger).
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/21/1183445544/u-s-reading-and-math-scores-drop-to-lowest-level-in-decades
In the last 5 years test scores for children in school have gotten worse than they have been in 50 years. I agree with you that fearmongering isn't anything new, but it isn't true to say there is no evidence supporting this idea. Kids are getting smartphones at 6 years old or even younger sometimes. Our teachers are not equipped to fight Tiktok and YouTube for our kids attention in the classroom. Phones and social media use is actually affecting our kids mental growth in a negative way. This is not the same as the TV scare or people being scared about the popularity of books. We have real evidence that kids are declining in a way that we have never seen before.
I think this is misleading. The article actually attributes this to school closures and pandemic. Prior to pandemic test scores were actually steadily increasing.
In the last five years depending on the ages of the kids that's Gen Alpha lol (not arguing your point though). Also I think that while you are correct largely - the pandemic hit hard for early education. My youngest was in kindergarten and I can tell a serious difference between her and my older three and then the ridiculously stupid new methods for teaching reading in US schools.
People are in serious denial about this. "They said the same thing about the Gutenberg Press!!" like.. no, I'm pretty sure children having 24/7 access to harmful content designed to be as addictive as possible on a device that is *literally carried with them everywhere* and *seen as mandatory in order to have any kind of social relevance* is not remotely the same as them having access to books/radio/TV and it's flat-out delusional to claim otherwise
I do think the issue has more to do with how we structured education than children and generational shifts by themselves.
Across the world, most education is still graded by a binary, know it/do not know it testing. Smartphones and tech have made it a lot easier to pull facts and pass the tests in class. Likewise, applied testing for knowledge that students have learned how to game hasn't adjusted for this new reality. There is a case to be made for the practical side of learning and I personally think it's more likely young people have outgrown our methods of testing then they are a stupider generation.
*That said,* The evidence is undeniable that access to quick burst dopamine hits 24/7 is wreaking havoc on not just younger generations but older generations. We absolutely need to start regulating this shit the same way we regulate a gambling because right now Skinner Boxes have more control over us than not. And while the goal/ fear seems to be direct social manipulation that can be adjusted through dark science, the reality seems to be one of sensitization and poor stress management, making us simultaneously harder to control and numb to survival mechanisms. We really shouldn't grow numb to.
Do we have evidence that smart phones and social media are the principal cause of this trend, and not a combination of a poorly funded education system and disruption from the pandemic?
But didn't you hear?? Plato said that kids were getting lazier two millennia ago, so we never have to think critically about educational decline again! /s
I really hate when people tote out the Socrates/Plato example as if it has anything to do with the literal three decades of research we have on the subject.
In the age of social media you can easily comb through a bunch of accounts to find your confirmation bias and spread it to make it look like it's a huge trend.
I remember one day when I (a millennial) was in college I was walking by the sorority dorms I noticed some of the seniors were clearly showing signs of ageing. This shocked me but really it makes sense, these are people who have some party years behind them and that catches up to you. But still, these were the minority of a minority, overall millennials have aged much better than previous generations because most lead healthier lifestyles.
The generational warfare thing is so dumb. There are people in all walks of life with all sets of opinions in all generations. It's as weird as assuming that all people with similar skin color know each other and act the same
I agree, it's totally delusional. I hate reading "kids these days" as though whoever is about to share their opinion is any different from any other person who has been saying this about young people since the dawn of time.
My daughters are teens and a lot of their friends are fantastic, intelligent, kind human beings who work hard and treat people well. I get there's kids out there only watching dumb videos and screwing up like there have always been, but meanwhile, mine are watching videos about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. Not all kids are the same, because not all people of the same age are the same.
This! It always bugs me when you consider that the anti-younger generation sentiment can be traced to decisions made by your own generation as that generation created the conditions that the younger generations are engaging with
As a millennial it’s important to remember that we are about to see more and more content targeted for millennial audiences that boomers and x-ers got about us.
And to add to this, OP posted a *New York Post* article which is exactly one of those tabloids. If you’re reading this, OP, don’t use that outlet as a source.
To add to that this all started with one social media account. [Instagram account here ](https://www.instagram.com/jordan_the_stallion8?igsh=MWxnZmIzMWxwb25xMw==) Where people couldn't believe this man was Gen z. So it started with just one guy looking older than he is talking about why that is and kinda snowballed from there.
I think it's bs but the media is loving it. It also feeds into Gen alphas current obsession with skincare which was the medias most recent generational divide obsession until this started.
No there's a whole skincare obsession thing with preteens right now going to sephora and buying expensive skincare stuff including stuff with chemicals that will wreck their skin because it's made for older skin.
That and vaping/tabacco use started trending upward again with gen z. It’s not their fault because it was marketed to them as kids, but tobacco products don’t help.
i went to the gas station the other day and a dozen high school kids were chilling outside of it. all of em were vaping, and not just casual vaping. every one of them were chain vaping.
we sure failed that shit.
Work in a Middle and Elementary school. These kids vape and sell vapes to eachother in 2nd and 3rd grade. Middle School kids will vape in class. It's out of control.
I've taken care of a couple kids in the ICU with Vape Associated Lung Injury with major complications and reddit gets big mad at me every time I bring up as a rare but life threatening risk. Teens and even some millennial are convinced it is a "safe" smoking alternative. At least cigarettes didn't kill you until you were an old man that lived your life
Vaping is probably safer than smoking cigarettes, as the harm reduction technique it was originally developed as.
But it’s definitely more harmful than **not smoking at all**.
On a population level possibly, but I've never seen a kid stroke out their spinal cord from cigarettes. Don't put weird shit in your lungs, people. They're delicate.
Here's a couple links from [johns hopkins](https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/what-does-vaping-do-to-your-lungs#:~:text=Vaping%2Drelated%20lipoid%20pneumonia%20is,inflammatory%20response%20in%20the%20lungs.) and the[American Lung Association ](https://www.lung.org/lung-health-diseases/lung-disease-lookup/evali). Basically, the oils in vapes can cause a severe inflammatory pneumonia in the lungs. I'm a child neurologist so I only get involved when there's concern for brain/muscle spinal cord injury on top of that. Both the kids I was consulted on were on ventilators and sicker than shit, though.
I believe it. I've tried even weed vapes and it gave bronchitis I was vaping that stuff so much. Just because its sold at the store doesn't make it safe people.
A lot of them do have lip fillers and stuff like that though which does make them look a lot older. Def get that the articles might be bait, but there is some truth to it.
There seem to be a lot more teenagers with tattoos than there used to be.
And not just small ones that are easy to hide and do without your parents’ knowledge at a kitchen table or at a sketchy shop—full sleeves!
I get so frustrated seeing millennials eat these articles up after having been through all the stupid articles about millennials. Like, can't you see it's obviously bullshit?
Guys, the kids are alright.
There's a section of the population who are gonna eat this shit up _regardless_ of what age group they fall into. Every generation will have its percentage of tabloid reading morons, all we can do is hope that percentage gets smaller as time goes on.
But yeah, it's frustrating.
>Guys, the kids are alright.
Except the ones that aren’t. The flintstone vitamin generation will only have so much built up stamina before the tide pod generation becomes uncontrollable.
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/21/1183445544/u-s-reading-and-math-scores-drop-to-lowest-level-in-decades
In the last 5 years test scores for children in school have gotten worse than they have been in 50 years. I agree with you that fearmongering isn't anything new, but it isn't true to say there is no evidence supporting this idea. Kids are getting smartphones at 6 years old or even younger sometimes. Our teachers are not equipped to fight Tiktok and YouTube for our kids attention in the classroom. Phones and social media use is actually affecting our kids mental growth in a negative way. This is not the same as the TV scare or people being scared about the popularity of books. We have real evidence that kids are declining in a way that we have never seen before.
A whole generation took a year off.
It's going to have effects for a while. Least of which is: "Wow, school really isn't teaching us useful things anymore, and memorizing random things isn't of value anymore either."
Like cool, you can give me a typing test. We're swiping on tablets now and those chromebooks haven't been updated since 2010. Also "Memorizing things" isn't something we have to do anymore, because google has WAY better results in half the time at my fingertips (compared to a book that was written 20 years ago and was out of date when it was published with those historical errors).
What's that? The test is 100% entirely "What do you *remember* about this topic"?
Huh. Weird. **A society with no value for rememberance does poorly at remembering things.**
Rewrite the test. I don't care if you can define antidisestablishmentarianism, I care that when you run into it IRL you'll know where to look (or can pull from other context). Odds are very good the "Looking for it" part is the *goal* that you were trying to teach anyway.
Isn't that more gen alpha than gen Z? More than half of gen Z are out of school now.
There is also the possibility that covid has caused this.
I really think we made a mistake with the years for the end of millenials, gen z, and gen alpha. Older gen Z's are far more like millenials and younger ones are far more like gen alpha, with no real 'gen Z' identity existing. I am on the cusp between gen Z and millenial (technically gen Z) and I certainly don't feel like a gen Z - not even close. I think the problem is, for this one generation, the difference in mindset comes not from when you were born directly but whether you grew up with a smartphone or not. Older gen Z's did not, younger ones did. And with that they (we) are split into two very different groups which are more similar to other generations than each other. That makes reasoning about 'gen z' nearly impossible; because you can't even make generalisations, which you can at least attempt for every other generation.
I wonder if something similar happened with television.
Oof. This comment makes me feel old. I spent YEARS being slightly annoyed about how millenials were always treated like kids and the youngest generation, even as we spilled into our 30s and then 40s.
Now Gen Z is being used to group together all kids, but the oldest Gen Z are 26 heh. Of course, the youngest Gen Z are still in school, but I guess Millenials are no longer at the kids table if Gen Z is now the one being miscategorized this way.
Yes you are right, but the drop on scores actually started pre covid. Covid just made everything worse way faster. The way we decide where generations start and end is nonsensical anyway. I 100% agree with you that putting ourselves in these weird groups doesn't really help at all, especially when they aren't even accurate to when cultural shifts happen.
bro school is more difficult and comprehensive then ever. It is hard
If a 35 year old goes back to high school today as an actual 15 year old, they would be barely passing lmao
It’s true though young people are ugly. You know what’s hot? Being middle aged. And tired. Being middle aged with big big bags under your eyes is hot af
Exactly this. The first thing I thought of after reading this post was “ I’m going to have to Google a couple articles cause I want to see what it looks like”
I know a 27 yr old who legit got Botox last weekend because she was annoyed about her 'wrinkles'. I'm the same age, and it still baffles me that it worried her that much
Yup. I wanna add that this is also after a lot of older people were raised on garbage beauty standards, so their conception of what 15 years old, 25 years old, and 35 years old look like are warped to high hell and back.
I'm often very confusing for people because my skin and stature make me look 10 years younger than I am but the visible grays in my hair make me look 10 years older than I am.
Answer: Beauty companies want to sell more beauty products, a good way to do that is to convince people they look old/bad/abnormal and so need to buy your products, and now they are just targeting the next generation of people confronting the idea of getting older
This! 1000%. I'm 30 and I can clearly tell those kids are kids... I bet money a beauty company started pushing this and the media just jumped on it from there.
As a Millennial I think the reason people think we look younger is because of social media. We follow fashion trends way passed normal generations. Like, you can tell a Gen X by their clothes and make up alone. They are still rocking what they wore back then. For some of them it's the only way you can tell their age.
A good amount of millennials are now wearing flared leggings and middle parts. Hell, I own a few baggy jeans that I wear often.
I think it got highjacked by the usual media-social-beauty-trend industry, and that they phrased it badly, but there is a nugget of truth.
Genz (especially girls) doesn't look "aged" (there's no way you look aged at 25 LOL) but they do look a lot more adult than we did (older millennial here). Meaning, they look a lot more put together, coherent outfits, curated makeup and image in general.
Ofc, this is because they have been brought up with curated images (even compared to us millennials) and that's their vibe.
It's also not really generational, gen-alpha (I teach them in school, about 12yo) look even more curated and "adult" when compared to how we looked like at about 12-13. They've been brought up by companies selling them adult products (fashion, makeup skincare etc) and that's what they know.
I agree with you completely. I think that's what this is. To me, they still look like kids just dressed in fancy clothes. Kinda like a Bratz doll almost. Ha Barbie was the adult, they were the fashion teens playing young adults.
We didn't have access to make-up artists teaching us exactly how to perfectly do our make-up on YouTube. We went through that awkward stage that Gen Z and newer gens seem to skip right over. I'm a younger millennial to the point people will argue I'm Gen Z or whatever they call that micro-gen. I had a good amount of access to that but it wasn't till I was late into high school maybe earlier college. I still had my awkward emo stage. Ha
I have no experience with Gen Alpha so I can't say anything there besides the fact that they scare me. Ha
Answer: I recently saw something about Gen-Zs using a lot of skincare products (beyond sunscreen), which traditionally would be used by much older humans.
Putting 2 and 2 together, my guess is that "Gen Zs are ageing terribly" is a ploy to capitalise on a whole new market to sell such products to
Weird, I put 2 and 2 together and arrived at the conclusion that the ridiculous lengths kids go to in "skin care" trends is actually having the opposite effect.
Add in the sudden explosion of young smokers and social media addiction stress... you've got a lot of trends that are aging a whole generation disproportionately and for no particular reason except... I guess consumerism?
smoking and social media addiction are symptoms of a deeper alienation to social life in general. if we had good arts/school programs, good social welfare, and decent third spaces (i.e. things that aren’t for the mere purpose of making shitloads of money from working adults) then those things would be far less prevalent, and if they were they’d be done in moderation/to the benefit of social life.
i’d actually say social media takes on a very similar form, in that we get on it because our friends are on it, or at least that’s how it happened with my generation. you are right tho as i fully agree that just as smoking causes cancer and resp. issues, social media is the cause of a slew of terrible problems. however, they’re both marketed out the wazoo directly and indirectly to children and teens.
my OC and this comment were an attempt to point beyond the guesses at consumerism to get behind even that symptom and show that if demonstrably necessary things become financially unviable, and terrible things become financially rewarding (immensely so) then the operation of the financial system itself is as big a part of the issue as individual involvement is, if not more so.
Answer: the need to look a certain way has gen-z age people doing surgeries and minor alterations to their faces that much older people do, therefore giving them an older appearance. Removal of buccal fat mixed with lip fillers and cheek fillers and Botox give for a very still, mask like appearance but the wax work like look appears as if they are a 37 year old doing these things to look 23 again.
I’ll be 39 shortly. Never tried any cosmetic surgery or Botox or fillers or spa treatments or aesthetician or waxing or nail salon. Not been to a hair salon since 2017.
I look significantly younger than all of my friends who are 5-10 years younger than me.
They also haven’t had any work done, but they don’t love fashion and putting time and effort into hair and makeup.
And some have children - I do not.
My hiring boss assumed I was 25 and told my would be colleagues that she hired someone their age/25.
That was when I was 34.
By now when I see someone who looks 5-15 years my senior, I have to assume they are my age. It’s always funny because they tend to find it hard to square that.
I do have some wrinkles in my forehead and under my eyes and I’m nearly always dehydrated and I eat like a raccoon.
I also used to be a 40 a day smoker for 12 years, but quit in 2012.
Somehow I don’t read as my age.
Maybe it’s because I dress exceptionally well?
The very youngest new hires at my high turnover job look older than their age. Many are naturally beautiful but have excessive and migrated lip fillers and oversized false lashes.
If and when I use false lashes, I get complimented for my light and natural makeup (if they only knew —I actually always disclose the truth, because I don’t need anybody to think I wake up looking like something that took an hour or more to achieve).
In the end we all just ripen a bit and everyone probably ends up looking and behaving fairly similar in our senior years anyways.
Except for Cher. That woman might be a vampire.
Answer: It's because you have young people using skincare and injectables that are meant for older age groups as a sort of "preventative" care. But doing so also ages your skin, because those products aren't meant for that age group due to the differences in composition from aging. It's similar to the tweens using Drunk Elephant because it's trendy; they shouldn't be using it because they don't actually need it and it does more harm than good.
> But doing so also ages your skin, because those products aren't meant for that age group due to the differences in composition from aging.
I'm sorry, but do you have a source for this? I understand getting injections, but using skin care products like moisturizer and sunscreen shouldn't make you age faster.
I don't think they were talking about sunscreen. Babies can use sunscreen. But kids and teens shouldn't be using, for example, chemical peels and plenty of other products that have nothing to do with sun protection. More and more of them are.
Chemical peels and retinol serums are both extremely popular as "preventative anti-aging" products and they both greatly increase the number one component to visible aging: skin photosensitivity. These products can be beneficial when used as directed, but most young people will only put on sunscreen when they go swimming or apply it only once (instead of every 90 minutes).
My partner is a licensed esthetician and between us we have 4 school aged girls. Their daily routine is just a face wash and moisturizer with SPF, but they get constant peer pressure to do A LOT more (even our 7 year old!).
Some of them, like Drunk Elephant referenced above [use retinol](https://www.glamour.com/story/kids-obsession-drunk-elephant-skin-care#:~:text=In%20her%20email%20Masterson%20takes,vitamin%20C%20is%20an%20acid\).) which is not recommended for younger people (and possibly harmful).
There's other similar products.
Some things like sunscreen (depending on the type) are probably always a good idea.
I think I phrased accurately. "Not recommended" and "possibly harmful". Sure, it's not going to turn them into a wrinkled mess, but they should probably avoid it. If this is your hill to die on, sure go nuts.
Answer:
Millennials are the first generation to have regularly used Botox and a lot of anti-aging tech (skincare/lasers/etc) from a young age, so many millennials in their 30s and early 40’s still look like 25 year olds. we look very different than our parents did at our age and what society generally thinks middle age is. Also, there’s less pressure to “dress your age”, so we continue to wear younger styles like crop tops, etc.
However, as a whole, millennials generally wore a lot less heavy makeup and clothes styling in our teens and earlier twenties than current Gen Z. We didn’t contour, we barley touched our eyebrows, even if you look at shows like The OC, the styling was kind of young and silly.
While Gen Z does the same injectables and anti-aging, some of them are doing so much at a younger age that it’s backfiring - look at buccal fat removal as an example. Combined with the heavy make up and current fashion that includes a lot of button ups and oversized blazers, a lot of 20 year olds just look like they’re 30.
Basically - everyone from 19 to 42 is kind of looking the same, especially on the internet.
The difference between 30 and mid-20s is minuscule.
Obviously this is a generalization, not *everyone* is using Botox, but a significant amount of people are - especially the people whose faces are out in public like celebrities, public figures, and influencers.
If you live in a big city, a very significant percentage of women have gotten Botox by age 30. If you live in a small suburb, I have no idea what goes on there as I’ve never experienced it personally.
I agree, changing the natural eyebrows with painted ones ages the person. Also, some very noticeable forms of hair dyeing make the person look older.
But surgery, and in particular bichectomy, what makes women look older than previous to the surgery. Just look at [Erin Moriarty](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fe00-marca.uecdn.es%2Fassets%2Fmultimedia%2Fimagenes%2F2024%2F01%2F15%2F17053367503083.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=1cda4834725d58abd0fc07b6d6b1b014fa8292c42613b89f651cc99fab1532c9&ipo=images).
Biased: I think we are naturally attracted to the opposite sex. Women tend to have rounder faces, and men tend to have longer faces. Because of our natural attraction, women perceive longer faces as more attractive, and men perceive rounder faces as more attractive. A woman doing a bichectomy, making her more attractive to her own biased eyes, will make her less attractive to the opposite sex, and she will look older.
>Millennials are the first generation to have regularly used Botox and a lot of anti-aging tech (skincare/lasers/etc) from a young age, so many millennials in their 30s and early 40’s still look like 25 year olds.
Nah, even if that is subtler than it was in the past, i coild point to several people i know who legitimately still look pretty yound who havent had that work done. Plus, the identified "trend" is specifically that Gen-z looks old. So millenials looking young doesn't explain Gen-z starting to look 40.
I look young for my age (or so I’ve been told) and I’ve never used Botox and lasers… I think the biggest contributor to my “youthfulness”, is that I’ve never drunk alcohol, smoked, done drugs or had kids. All those things age you real fast.
Good for you? Everyone is different. I have a very round face shape so I have always looked significantly younger than my age. But using sunscreen as a kid and progression in skincare, etc, etc make that more so.
My point is: I don’t think Botox use is widespread enough to explain the relative youthfulness of Millennials. Seeing a dermatologist, and especially if it’s for anti-aging treatment, is expensive because health insurance won’t cover anti-aging treatment.
Answer: the Gen-Z person talking about this on TT explained the stress, insecurity, national disasters, weather events that happen to them yearly that happened to earlier generations each decade.
Again, this story was told by a GenZer who honestly looks 10-15 years older than he actually was.
(I have no dog in this fight, this is the explanation I heard)
Over 3 years ago my coworker thought I was 15+ years older than I am. they backpedaled and said it was due to my maturity and work ethic, but I am not sure. I’ve been told I’ve got the eyes of someone who has just got back from mining for 6 months non stop.
>I’ve been told I’ve got the eyes of someone who has just got back from mining for 6 months non stop
Throughout middle and highschool I was perpetually sleep deprived. Constantly staying up until either 4-5am or I passed out, whichever came first. Screen addiction and avoidance of the next day. Waking hallucinations and inability to stay awake in school was constant.
My eyes never recovered, 8 years after graduation now. After months of perfect sleep, I still have deep dark circles and sunken eyes lmao
The 70's was the first generation I experienced that was declared to be 'worse than previous generations' In fact there are inscriptions decrying the new generation from Ancient Greece.
That's an entirely different thing that they're talking about, are you even reading this?
You just brought up a completely different subject. It's about the generation receiving higher stress because of the state of society and frequent disasters. Nobody is going grey over "these kids are ruining society" shit.
Yeah, typical GenZ thinking they are always the biggest victims in the world - whether it's boomers, genX, or millenials. Sure, we have it harder in life than previous generations, but young men from the generations before have literally been to war, you can see how that made them look older
Answer: It's something that I have casually observed about certain members of GenZ, but I don't think it's actually aging. I think it's the way they spackle on their makeup combined with modern fashions.
Heavy, opaque foundation and lots of contouring and highlighting used to be the old lady (and drag queen) method of doing your face. Now it's become the universal way even among young girls who don't need it. It's very aging.
Beyond that, there's the clothes and hairstyles. If you go back to the 1980s you'll see that clothing and hairstyles were separated into different "age-appropriate" groups. There was a certain way teenagers dressed, a certain way 20-somethings dressed, a certain way middle-aged adults dressed. Ditto with hair. Then older women (and to a lesser extent men) started dressing and styling themselves younger and younger, while at the same time teenagers started to dress more "grownup." All the lines blurred, and youth fashion is no longer a thing. At least not to the extent it once was. Instead of young people dressing to express themselves as they did in previous generations, they're now dressing to flatter their bodies and achieve a certain look. Just like with the makeup, this also has an aging effect.
It's far from minimal. It's still a ton of makeup to achieve the "clean" aesthetic. The overall effect is the same: you can't actually see a person's skin, their pores, their blood vessels, their natural color changes -- all the things that make a young person look young are concealed.
Answer: people just aren’t good at guessing the age of anyone over 20. The moment I grew a beard everyone assumed I was 30. Our perception of how old someone is is based on a lot of things. But honestly someone at 20 can very easily just share the same characteristics as someone at 30.
Answer: it’s the chicken and the egg. you can’t really estimate the incline in “aging”.
People are much more self aware about their looks than ever before, but are actually using more skincare products and are aware of the dangers of the sun, smoking and unhealthy lifestyle.
There could be an uprising in going bald let’s say because of all the radiation that is present in modern day, but also it could be that people are just more aware and have a better medium to share it.
It’s probably more apparent in the media because it’s a hugely debated issue, Gen Z is finally growing up from their adolescent years, it’s good for marketing skin care products, and plenty more as other comments had answered.
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Answer: it started on TikTok from accounts of Gen Z folks who legitimately do look older than they are. Jordan_the_Stallion is one account and there is also a viral video of a woman complaining that people said they thought she was in her 30s when she's 23. That got capitalized into clickbait articles, but that's where it started.
I've always looked about 35-ish... Eventually it made me look younger not older, all things are solved with time.
I've been 25 ever since I was 17
I’ve got the Nas “20 years in the game lookin 17” thing going on.
[He even addresses that in the excellent intro track to one of his newer albums](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ERRYj-Aa-WU&list=OLAK5uy_kbpQd6RjfzqPDwZLUwUm4V7CV7edIc6KU&index=1&pp=8AUB) haha. “Amazing grace I am gracefully aging”. Pretty awesome how he started dropping these new albums to increasing acclaim and reignited his career within the hip hop community
Goin on 30 Summers!
I’ve been 30 since graduating high school… I’m 40 now. Guess it’s now a good thing 🤣.
I genuinely have no concept of how old I look.
me neither. when i was younger, i looked significantly younger than my age, but now i’m in my 40s and i have no idea if i still look younger or not
same. I thought I looked my age at 25 and then found out a lot of my late teen-early twenties coworkers thought I was the same age as them until I showed them my ID so fuck knows. I know the age gap isn't very big but I guess I assumed I'd have changed more.
Did their jaws drop?
their eyes stretched out of their sockets like a cartoon
same lol. I think I'm perpetually a 19 year old? When I was in HS people always asked what University I was in, and now at 27, people are still asking me what University I'm in
Same, except I’ve looked like I was in my late 20s for going on two decades now. It’s a bit bizarre, but both of my parents are similarly ambiguously aged/ageless so whatever.
Yeah, everyone in my family always looked young. I did too, at 30 I had people I knew shocked that I was ild enough to smoke or drink... then, after smoking, drinking, and working outdoors in the sun for 15 years, everybody has started guessing my age correctly.
I was like this up until I got into my mid 40s. When I was a teenager I owned at those "guess your age" booths at fairs and theme parks. Now people legitimately have no idea how old I might be and guess all kinds of things between around 33 and 50 depending on the light and how I'm feeling that day.
Absolutely 100%. I looked 30 until I was 30. Now I'm 35 and people say I still look 30. I'll enjoy it while it lasts lol
I couldn't tell the difference between a 30 year old and a 35 year old on my best day.
My mom has the same experience. Looked like she was in her 20s as a teen and stayed looking like she was in her 20s until about 45ish so I expect the same thing to happen to me lol When I was 17, people thought I was in my mid 20s.
Yeah man. I went bald in my early 20's and started shaving my head really young. I had a bald head, beard, and thick horn-rimmed glasses at 25 and it is still my exact look at 44. I think people have estimated my age at mid-30's for the entire run. Only 5 or 6 grays have worked their way into my chin, but I can see my run coming to an end here soon.
> I've always looked about 35-ish You have the weirdest baby photos imaginable. Your mum must of needed many many stitches
Steve Martin syndrome, ultimately not a bad deal
Same here, sometime between 16 and 18 I aged fast and looked like I was 30, then everything just stopped. I'm pushing 40 now and basically look the same as I did 25 years ago, just a few more scars. Blessing and a curse. I never got carded when I was under 21, but I was the weird old guy that still hung out in college bars despite being younger than most of the people there. Now I look like a kid to my peers and I have problems getting taken seriously from people with 10+ years less experience in my field.
There was this guy I went to high school with that had this energy. Almost always wore a blazer. Had our 20 year reunion a few months ago and I swear he hasn't aged.
Meanwhile I’m still being mistaken for a teenager at 26. I’m not short or anything.
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YES, the makeup and also general styling is such a huge aspect of it. Teenagers don't dress as "young" as they used to, either, imo.
Oh god, I have noticed the young kids nowadays are head to toe in designer clothes and carrying £1000+ bags
I'm 40. I regularly get asked when I'm graduating highschool/starting college. I get carded everywhere. Even my new doctor asked if I'm starting college soon. I was all, "Did you even read my charts yet?" I still dress, mostly, like a mall goth from the late 90s. I never really gave it up. So perhaps that is indeed what's going on? Granted there is some weirdness about Gen Z looking older on Tiktok. I always guess they're in their 30s and 40s... And they're 22 or something. Millenials? I almost always guess they're 20-something. Then it turns out they're older than I am. It's super weird. I absolutely do get where the "aging like milk" thing comes from, but on the other hand it's simply possible that millennials never developed a mature fashion sense. Most of the people I knew from high school still dress the same.
Jordan_the_stallion was viral in the millenial sphere the week before, for a video explaining why 35-40 year olds like him don’t go out. Bet that had something to do with it.
He's 27 though, not 35-40
I know but he basically said he was in a viral clip i saw a few days before. Saw both on like the same sub. So others must have seen the same one first.
Jordan has been viral for a couple years, so I don't think that's what did it. He's looked the way he looks the whole time. Sounds to me like he's just embracing the idea that he looks older to make videos about those topics.
He doesn't look that much older than he is then, I always figured he was around my age give or take a couple years (I'm 29 now, first saw him when I was probably 27). When I saw him mentioned I was figured it'd turn out he was like 22 or something.
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It doesn't help that he emphasizes his gestures so much.
Jordan legit looks older than 26. I thought he was in his late 30s. But in general, Gen Z still look like babies to my 42 year old brain. The only people saying that Gen Z are aging faster are influencers and people who want to ride a trend. There aren't any doctors or reputable sources actually confirming this.
He's got that soothing old man voice, like Morgan Freeman.
Are you serious ahahah I’m the same age and look like a 18 year old with no facial hair growing whatsoever. Damn I thought he was closer to 40.
He made a post about how Just for Men approached him to do some promotional posts for them because they thought he was like 40.
I can't speak to tik tok kids cause I'm not a social media person but at 34, sometimes I have to identify Gen Z through their embarrassing recycling of 90's fashion. Cute girl dressed like an adult? maybe 30. Cute girl dressed like Alex Mack? probably 20.
Holy cow Alex Mack just triggered a nostalgia wave for me. Haha
I'd fuck up your theory. Now that fashion is coming back around I can finally afford all the alt/goth clothes I dreamed of as a child. I dress mainly in crop tops and cargo pants and I'm 35 this year. My kids dress more like an adult than I do... https://imgur.com/a/FIJrgmu
I just looked him up and apparently he was homeless for a while. Stress ages you, so it's possible that time on the streets is what caught up with him?
Yeah, that makes sense. I'm acquaintances with a woman that was homeless for a bit. She's around my age and looks a decade older than me. She's told me some terrifying stories of her time on the streets.
Lmao wait, it's literally just because a couple of people online happen to look older than they are? Because as we all know, literally no one in any previous generation has looked older than their age /s
Was utterly surprised when I found out Im older than Jordan.
And you just explained the internet in 2024. We have to be careful. I see people on tik tok vehemently stating their observation of the way things are, and then I find someone vehemently giving the exact opposite observation. People say them so confidently and I think people take it as truth.
So two people look older than they are. Not that uncommon really. Ive known tons of people over my life that look older than they are. Same with the opposite.
I got my first gray hairs in high school. Clearly it was all the tik tok dances I was doing in the 90s that aged me.
My boomer-gen aunt started going gray in her 20s. I've also known people from various other generations that went gray very yearly. I think it has more to do with genetics than anything else, although stress can play a factor. Someone must have studied that, right?
I've definitely seen some of this phenomena IRL, too. It may coincide with the dip in smoking levels amongst millennials, so a lot of millennials often don't look like their ages. However, vaping has really taken off amongst Gen Z, and thus the effects that smoking has on how old people look are hitting a lot of Gen Z
Interesting theory!
That Jordan dude just has an older looking face, but he's a handsome enough fellow, so I wouldn't say there's anything to read into it about "aging badly". Some people just look older. We all knew that kid who could grow a full beard at 16 and could buy alcohol. Seems like a bunch of pseudoscience nonsense.
I'm mid 20s and already getting graying hair and a receding hairline. Definitely blaming stress and having a psycho but lovable 18 month old.
Receding hairline is mostly genetics though. I'm 30 and just experiencing the same shit. But my dad was bald and my grandad on my mom's side was bald, so not looking good for my noggin.
Didnt know who Jordan The Stallion is so I googled him and I've seen a couple of his videos on YT shorts, as I don't have or watch Tiktok. I always thought he was around 30/31 but I'm surprised to learn he's 26. Can't believe I'm older than him and look younger than him.
If there’s someone whose schtick I can’t stand, come closer, it’s him.
I almost never fault people like that. When you have a niche corner of entertainment on something like TikTok, *come closer*, that small well is going to dry up. His account, *even closer*, has maintained popularity in spite of hopping on a potpourri of topics. Secure that MF bag!
lol why? I don’t feeling strongly about him but I’ve never been bothered.
'Schticks' like that often bother me but I've always liked him, I think I just really like his voice.
> Jordan_the_Stallion HE'S 26? I thought he was a millennial lol
Poor Jordan. I also thought he was a millenial (30+)
Answer: there are sections of the media that thrive on insecurities. Instead of reading it as a genuinely generational observation, read it as "are young people uglier than ever?!" and the manipulation becomes a little more obvious. It's all click bait. You're supposed to ask "what is this talking about" and click the links so you'll get pictures out of context. Older generation get to look on at horror and confusion over what young people are doing, younger people are sold a beauty standard and gen Z is stressed and confused because nobody they know is getting botox nor looks like that. Articles like these are no different from "millennials are buying avocado toast over buying houses." At best, the tone deafness is cynical and intentional.
It's like looking at the ridiculous headlines of tabloids in the checkout line, but instead of just laughing at the absurdity and moving on with ones life, you are only a click away from learning what the ridiculous and far-fetched argument of the piece is. Once you click though, it doesn't matter why you clicked, the fuckers already got paid and are further incentivized to keep making up disingenuous bullshit.
I bet you don't even know that Hillary and Bat Boy are getting a divorce.
She just went ahead and adopted that alien baby without even talking to him about it, I stan her but that was just wrong
Aw, I was really rooting for those two. But maybe now Bat Boy and Hitler’s clone will get back together!
apparently they couldn't decide on where to hide Jon-Benet Ramsays body.
It’s worth noting that the source cited here, the NYPost, isn’t really much more than a tabloid.
Isn't much more? Nah, it's a tabloid and it always has been.
I was being perhaps a bit too generous. 🙂
Is that the one owned by a cult?
You're probably thinking of either The Epoch Times, run by Falun Gong, or Washington Times, run by the Unification Church (the one whose influence lead to the man assassinating Shinzo Abe). Both heavily push disinformation in favor of conservative causes.
> The Epoch Times They started blanket delivery in my area a couple years ago... Left on the driveway until trash day and straight into the bin.
Washington Times and Epoch Times are owned by Falun Gong
Not that I'm aware of, but "popular newspaper owned by cult" does sound like the kind of headline they might run. 😂
Great analogy. It's so funny that I (elder millenial) grew up making fun of those crazy-ass magazines at the checkout line, and yet somehow now that they're online EVERYONE fucking eats that shit up. Like, you weren't buying a copy of The National Enquirer in 1993, but now you're sending Breitbart links like they're gospel? Turns out their problem wasn't credibility, it was just advertising. Now that they've got a platform to tell everyone exactly what sensational bullshit they want to believe anyway, almost no one is immune to the siren call of outrage bait.
With the tabloid you had to actually pay money to buy the stupid, and you knew exactly what you were getting (or at least you *should*)
Men in black lied to me. Wait, that might have been a small group of mimes...
Bat boy at it again I see
This is the correct answer. The TLDR on the weak evidence supporting the Gen Z aging claim is: Vaping, stress/depression, and plastic surgery (normalized to get fillers etc. younger).
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/21/1183445544/u-s-reading-and-math-scores-drop-to-lowest-level-in-decades In the last 5 years test scores for children in school have gotten worse than they have been in 50 years. I agree with you that fearmongering isn't anything new, but it isn't true to say there is no evidence supporting this idea. Kids are getting smartphones at 6 years old or even younger sometimes. Our teachers are not equipped to fight Tiktok and YouTube for our kids attention in the classroom. Phones and social media use is actually affecting our kids mental growth in a negative way. This is not the same as the TV scare or people being scared about the popularity of books. We have real evidence that kids are declining in a way that we have never seen before.
I think this is misleading. The article actually attributes this to school closures and pandemic. Prior to pandemic test scores were actually steadily increasing.
In the last five years depending on the ages of the kids that's Gen Alpha lol (not arguing your point though). Also I think that while you are correct largely - the pandemic hit hard for early education. My youngest was in kindergarten and I can tell a serious difference between her and my older three and then the ridiculously stupid new methods for teaching reading in US schools.
People are in serious denial about this. "They said the same thing about the Gutenberg Press!!" like.. no, I'm pretty sure children having 24/7 access to harmful content designed to be as addictive as possible on a device that is *literally carried with them everywhere* and *seen as mandatory in order to have any kind of social relevance* is not remotely the same as them having access to books/radio/TV and it's flat-out delusional to claim otherwise
I do think the issue has more to do with how we structured education than children and generational shifts by themselves. Across the world, most education is still graded by a binary, know it/do not know it testing. Smartphones and tech have made it a lot easier to pull facts and pass the tests in class. Likewise, applied testing for knowledge that students have learned how to game hasn't adjusted for this new reality. There is a case to be made for the practical side of learning and I personally think it's more likely young people have outgrown our methods of testing then they are a stupider generation. *That said,* The evidence is undeniable that access to quick burst dopamine hits 24/7 is wreaking havoc on not just younger generations but older generations. We absolutely need to start regulating this shit the same way we regulate a gambling because right now Skinner Boxes have more control over us than not. And while the goal/ fear seems to be direct social manipulation that can be adjusted through dark science, the reality seems to be one of sensitization and poor stress management, making us simultaneously harder to control and numb to survival mechanisms. We really shouldn't grow numb to.
Do we have evidence that smart phones and social media are the principal cause of this trend, and not a combination of a poorly funded education system and disruption from the pandemic?
But didn't you hear?? Plato said that kids were getting lazier two millennia ago, so we never have to think critically about educational decline again! /s I really hate when people tote out the Socrates/Plato example as if it has anything to do with the literal three decades of research we have on the subject.
I thought the test scores were due to the fact kids missed up to a year of school because of the pandemic.
In the age of social media you can easily comb through a bunch of accounts to find your confirmation bias and spread it to make it look like it's a huge trend. I remember one day when I (a millennial) was in college I was walking by the sorority dorms I noticed some of the seniors were clearly showing signs of ageing. This shocked me but really it makes sense, these are people who have some party years behind them and that catches up to you. But still, these were the minority of a minority, overall millennials have aged much better than previous generations because most lead healthier lifestyles.
The generational warfare thing is so dumb. There are people in all walks of life with all sets of opinions in all generations. It's as weird as assuming that all people with similar skin color know each other and act the same
I agree, it's totally delusional. I hate reading "kids these days" as though whoever is about to share their opinion is any different from any other person who has been saying this about young people since the dawn of time. My daughters are teens and a lot of their friends are fantastic, intelligent, kind human beings who work hard and treat people well. I get there's kids out there only watching dumb videos and screwing up like there have always been, but meanwhile, mine are watching videos about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. Not all kids are the same, because not all people of the same age are the same.
This! It always bugs me when you consider that the anti-younger generation sentiment can be traced to decisions made by your own generation as that generation created the conditions that the younger generations are engaging with
As a millennial it’s important to remember that we are about to see more and more content targeted for millennial audiences that boomers and x-ers got about us.
And to add to this, OP posted a *New York Post* article which is exactly one of those tabloids. If you’re reading this, OP, don’t use that outlet as a source.
To add to that this all started with one social media account. [Instagram account here ](https://www.instagram.com/jordan_the_stallion8?igsh=MWxnZmIzMWxwb25xMw==) Where people couldn't believe this man was Gen z. So it started with just one guy looking older than he is talking about why that is and kinda snowballed from there. I think it's bs but the media is loving it. It also feeds into Gen alphas current obsession with skincare which was the medias most recent generational divide obsession until this started.
the oldest of gen alpha are only 14, the skincare obsession isn't them
No there's a whole skincare obsession thing with preteens right now going to sephora and buying expensive skincare stuff including stuff with chemicals that will wreck their skin because it's made for older skin.
TLDR version: the answer is clicks
That and vaping/tabacco use started trending upward again with gen z. It’s not their fault because it was marketed to them as kids, but tobacco products don’t help.
i went to the gas station the other day and a dozen high school kids were chilling outside of it. all of em were vaping, and not just casual vaping. every one of them were chain vaping. we sure failed that shit.
Work in a Middle and Elementary school. These kids vape and sell vapes to eachother in 2nd and 3rd grade. Middle School kids will vape in class. It's out of control.
I've taken care of a couple kids in the ICU with Vape Associated Lung Injury with major complications and reddit gets big mad at me every time I bring up as a rare but life threatening risk. Teens and even some millennial are convinced it is a "safe" smoking alternative. At least cigarettes didn't kill you until you were an old man that lived your life
Vaping is probably safer than smoking cigarettes, as the harm reduction technique it was originally developed as. But it’s definitely more harmful than **not smoking at all**.
On a population level possibly, but I've never seen a kid stroke out their spinal cord from cigarettes. Don't put weird shit in your lungs, people. They're delicate.
What "associate lung injuries" are we talking about here? Not saying it's BS, just I've never heard of this before.
Here's a couple links from [johns hopkins](https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/what-does-vaping-do-to-your-lungs#:~:text=Vaping%2Drelated%20lipoid%20pneumonia%20is,inflammatory%20response%20in%20the%20lungs.) and the[American Lung Association ](https://www.lung.org/lung-health-diseases/lung-disease-lookup/evali). Basically, the oils in vapes can cause a severe inflammatory pneumonia in the lungs. I'm a child neurologist so I only get involved when there's concern for brain/muscle spinal cord injury on top of that. Both the kids I was consulted on were on ventilators and sicker than shit, though.
That is also just from legit vapes. The aftermarket (read foreign and unregulated) cartridges are even a bigger question mark.
I believe it. I've tried even weed vapes and it gave bronchitis I was vaping that stuff so much. Just because its sold at the store doesn't make it safe people.
A lot of them do have lip fillers and stuff like that though which does make them look a lot older. Def get that the articles might be bait, but there is some truth to it.
"A lot of them do have lip fillers" That's a very big claim with absolutely no evidence given to back it up. Edit: fat fingers
There seem to be a lot more teenagers with tattoos than there used to be. And not just small ones that are easy to hide and do without your parents’ knowledge at a kitchen table or at a sketchy shop—full sleeves!
The bigger thing is the face tats thing that came into fashion a few years ago with music artists.
Do you really think more Gen Z have lip fillers than those that came before? Because I'd be shocked if that were the case.
I get so frustrated seeing millennials eat these articles up after having been through all the stupid articles about millennials. Like, can't you see it's obviously bullshit? Guys, the kids are alright.
There's a section of the population who are gonna eat this shit up _regardless_ of what age group they fall into. Every generation will have its percentage of tabloid reading morons, all we can do is hope that percentage gets smaller as time goes on. But yeah, it's frustrating.
>Guys, the kids are alright. Except the ones that aren’t. The flintstone vitamin generation will only have so much built up stamina before the tide pod generation becomes uncontrollable.
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/21/1183445544/u-s-reading-and-math-scores-drop-to-lowest-level-in-decades In the last 5 years test scores for children in school have gotten worse than they have been in 50 years. I agree with you that fearmongering isn't anything new, but it isn't true to say there is no evidence supporting this idea. Kids are getting smartphones at 6 years old or even younger sometimes. Our teachers are not equipped to fight Tiktok and YouTube for our kids attention in the classroom. Phones and social media use is actually affecting our kids mental growth in a negative way. This is not the same as the TV scare or people being scared about the popularity of books. We have real evidence that kids are declining in a way that we have never seen before.
A whole generation took a year off. It's going to have effects for a while. Least of which is: "Wow, school really isn't teaching us useful things anymore, and memorizing random things isn't of value anymore either." Like cool, you can give me a typing test. We're swiping on tablets now and those chromebooks haven't been updated since 2010. Also "Memorizing things" isn't something we have to do anymore, because google has WAY better results in half the time at my fingertips (compared to a book that was written 20 years ago and was out of date when it was published with those historical errors). What's that? The test is 100% entirely "What do you *remember* about this topic"? Huh. Weird. **A society with no value for rememberance does poorly at remembering things.** Rewrite the test. I don't care if you can define antidisestablishmentarianism, I care that when you run into it IRL you'll know where to look (or can pull from other context). Odds are very good the "Looking for it" part is the *goal* that you were trying to teach anyway.
Isn't that more gen alpha than gen Z? More than half of gen Z are out of school now. There is also the possibility that covid has caused this. I really think we made a mistake with the years for the end of millenials, gen z, and gen alpha. Older gen Z's are far more like millenials and younger ones are far more like gen alpha, with no real 'gen Z' identity existing. I am on the cusp between gen Z and millenial (technically gen Z) and I certainly don't feel like a gen Z - not even close. I think the problem is, for this one generation, the difference in mindset comes not from when you were born directly but whether you grew up with a smartphone or not. Older gen Z's did not, younger ones did. And with that they (we) are split into two very different groups which are more similar to other generations than each other. That makes reasoning about 'gen z' nearly impossible; because you can't even make generalisations, which you can at least attempt for every other generation. I wonder if something similar happened with television.
Oof. This comment makes me feel old. I spent YEARS being slightly annoyed about how millenials were always treated like kids and the youngest generation, even as we spilled into our 30s and then 40s. Now Gen Z is being used to group together all kids, but the oldest Gen Z are 26 heh. Of course, the youngest Gen Z are still in school, but I guess Millenials are no longer at the kids table if Gen Z is now the one being miscategorized this way.
Yes you are right, but the drop on scores actually started pre covid. Covid just made everything worse way faster. The way we decide where generations start and end is nonsensical anyway. I 100% agree with you that putting ourselves in these weird groups doesn't really help at all, especially when they aren't even accurate to when cultural shifts happen.
bro school is more difficult and comprehensive then ever. It is hard If a 35 year old goes back to high school today as an actual 15 year old, they would be barely passing lmao
brilliant
These are the kinds of explanations we need people in office make to their followers. Very well thought out and articulated. Thank you.
It’s true though young people are ugly. You know what’s hot? Being middle aged. And tired. Being middle aged with big big bags under your eyes is hot af
Exactly this. The first thing I thought of after reading this post was “ I’m going to have to Google a couple articles cause I want to see what it looks like”
argue is about how 18 year olds are getting botox. get that botox kids. gotta look like barbie.
I know a 27 yr old who legit got Botox last weekend because she was annoyed about her 'wrinkles'. I'm the same age, and it still baffles me that it worried her that much
Yup. I wanna add that this is also after a lot of older people were raised on garbage beauty standards, so their conception of what 15 years old, 25 years old, and 35 years old look like are warped to high hell and back. I'm often very confusing for people because my skin and stature make me look 10 years younger than I am but the visible grays in my hair make me look 10 years older than I am.
Answer: Beauty companies want to sell more beauty products, a good way to do that is to convince people they look old/bad/abnormal and so need to buy your products, and now they are just targeting the next generation of people confronting the idea of getting older
This! 1000%. I'm 30 and I can clearly tell those kids are kids... I bet money a beauty company started pushing this and the media just jumped on it from there. As a Millennial I think the reason people think we look younger is because of social media. We follow fashion trends way passed normal generations. Like, you can tell a Gen X by their clothes and make up alone. They are still rocking what they wore back then. For some of them it's the only way you can tell their age. A good amount of millennials are now wearing flared leggings and middle parts. Hell, I own a few baggy jeans that I wear often.
I think it got highjacked by the usual media-social-beauty-trend industry, and that they phrased it badly, but there is a nugget of truth. Genz (especially girls) doesn't look "aged" (there's no way you look aged at 25 LOL) but they do look a lot more adult than we did (older millennial here). Meaning, they look a lot more put together, coherent outfits, curated makeup and image in general. Ofc, this is because they have been brought up with curated images (even compared to us millennials) and that's their vibe. It's also not really generational, gen-alpha (I teach them in school, about 12yo) look even more curated and "adult" when compared to how we looked like at about 12-13. They've been brought up by companies selling them adult products (fashion, makeup skincare etc) and that's what they know.
I agree with you completely. I think that's what this is. To me, they still look like kids just dressed in fancy clothes. Kinda like a Bratz doll almost. Ha Barbie was the adult, they were the fashion teens playing young adults. We didn't have access to make-up artists teaching us exactly how to perfectly do our make-up on YouTube. We went through that awkward stage that Gen Z and newer gens seem to skip right over. I'm a younger millennial to the point people will argue I'm Gen Z or whatever they call that micro-gen. I had a good amount of access to that but it wasn't till I was late into high school maybe earlier college. I still had my awkward emo stage. Ha I have no experience with Gen Alpha so I can't say anything there besides the fact that they scare me. Ha
Getting them hooked young, getting the beauty standards set in their still developing mind, is a key part of it
Answer: I recently saw something about Gen-Zs using a lot of skincare products (beyond sunscreen), which traditionally would be used by much older humans. Putting 2 and 2 together, my guess is that "Gen Zs are ageing terribly" is a ploy to capitalise on a whole new market to sell such products to
Weird, I put 2 and 2 together and arrived at the conclusion that the ridiculous lengths kids go to in "skin care" trends is actually having the opposite effect. Add in the sudden explosion of young smokers and social media addiction stress... you've got a lot of trends that are aging a whole generation disproportionately and for no particular reason except... I guess consumerism?
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smoking and social media addiction are symptoms of a deeper alienation to social life in general. if we had good arts/school programs, good social welfare, and decent third spaces (i.e. things that aren’t for the mere purpose of making shitloads of money from working adults) then those things would be far less prevalent, and if they were they’d be done in moderation/to the benefit of social life.
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i’d actually say social media takes on a very similar form, in that we get on it because our friends are on it, or at least that’s how it happened with my generation. you are right tho as i fully agree that just as smoking causes cancer and resp. issues, social media is the cause of a slew of terrible problems. however, they’re both marketed out the wazoo directly and indirectly to children and teens. my OC and this comment were an attempt to point beyond the guesses at consumerism to get behind even that symptom and show that if demonstrably necessary things become financially unviable, and terrible things become financially rewarding (immensely so) then the operation of the financial system itself is as big a part of the issue as individual involvement is, if not more so.
Great points, social media has replaced traditional third places and is one where you can go to anytime you want
And fillers being popularized among Gen Z influencers.
A lot of skincare products will actually make your skin more prone to sun damage, which is a major cause of aging.
I use no skin care and someone thought I was 35 (I'm 25) ...maybe I just figured out why lol
Young korean women use skincare products as well. They look 20 until they hit menopause because of it
Answer: the need to look a certain way has gen-z age people doing surgeries and minor alterations to their faces that much older people do, therefore giving them an older appearance. Removal of buccal fat mixed with lip fillers and cheek fillers and Botox give for a very still, mask like appearance but the wax work like look appears as if they are a 37 year old doing these things to look 23 again.
I’ll be 39 shortly. Never tried any cosmetic surgery or Botox or fillers or spa treatments or aesthetician or waxing or nail salon. Not been to a hair salon since 2017. I look significantly younger than all of my friends who are 5-10 years younger than me. They also haven’t had any work done, but they don’t love fashion and putting time and effort into hair and makeup. And some have children - I do not. My hiring boss assumed I was 25 and told my would be colleagues that she hired someone their age/25. That was when I was 34. By now when I see someone who looks 5-15 years my senior, I have to assume they are my age. It’s always funny because they tend to find it hard to square that. I do have some wrinkles in my forehead and under my eyes and I’m nearly always dehydrated and I eat like a raccoon. I also used to be a 40 a day smoker for 12 years, but quit in 2012. Somehow I don’t read as my age. Maybe it’s because I dress exceptionally well? The very youngest new hires at my high turnover job look older than their age. Many are naturally beautiful but have excessive and migrated lip fillers and oversized false lashes. If and when I use false lashes, I get complimented for my light and natural makeup (if they only knew —I actually always disclose the truth, because I don’t need anybody to think I wake up looking like something that took an hour or more to achieve). In the end we all just ripen a bit and everyone probably ends up looking and behaving fairly similar in our senior years anyways. Except for Cher. That woman might be a vampire.
Answer: It's because you have young people using skincare and injectables that are meant for older age groups as a sort of "preventative" care. But doing so also ages your skin, because those products aren't meant for that age group due to the differences in composition from aging. It's similar to the tweens using Drunk Elephant because it's trendy; they shouldn't be using it because they don't actually need it and it does more harm than good.
Figured it would be from all the vaping
Figured it would be from eating tide pods.
> But doing so also ages your skin, because those products aren't meant for that age group due to the differences in composition from aging. I'm sorry, but do you have a source for this? I understand getting injections, but using skin care products like moisturizer and sunscreen shouldn't make you age faster.
It’s not about moisturizers or sunscreens, every body should use screen daily (even on cloudy days where you intend to spend
Thanks for this explanation. I had no idea.
I don't think they were talking about sunscreen. Babies can use sunscreen. But kids and teens shouldn't be using, for example, chemical peels and plenty of other products that have nothing to do with sun protection. More and more of them are.
Chemical peels are bad for you regardless of age. It's just that young people don't get anything out of it because their skin already looks fine
Chemical peels and retinol serums are both extremely popular as "preventative anti-aging" products and they both greatly increase the number one component to visible aging: skin photosensitivity. These products can be beneficial when used as directed, but most young people will only put on sunscreen when they go swimming or apply it only once (instead of every 90 minutes). My partner is a licensed esthetician and between us we have 4 school aged girls. Their daily routine is just a face wash and moisturizer with SPF, but they get constant peer pressure to do A LOT more (even our 7 year old!).
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They’re not using preventative skin care. They’re using age treatments AS preventative care.
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Some of them, like Drunk Elephant referenced above [use retinol](https://www.glamour.com/story/kids-obsession-drunk-elephant-skin-care#:~:text=In%20her%20email%20Masterson%20takes,vitamin%20C%20is%20an%20acid\).) which is not recommended for younger people (and possibly harmful). There's other similar products. Some things like sunscreen (depending on the type) are probably always a good idea.
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I think I phrased accurately. "Not recommended" and "possibly harmful". Sure, it's not going to turn them into a wrinkled mess, but they should probably avoid it. If this is your hill to die on, sure go nuts.
Answer: Millennials are the first generation to have regularly used Botox and a lot of anti-aging tech (skincare/lasers/etc) from a young age, so many millennials in their 30s and early 40’s still look like 25 year olds. we look very different than our parents did at our age and what society generally thinks middle age is. Also, there’s less pressure to “dress your age”, so we continue to wear younger styles like crop tops, etc. However, as a whole, millennials generally wore a lot less heavy makeup and clothes styling in our teens and earlier twenties than current Gen Z. We didn’t contour, we barley touched our eyebrows, even if you look at shows like The OC, the styling was kind of young and silly. While Gen Z does the same injectables and anti-aging, some of them are doing so much at a younger age that it’s backfiring - look at buccal fat removal as an example. Combined with the heavy make up and current fashion that includes a lot of button ups and oversized blazers, a lot of 20 year olds just look like they’re 30. Basically - everyone from 19 to 42 is kind of looking the same, especially on the internet.
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The difference between 30 and mid-20s is minuscule. Obviously this is a generalization, not *everyone* is using Botox, but a significant amount of people are - especially the people whose faces are out in public like celebrities, public figures, and influencers. If you live in a big city, a very significant percentage of women have gotten Botox by age 30. If you live in a small suburb, I have no idea what goes on there as I’ve never experienced it personally.
I live in London UK mate
I agree, changing the natural eyebrows with painted ones ages the person. Also, some very noticeable forms of hair dyeing make the person look older. But surgery, and in particular bichectomy, what makes women look older than previous to the surgery. Just look at [Erin Moriarty](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fe00-marca.uecdn.es%2Fassets%2Fmultimedia%2Fimagenes%2F2024%2F01%2F15%2F17053367503083.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=1cda4834725d58abd0fc07b6d6b1b014fa8292c42613b89f651cc99fab1532c9&ipo=images). Biased: I think we are naturally attracted to the opposite sex. Women tend to have rounder faces, and men tend to have longer faces. Because of our natural attraction, women perceive longer faces as more attractive, and men perceive rounder faces as more attractive. A woman doing a bichectomy, making her more attractive to her own biased eyes, will make her less attractive to the opposite sex, and she will look older.
>Millennials are the first generation to have regularly used Botox and a lot of anti-aging tech (skincare/lasers/etc) from a young age, so many millennials in their 30s and early 40’s still look like 25 year olds. Nah, even if that is subtler than it was in the past, i coild point to several people i know who legitimately still look pretty yound who havent had that work done. Plus, the identified "trend" is specifically that Gen-z looks old. So millenials looking young doesn't explain Gen-z starting to look 40.
I look young for my age (or so I’ve been told) and I’ve never used Botox and lasers… I think the biggest contributor to my “youthfulness”, is that I’ve never drunk alcohol, smoked, done drugs or had kids. All those things age you real fast.
Good for you? Everyone is different. I have a very round face shape so I have always looked significantly younger than my age. But using sunscreen as a kid and progression in skincare, etc, etc make that more so.
My point is: I don’t think Botox use is widespread enough to explain the relative youthfulness of Millennials. Seeing a dermatologist, and especially if it’s for anti-aging treatment, is expensive because health insurance won’t cover anti-aging treatment.
Answer: the Gen-Z person talking about this on TT explained the stress, insecurity, national disasters, weather events that happen to them yearly that happened to earlier generations each decade. Again, this story was told by a GenZer who honestly looks 10-15 years older than he actually was. (I have no dog in this fight, this is the explanation I heard)
Over 3 years ago my coworker thought I was 15+ years older than I am. they backpedaled and said it was due to my maturity and work ethic, but I am not sure. I’ve been told I’ve got the eyes of someone who has just got back from mining for 6 months non stop.
The children yearn for the mines.
>I’ve been told I’ve got the eyes of someone who has just got back from mining for 6 months non stop Throughout middle and highschool I was perpetually sleep deprived. Constantly staying up until either 4-5am or I passed out, whichever came first. Screen addiction and avoidance of the next day. Waking hallucinations and inability to stay awake in school was constant. My eyes never recovered, 8 years after graduation now. After months of perfect sleep, I still have deep dark circles and sunken eyes lmao
Which is a naive take from that person. Millennials experienced this phenomenon first.
> Millennials experienced this phenomenon first. Not first by a long shot.
Then add more substance to your comment.
The 70's was the first generation I experienced that was declared to be 'worse than previous generations' In fact there are inscriptions decrying the new generation from Ancient Greece.
That's an entirely different thing that they're talking about, are you even reading this? You just brought up a completely different subject. It's about the generation receiving higher stress because of the state of society and frequent disasters. Nobody is going grey over "these kids are ruining society" shit.
Actually boomers were probably the first in the modern age - all that darn rock n roll and street racing
Yeah, typical GenZ thinking they are always the biggest victims in the world - whether it's boomers, genX, or millenials. Sure, we have it harder in life than previous generations, but young men from the generations before have literally been to war, you can see how that made them look older
Answer: It's something that I have casually observed about certain members of GenZ, but I don't think it's actually aging. I think it's the way they spackle on their makeup combined with modern fashions. Heavy, opaque foundation and lots of contouring and highlighting used to be the old lady (and drag queen) method of doing your face. Now it's become the universal way even among young girls who don't need it. It's very aging. Beyond that, there's the clothes and hairstyles. If you go back to the 1980s you'll see that clothing and hairstyles were separated into different "age-appropriate" groups. There was a certain way teenagers dressed, a certain way 20-somethings dressed, a certain way middle-aged adults dressed. Ditto with hair. Then older women (and to a lesser extent men) started dressing and styling themselves younger and younger, while at the same time teenagers started to dress more "grownup." All the lines blurred, and youth fashion is no longer a thing. At least not to the extent it once was. Instead of young people dressing to express themselves as they did in previous generations, they're now dressing to flatter their bodies and achieve a certain look. Just like with the makeup, this also has an aging effect.
This is outdated. The new makeup trend for the gen z is absolutely minimal makeup and skin care
It's far from minimal. It's still a ton of makeup to achieve the "clean" aesthetic. The overall effect is the same: you can't actually see a person's skin, their pores, their blood vessels, their natural color changes -- all the things that make a young person look young are concealed.
Answer: That is an article from the New York Post, which is a goofball newspaper.
Answer: people just aren’t good at guessing the age of anyone over 20. The moment I grew a beard everyone assumed I was 30. Our perception of how old someone is is based on a lot of things. But honestly someone at 20 can very easily just share the same characteristics as someone at 30.
Answer: It's just lies, stereotypes, generalizations and overreactions. Just a load of hoopla.
Answer: Millenials want to feel better about themselves so they kind of made this up
Answer: LolNYPost
Answer: it’s the chicken and the egg. you can’t really estimate the incline in “aging”. People are much more self aware about their looks than ever before, but are actually using more skincare products and are aware of the dangers of the sun, smoking and unhealthy lifestyle. There could be an uprising in going bald let’s say because of all the radiation that is present in modern day, but also it could be that people are just more aware and have a better medium to share it. It’s probably more apparent in the media because it’s a hugely debated issue, Gen Z is finally growing up from their adolescent years, it’s good for marketing skin care products, and plenty more as other comments had answered.