Latest news with #Zoomer
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
My girlfriend loves me more than I love her. Should I settle at 27, or move on?
Welcome back to 'Ask Amy & T.J.' In this week's column, Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes learn what a Zoomer is — and share some lessons learned in their 20s. We want to hear your questions about being newly single. When is it OK to bring a date around friends who knew your ex? Or post about your new partner on social media? If you have a question for Amy and T.J. about dipping your toes back into the dating pool, email it to askamyandtj@ If you want to hear more from our advice columnists, check out their podcast. Amy and T.J., I realize I might sound like a jerk, but here's my question: Should I be with someone who's really into me if I don't want them as much back? Or should I wait to find someone I'd really like to be with, but will have to work to win over? I'm a 27-year-old Zoomer deciding whether to settle for my current partner or start over and keep looking. What should I do?Gut reaction T.J. Holmes: What's that sound like? Amy Robach: It sounds like he's just not that into his partner! On further thought … AR: By the time I was 27, I'd been married for four years. TJH: Me too. We both got married at 23. AR: And we shouldn't have! TJH: And we shouldn't have! It's not that you can't have your ish together at age 27. But for many people at that age, you haven't necessarily figured out who you want to be yet. So how are you going to be ready to know what you want in a partner long-term? It isn't always a matter of age, though; it's a matter of where you are now and whether you can grow from there. Because by the time you're 34, you might not be the same person you are now. Your partner may not be either — by then they may not like you! AR: I also think that 27 is too young to settle. I know when you're 27, you feel like you've lived so much life — I did when I was 27; I thought I had figured most of it out. But you haven't. And you can't have. So if you aren't already in a relationship where you are so excited about taking the next step with that person, you should wait until you find that person. You've got plenty of time at 27. On the other hand, I do think that your generation — I didn't know you were called Zoomers — is far more picky, and that's not a bad thing. But there is no such thing as a perfect mate. You're never going to find the perfect person. What you want is to find the person who you love and respect enough that you will want to grow with them and be willing to change and evolve with them. You want to find the right person to be on that journey with you, but it's not going to be the perfect person. TJH: It's all about realistic vs. idealistic. A lot of people have this idea — we see it in Love Island USA — this fantasy of someone who makes their heart flutter, who's going to be their Prince or Princess Charming. It's OK to have standards, but if you get too attached to this idealistic expectation, now, any time you date someone, if they're not perfect, you think, 'I shouldn't settle for less.' Settling for less is not the same as being realistic about what you really want in a relationship. Don't let perfect get in the way of good. And sometimes what you have is perfectly good. So, before you make a decision, maybe ask yourself whether you want to throw away the relationship you have to try to get the perfect one. Maybe you can grow to be head over heels? If this woman cares about you that much, maybe eventually you'll realize that you have something special? AR: I think that might be possible. And it's why you need to be honest with your partner. Explain that you're not where they are emotionally yet, but you're not ready to end things. Ask for patience, but make it clear that you can't promise a ring at the end of this. And honestly, your partner might say 'bye' when you come clean. But I think anyone you're dating should get that opportunity to know where your head is and make a decision for themselves. It's not just you making this decision; your partner is in this relationship too. The final word TJH: The key word, though, is settle. Any time you insert that into a sentence regarding the person you're with, I think that's a wrap. That's done, it's over. You can think about being realistic vs. idealistic. But the word 'settle' is a big problem. AR: You should never settle. You can talk to your partner honestly about seeing if your feelings might grow. But don't settle. Because it might just feel like 'settling' right now, early on in the relationship. But if you stay together and you really feel like you're settling, it will turn into resentment and full-blown anger and depression. It can lead to a lot of really negative things. If your relationship is starting at settling, it's not going to end well.
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Delusional' bride bans Gen Z sister from ‘childfree' wedding — yet demands a gift: ‘You're not mature enough'
This bride's commitment to keeping her big day childless is childish. Banning babies at a formal fête is fair. However, barring your 19-year-old sibling from your alcohol-free nuptials, simply because she's not over the age of 21, but demanding the excluded Gen Z fork over a wedding present, is foul — so says incensed social media savages. 'My older half-sister [didn't] invite me to her childfree wedding as I am nineteen, expects a gift,' an enraged, anonymous Redditor titled a post in the platform's 'Family Drama' forum. The offended youngster shared screenshots of the bride-to-be's rude request for a goodie from the wedding registry, despite her refusal to extend an invitation. 'It's super common for people who can't make it to send a small gift,' argued the future newlywed, to which the teen responded, 'Can't make it [is not the same as] not invited.' Talk about unbridled audacity. Hosting a child-free matrimonial ceremony is a rising movement among couples heading towards the altar. In fact, a staggering 46% of pairs are keeping kiddos off of their guest lists while tying the knot this year, according to a 2025 wedding trends report via Zola. Still, a few sweethearts are taking the ban a bit too far. Some lovebirds hire wedding nannies to ensure little ones stay out of sight and earshot during their hitching, while others disinvite people with children, rendering their extremely exclusive ceremonies totally tot-less. But when it comes to the bride snubbing her legal-aged little sis, the internet is not on the engaged diva's side. 'Your sister is delusional,' a commenter assured the 19-year-old. 'This is one of the craziest things I've ever seen,' said a separate supporter. 'Older teens aren't children regarding being invited to a wedding — and mine was child-free.' 'It's not that she doesn't want anyone under drinking age,' another suggested. 'She's just cheap and doesn't want to pay for the extra plate for someone she doesn't care about having there.' One helpful spectator even offered the Zoomer a sweet response to the bridezilla's petition for a present. ''I consulted Reddit. The general consensus was that it is wholly unreasonable to expect children to purchase wedding gifts. That is their parents' responsibility. As a child who is not invited to your wedding, I can't imagine any circumstance where it is my responsibility to buy a wedding gift.''
New York Post
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
‘Delusional' bride bans Gen Z sister from ‘childfree' wedding — yet demands a gift: ‘You're not mature enough'
This bride's commitment to keeping her big day childless is childish. Banning babies at a formal fête is fair. However, barring your 19-year-old sibling from your alcohol-free nuptials, simply because she's not over the age of 21, but demanding the excluded Gen Z fork over a wedding present, is foul — so says incensed social media savages. 5 A 19-year-old revealed that she's been deemed too young and 'immature' to attend her sister's wedding, but is still expected to give the bride and groom a gift. Yuliia – 'My older half-sister [didn't] invite me to her childfree wedding as I am nineteen, expects a gift,' an enraged, anonymous Redditor titled a post in the platform's 'Family Drama' forum. The offended youngster shared screenshots of the bride-to-be's rude request for a goodie from the wedding registry, despite her refusal to extend an invitation. 'It's super common for people who can't make it to send a small gift,' argued the future newlywed, to which the teen responded, 'Can't make it [is not the same as] not invited.' Talk about unbridled audacity. 5 Social media readers were stunned by the 'delusional' bride's unwillingness to invite her adult sister to the wedding. Ljupco Smokovski – Hosting a child-free matrimonial ceremony is a rising movement among couples heading towards the altar. In fact, a staggering 46% of pairs are keeping kiddos off of their guest lists while tying the knot this year, according to a 2025 wedding trends report via Zola. Still, a few sweethearts are taking the ban a bit too far. Some lovebirds hire wedding nannies to ensure little ones stay out of sight and earshot during their hitching, while others disinvite people with children, rendering their extremely exclusive ceremonies totally tot-less. But when it comes to the bride snubbing her legal-aged little sis, the internet is not on the engaged diva's side. 5 The Gen Z was stunned by her sister's request for a gift even though she was not invited to the wedding. Reddit/weddingshaming 5 The unbending bride argued that the Zoomer was not 'mature enough' to attend adult events. Reddit/weddingshaming 5 Outraged Reddit users agreed with the Gen Z, calling her sister 'crazy' for demanding a wedding gift. Reddit/weddingshaming 'Your sister is delusional,' a commenter assured the 19-year-old. 'This is one of the craziest things I've ever seen,' said a separate supporter. 'Older teens aren't children regarding being invited to a wedding — and mine was child-free.' 'It's not that she doesn't want anyone under drinking age,' another suggested. 'She's just cheap and doesn't want to pay for the extra plate for someone she doesn't care about having there.' One helpful spectator even offered the Zoomer a sweet response to the bridezilla's petition for a present. ''I consulted Reddit. The general consensus was that it is wholly unreasonable to expect children to purchase wedding gifts. That is their parents' responsibility. As a child who is not invited to your wedding, I can't imagine any circumstance where it is my responsibility to buy a wedding gift.''
Irish Examiner
23-07-2025
- General
- Irish Examiner
Sarah Harte: The Gen Z stare is real, and we've all seen it
To paraphrase Jane Austen, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a middle-aged person, being a morally righteous pain, must want to criticise younger generations. It's an age thing, a bit like slowing down on a walk to read planning permissions. Recently, however, I have found myself in several professional situations that have led me to question both the social skills and, crucially, the expectations of some younger employees. At the weekend, I read an article in The New York Times about 'the Gen Z stare' with a sense of recognition. The Gen Z stare is when a Zoomer is asked a question in a public setting, and instead of answering verbally, they deliver a passive-aggressive stare. This phenomenon is currently sparking debate and garnering millions of views on TikTok. I've been on the receiving end of this stare professionally, even in interviews, always with those under 30, because it's very age specific. In the middle of an interview, facing down a superior blank stare, you wonder if you have hit your head, or have they? Am I that boring (possible), or are the questions off (again, possible)? These interviewees shared another commonality. When you approach them before the interview to shake their hand and say you look forward to interviewing them (standard protocol before an interview), they regard you as if you were unhinged. You fleetingly wonder if you have food in your teeth. Afterwards, these interviewees do not thank you. They float off back to their lives as if you are roadkill. At this point, I move from being nonplussed to wanting to shake them so hard that their teeth rattle in their heads. No longer socially acceptable, I know, to voice these thoughts. Content creators and influencers are currently debating online what's behind this dead stare. Various causes are being cited, including social anxiety, excessive use of technology leading to reduced face-to-face time and therefore impaired conversational skills, the impact of covid, a new type of stranger danger taken to its limits and normal adolescent and twenties bolshiness. All these reasons sound plausible. But what about a culture of entitlement? One Gen Z content creator explained that her peers dole out the stare instead of a verbal response because they feel they may not "owe" somebody a conversation. I find the use of the word "owe" telling. Some of the characters I've met over the last year came across as entitled bots who badly needed direction on the obligations of being a functioning young adult. More generally, I have discussed new workplace behaviours with various friends who are employers or senior managers in different walks of life, ranging from blue-chip corporate echelons to small businesses. The broad consensus is that there is a lack of understanding of how to behave in a professional context, and a marked interest in what works best for Gen Z employees. To take just one example, a refusal to take messages or calls outside of strictly defined working hours. So, if you forget to ask your junior employee a question before 6pm because your head is over a document, it will have to wait until the next day. Two minutes past six is too late, loser. You see the two ticks, and you know they've read the message, but tumbleweed. Any attempt to circumvent this watershed is viewed as a significant infringement of the employee's rights and liberty to live their best life. And if you query it directly, you could end up in the hot seat for bullying, so you grit your ageing teeth. There is no question that we can learn from Gen Z. Clear work-life boundaries are not a Gen X strength. Stick us down a coal mine and we will prostrate ourselves at your feet. Yet might the dead-eyed stare and the reluctance to take the call two minutes after 6pm tip over into the territory of viewing the world and your employer as there to serve you? Let's presume the experts are correct and social development has gone haywire due to what happened during the pandemic and young people being hypnotised by devices (devices we gave them) because much evidence supports this thesis. Is it not time for us to offer some guidance on expectations in the professional and social spheres to younger generations? Parenting Nobody is suggesting that a respectful working environment isn't preferable, but there is a balance to be struck, and the pressing question for me is what produces this entitlement? Could a parenting trend be in the dock for producing a certain type of employee? Gentle parenting centres, critics believe, around never saying no to your child because, as advocates would have it, 'adultism' is a structural discrimination that results in children being marginalised with their needs sidelined. Of course, children's rights are important. There is a growing, much-needed awareness in the legal sphere that children are separate entities with rights and voices. Yet, the idea that you should not say no to your child is bonkers. It will have consequences not only for the child and the adult they become, but also for society as a whole. A London friend shared an amusing story with me about an intergenerational family lunch she attended. The five-year-old nephew bit his three-year-old first cousin. The grandfather of both children told the five-year-old in no uncertain terms that biting was bad and that he was a bold boy. The parents of the biter took this very badly. They didn't commiserate with the victim; instead, they asked the biter how he felt and if he was okay. This was a laborious process. The parents of the biter ended up leaving in high dudgeon because nobody else agreed with them. Side note: Everyone was thrilled that they left and went on to have an enjoyable day. I wonder what happens to the biter in the long run, and more importantly, what happens to us when he leaves his cosy burrow where he reigns as a Pasha. When he graduates from biting his younger relatives in years to come, will he be doling out the dead stare? Will he be refusing to answer a work query at two minutes past six because he is the most important person in the universe? Team Human The voices of adults don't matter more than those of children, but young people need guidance and boundaries that make them feel more secure and help them navigate life. It's also what the wider society and the economy need; human beings who grasp that they are slotting into a bigger picture, although hopefully not as mindlessly as we did. Part of this is learning to understand that while at a given moment you may wish that your boss or the person you're serving would fall off a cliff, you need to maintain a minimum level of social grace and self-regulate. This needs to be taught with respectful but plain speaking. There's a quid pro quo for being paid. And there are hierarchies, explicit and implicit, at work. Best to figure this one out early. We're all part of Team Human. A valuable lesson in our increasingly individualised society is that collaboration and the collective good are worth something both inside and outside of work. A dead-eyed stare doesn't cut it. I've read other journalists suggesting that Gen Z don't have specific characteristics, and suggesting so is lazy stereotyping. But this is clearly untrue if you're an employer who is dealing with this behaviour on the frontline. When the recession arrives, as it always does, lessons will be learned. Competition for jobs may end up resting on the social skills Gen Z has dispensed with. Best to get ahead of the pack now, and start learning how to make eye contact and small talk. Read More
New York Post
21-07-2025
- General
- New York Post
‘I can hear their breathing:' Employers enraged over Gen Z's rude phone etiquette
The sound of silence? Zoomers have been infuriating older generations with their seemingly rude behavior, from poor table manners to refusing to greet customers. Now, Generation La-Z is being called out for another faux pas: not saying 'hello' when they answer the phone. That's right, in a backwards-seeming trend that's baffling older generations, Zoomers are putting the onus on the person who called to initiate conversation like a game of telephone chicken. Advertisement This telephone cold shoulder came to light via a recruiter who posted on X earlier this month, 'something I've noticed about Gen Z specifically is that a lot of them answer the phone and don't say anything.' 'The reason to wait in silence is because there are a lot of robocall scams now that wait to hear if there's a voice there,' confessed one Zoomer. Shotmedia – 'Like I can hear their breathing and the background noise, but they wait for you to say hello first,' they explained. Advertisement Worst of all, this was not a cold call, but rather a prearranged call made at a time the recipient themselves had chosen — and on a number she had sent them so they'd know she'd be on the line. This telephone faux pas phenomenon isn't just anecdotal, either. A YouGov poll taken last year found that one in four Brits aged between 18 and 24 think it is ok to answer a phone call without any form of greeting. Some older generations found this habit downright rude. Only 27% of people aged between 25 and 34 feel it was ok to voice ghost, while just 14% among those over 45 found the practice acceptable. Experts claim that Gen Zers' telephone ghosting is a result of the fact that they didn't grow up with a landline like their Gen X and millennial brethren. Milan Lipowski – Advertisement 'We all say hello if we are picking up the phone. The same as if you were answering the door,' vented one millennial on a Reddit thread on the topic. 'It's not just that it's considered polite, but in the case of the phone, it is to signify you are present and have answered the phone. The person on the other end can't see you, so having a vocal indication is helpful.' Employers have cited poor phone manners as one of several reasons Zoomers flounder at the office, wrote Pilita Clark in a piece for the Financial Times. It's gotten so bad that Mary Jane Copps, founder of a Canadian communication consultancy called The Phone Lady, claims that companies pay her up to $3,100 to train phone-illiterate zoomers. Advertisement So why the radio, er, phone silence? Clark speculated that, unlike prior generations, zoomers — who famously prefer messaging to calling — find phone use unnerving because they grew up without a landline. Therefore, they didn't get the same telephone etiquette tutorial that their phone-broken millennial and Gen X brethren received from their parents growing up. 'Rather than start the conversation and then discover it is a recorded message or scam, they wait to hear who or what is calling them before they respond,' she said. This is perhaps prudent given the rise of spoofing scams, in which AI-powered bots hijack people's voice snippets so they can pose as them in order to steal money from their loved ones. Many Gen Zers copped to this reason with one Redditor writing, 'The reason to wait in silence is because there are a lot of robocall scams now that wait to hear if there's a voice there.' Another reason — somewhat paradoxically — is that some Gen Zers think it's rude to dial people. Copps recalled a young man at one of her workshops declaring, 'You know, Mary Jane, if somebody calls me out of the blue, what that says to me is they value their time more than my time, and I am not going to talk to them.'
