What is the Gen Z stare? Why the blank-faced look is making rounds on social media

Yahoo

17-07-2025

There's a new term circulating social media, and it's dragging young people for their perceived lack of social skills. Dubbed 'the Gen Z stare,' this blank-faced look is allegedly how many young people are engaging with the world around them — by, well, simply not.
While it isn't something every member of this 13-to-28 age range generation does, the stereotype has struck a chord online, with many social media users joking that they've seen it themselves out in the wild — with a waiter, a customer in a shop or even students in a classroom.
What is the Gen Z stare, and what does it look like?
In a recent video, TikToker Janaye explained the phenomenon: 'The Gen Z stare is specifically when somebody does not respond or just doesn't have any reaction in a situation where a response is either required or just reasonable,' she said. She recalled a situation on a recent flight in which she instructed a member of Gen Z to put a bag under her seat, only to be met with a stare instead of a response.
TikToker Trevon Woodbury demonstrated the stare in a video in which he acted as a barista in a coffee shop, opposite himself as a member of the young generation. He captioned the video, 'Always shocked that someone is speaking to your irl and not on a phone screen. Still love gen z tho.'
Want an example from pop culture? Consider this scene from the first season of The White Lotus, in which millennial Rachel (Alexandra Daddario) warmly greets college-aged Olivia (Sydney Sweeney) and Paula (Brittany O'Grady) and is initially met with blinking and blank faces. (Fortunately for Rachel, they do eventually warm up … sort of.)
Why is the Gen Z stare even a thing?
There's no secret that millennials and Gen Z love to poke fun at one another on the internet. After all, before there was the Gen Z stare, there was the 'millennial pause,' a term used to mock the short pause millennials take before starting a video — apparently a relic from a time when video recording didn't always start immediately upon hitting the button. And that's on the heels of jokes about millennial passion for Harry Potter houses and high-angle selfies. So it's no surprise that millennials are jumping on a joke at Gen Z's expense.
But there's also some evidence to suggest that the Gen Z stare could be connected to something deeper: like how Gen Z is lacking in so-called soft skills, such as the ability to make small talk. For example, a 2023 survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that approximately 90% of graduates avoided in-person events because of social anxiety. Meanwhile, nearly 25% said they felt uncomfortable speaking up in team meetings.
And it's more than just the workplace: In a survey conducted by British restaurant chain Prezzo, 34% of respondents age 18 to 24 said that they were too nervous to speak to waiters when they went out to eat, and asked the person they were with to communicate with them instead. Many videos featuring the Gen Z stare specifically reference this younger generation's avoidance of speaking with waitstaff.
The question of course is … why? It's important to note that Gen Z is the most online generation — and they also came of age during a pandemic, where social distancing was encouraged and many schools and jobs went fully remote. The generation has less time to practice speaking to strangers, perhaps affecting their confidence when they are required to do so. In a video about the stare, TikToker Sassa called the look a 'physical manifestation of what it looks like when you don't grow up with enough human interaction.'
'I can't imagine what it was like to be a young person in a pandemic where you saw your friends one day and then you never saw them again for a couple of years. But now that we're in real life, I think they forget that we can see all of you,' she said.
Jean Twenge, the author of Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers and Silents — And What They Mean for America's Future, recently told the New York Times that 'social skills take thousands and thousands of hours to develop and adolescence is a critical period for developing social skills' — and that Gen Z has simply spent 'much less time with their peers in person during that critical stage.'
And Tam Kaur, a self-help author, recently told HuffPost U.K. that she believes the Gen Z stare comes not only from the lack of in-person interactions, but also from how connected they are to their online world. 'We're the first generation to grow up with our faces constantly on display in selfies, stories, video calls, with everything being scrutinized online,' she explained. 'That creates a heightened sense of self-consciousness and a fear of being judged, even in the smallest interactions. For many of us, especially women, it's not that we're rude or disengaged. It's that we're navigating social anxiety and burnout from living in hyper-visible digital spaces.'
What does Gen Z have to say about all of this?
Many members of Gen Z push back on the idea that the Gen Z stare is something to mock. They interpret the stare differently. They don't see it as a lack of social skills at all; rather, they see it as an obvious response to other people's ineptitude.
One skit posted on TikTok, for example, shows a Gen Z service worker in an ice cream parlor being perfectly pleasant to a customer — until that customer asks for a chocolate and hazelnut ice cream and then turns up her nose at Nutella. Another on TikTok recalled her experience as a barista in which a customer barked 'coffee!' at her — leading her to stare in disbelief at their rudeness.
And a third TikToker posted a video of her working in what is obviously a cookie shop, only for a customer to come in and ask 'Do you sell cookies here?' Gen Z stare, activated.