No Stupid Questions

The various answers in this thread are just hilarious.

The stare is real; it's when they work in a service position but don't communicate. You walk up to the counter and instead of greeting you or asking how they can help you or saying anything at all they just stare at you. That's the Gen z stare. It's that simple and I've encountered it everywhere that employs younger people. It doesn't bother me, you don't have to do shit for a shit wage, but it does make interactions unnecessarily awkward.
The comment saying that Gen z just doesn't tolerate stupid is hilarious. What percentage of your generation voted for Trump again?

I've run into it, I think. Went out to eat with the wife and as we walked into the restaurant the hostess just stared at us, then picked up two menus and started walking. We were like, "Do we follow her or...?" And so, sheepishly, we followed her and she did indeed lead us to our seats. It was a couple weeks later when I first heard of the Gen Z stare. I showed my wife and we were like, oh... That was it, we guess.

I've seen it a couple other times - recently at CVS the guy at the pharmacy counter would just sort of stare at each customer without really acknowledging them until after they said what they needed. No greeting or pleasantries of any kind, and then he would go into his standard cvs scripted questions.

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

I've seen it before from retail workers. The first time I thought they were on drugs.

They don't activate until they decide to act. They don't engage in formal greeting. Like, "Hi, how can I help you?" Like an idle NPC that hasn't been triggered to run its script yet.

It's probably related to the perpetual screen use that causes derealization or whatever. Like how streamers walk around in real life but their mind is engaged in the virtual world of their chat channel, and the real world to them is the virtual one.

I’m Gen X and I have that stare when dealing with some people.

My son is a cinephile, and he talks about "iPhone Face" on young actors, where actors in period pieces look like they've seen an iPhone. Once you're aware of it, it's really true. Its really prevalent in crappy Netflix productions and the like.

The only thing I know of that comes close to what you're describing is the "thousand yard stare" of someone in the middle of an internalized existential crisis or reliving a traumatic moment as a daydream.

Or possibly just looking confounded by the other person's incredibly weird/stupid take on something.

Nope. It's always safe to ignore any articles about "kids these days"

It's just a positive sign towards the deprecation of the weird social theater we've trapped ourselves in.

Boomers would call it the "fluoride stare", in relation to some of them believing fluoride in water made millenials stupid.

I dunno. I'd consider it just a dumb generational thing.

If any young Blahaj users are reading this, I want you to know that this is exactly what my cat would do; and doing this supposed behavior makes you look like a cat. You are a cat if you do this. Carry on.

That's been a thing long before zoomers have been around.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I would often be asked.

"Because what you just said was so mind blowingly asinine that I need a moment to put together a response."

I am a millennial mom to a gen Z teenager and have noticed this as well actually. I wasn't sure if it was just that my kids friends are weird or what lol. I said hello and they stare with a small "hey" or don't say anything back while avoiding eye contact?? Lol... Like I am your friends mom? You should probably at least take a "hello"???

Edit: Now that I am reading these comments as a therapist it actually sounds like trauma? The zoning out and being lost in thought happens with chronic trauma victims. It sounds like disassociating from growing up with COVID and other systemically traumatic environments during crucial development periods. Sad

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

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

like the stare I got when I told a grandson he should shovel snow for his grandma. did as much for my grandparents, regretably.

The Gen Z stare is simply the rational response in dealing with customer facing situations where either 1. the customer is problematic, or 2. if the worker genuinely doesn't know what what to do.

Responding or engaging to problematic customers (racist, homophobic, misogynistic) can only lead to conflict, reprimand, or lawsuits.

Responding with inaccurate information or simply saying leads to conflict, reprimand, or poor reviews.

Both have worsened as people have become more polarised, and management cuts funding and hours for training.