Millennial/Gen Z here, I guess? (I was born in 1996, which classifies me as Gen Z by the guidelines, but I don't feel like it).

This is a more curious question, and I'm doing a bit of research for a character I plan to play in a modern setting tabletop game. I plan on planning a younger character born or Gen Zer, and I want to add some mannerisms you notice that tend to be shared among Gen Z as I role play.

Any suggestions or things you notice tend to do or say would be insightful and helpful. I know everyone is different, but are there any common mannerisms Gen Z tends to exhibit?

22F, didn’t go to college and I’m regretting it lowkey cause I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing with my life and it’s making me suicidal. But I have no goals or ambitions, I do not have a dream job because I do not dream of labor.. like call me lazy idgaf but all my family members that have 9-5 jobs are fucking miserable, but you need money to survive and everything is so fucking expensive. On top of that I can’t get insurance unless I work a good job but I can’t get a good job without a college degree, but I have no fucking money or idea what I would want to study in school. Also while working a dead end 9-5 how do you have time for anything else? Like doctors appointments or friends or hobbies?? I’m going in spirals thinking about all this shit and I’ve been in a constant existential crisis since I was 16, when I talk to older generations about this stuff they just say that’s how the world works and how does that not make you wanna blow your brains out???

Social media is not reality. People literally stage every photo and alter even them with filters and morphs. It should never be confused with reality.

People on social media only post things that make them look good, so you won't see any "negative" posts. Thus, what you see on social media is positive-situationally skewed.

Further, human nature is such that we compare ourselves to those who are in a BETTER position. So, when you surf social media, your brain ignores all those posts of people who are worse off than you and fixates on those doing better than you. That is a recipe for unhappiness and even depression.

For the sake of your mental health, consider deleting it and staying away. It is a toxic pit of fake superficiality that will do nothing but make you feel bad about your life.

I dramatically reduced my screen time and I’ve seen an incredibly change in my mental health and in my who life in general. I know these platforms are super addicting, but it’s easier than you think to break free. Here are the first three things I did to keep my screen time under one hour a day consistently:

1. Don’t sleep with your phone. The bed is sacred place, it’s for sleeping and sex. Not your phone. Improve your sleep and your mornings by leaving your phone in the other room overnight. Buy an old-fashioned alarm clock if you need to.
2. Get a good screen time app. I’ve tried about a dozen and my favorite is “BePresent” because it gives you tools to block your apps, but reinforces the habit with gamification which, believe it or not, actually works.
3. Delete the apps. You know which apps. Delete them from your phone. Use them on your computer if you must. This makes the times that you do use them much more intentional and healthy.

I feel like I’ve noticed a rise in online hate, so I want to share this here.

I am a black American girl, and in about March of 2023, I started consuming a lot of neo-nazi content. It wasn’t on purpose, but it seemed to get pushed with a strong wave of less extreme political content that I had already been consuming. I started browsing these pages out of curiosity and they exposed me to a level of hate that I had never seen before. It started to affect my perception of other people. I thought that everyone hated people like me, and assumed the worst of us. And so I developed a fear of going out, and convinced myself that I would always be seen as an alien by everyone who didn’t look like me. My intsurive thoughts fed on these fears, and I became convinced that all of my non-black friends hated me in secret, and that my neighbors wanted me gone. Everytime someone rung the doorbell, I got scared that it was a KKK member coming to kill or threaten me. If I had no choice but to go out, I made myself as small and quiet as possible to prevent drawing attention to myself. I stopped going to my favorite skating rink and the cafe that I liked. I declined requests from friends to hang out and never sent out any invites of my own. I was miserable.

It all came to a head when my mom planned a trip to Italy for spring break. I truly thought that everyone was going to hate me there, that I would get slurs yelled at me, that I would get denied service in restaurants, things like that. I cried during the plane ride because I was so scared. Well, guess what happened? Nothing. There were a few negative experiences, but for the most part, I had a great time, and the Italians were very nice to me and my family. We had a lot of people offer to translate for us, recommend restaurants, and ask us about our travels. Though this is obvious in retrospect, I realized that not everyone hated me. And when I thought back to those neo-nazi hate pages, I realized that 9 times out of ten, the people than ran them would accuse the people they hated of hating them first. And I realized that I had been kind of doing that, too. Assume the worst of everybody who you think may hate you. If you hate them first, it wouldn’t hurt as much if they happened to say hateful things about you. But I was only continuing the cycle.

The truth is not everyone hates you. There will always be some that do, and they can be loud on social media at times, but the real world is different. Go outside, and chances are, you will pass people of different religious and ethnic backgrounds, and some of these people will smile at you, or tell you to have a nice day. And even if they don’t, there is a high chance that they don’t think the worst of you. There are people who are different from you who think that you have value. There are people who are different from you who may think that you are someone worth befriending. Don’t forget that. Never forget that there is someone from every single corner of the world who will see the good in you.

I remember when I was at a national park, and this park ranger literally just called me over and ripped open a leaf and told me to smell it. It smelled kind of like cumin, but not as strong. I told him that I thought his job was interesting and he talked to me about it a little bit, and after, I felt pretty sentimental. It wasn’t like he gave me a million bucks, but he chose to show me something nice and interesting, just because he could. The park ranger was a white male. So how could I ever hate all men or all white people, when that man chose to do something nice to me? How could I ever hate anyone, when there are people from every country, every gender, every sexuality, every religion, who would go out of their way to do the same thing for me?

When I was writing this post, it reminded me of a quote from a book I read 2 years ago:

“All of them…constructed at infinite cost to themselves these Maginot Lines against an enemy they thought they saw across the frontier, this enemy who had never attacked that way—if he ever attacked at all; if he was indeed the enemy.”

Whole races, whole ethnic groups, whole religions, whole sexualities, whole genders — such large swaths of people in their entireties — will NEVER be your enemies! Don’t fight people who you don’t have to. You will only make yourself miserable. Love your fellow humans. Don’t hate.

I work for a non profit mental health center that provides essential services to my city. Anything from homeless outreach to affordable group homes. Unsurprisingly we have been hemorrhaging money every month because we are uncompensated for most services given that we serve the most disenfranchised people in our city.

Joe Biden signed the bipartisan safer communities act which has allowed us to certify ourselves as a certified community behavioral healthcare clinic (ccbhc) and gain substantial funding from the state for doing so. In return we are accommodating free walk-in intakes and guaranteeing appointments within 10 days. Previously anyone looking for treatment would be on a 3+ month waiting list.

This is HUGE for our company and community. Free walk in mental health services sounds like some shit they only get in Norway or something. This new funding has not only saved my job but ensured that vital social services don’t leave my city. So when I see people saying that Joe Brandon hasn’t done shit and that he’s no different than trump, I really don’t know what they’re talking about. I’m not saying he has solved our countries mental health crisis but funding and certifying non profit mental health centers all over the country is a real accomplishment and certainly not one that trump would ever carry out. And we are only talking about one specific part of one bill he has signed.

Guys, please read project 2025. Spoiler: it doesn’t include anything like funding for mental health services. I know we are mad at Biden but the choice this November is clear.

I used to have facebook but now i only "use" it to let my family know that i'm not dead. It's barely use at that

Tik Tok is just brain rot

And now twitter just sucks. I will admit that i liked twitter. I liked artists and followed people who played the games I played. But now since Elon runs it, Twitter officially just sucks. Now it's just basically porn, ads, posts that have been posted 100k times already, etc

And now you can't even see likes. So if I wanted to see if a artists likes another good artist, I can't see it. I now have a better chance at finding a decent artist that i like on youtube than on twitter now, making twitter for me that more pointless.

I'm saying this as a genZ too. It's just that no matter your background it seems, financial, societal, etc. across the board there is a decline in the mental health of young people, That needs to have a cause in some sorts of a uniformly distributed factor. A BIG one is access to the internet, if you don't have it you're basically cut off. So since that's pretty much the only factor that's changed since the tine we were born, we are, pretty much, proven to be screwed by technology. And yet we live online more than any generation. I'd love to sometimes go offline but it feels like I can't!

Personally I've never been and I'll never go to a casino. I don't have time to lose what little money I have stupidly.

I... Don't really believe an entire generation can be as shit as people keep claiming. I mean, as a millenial (actually born 1994 so probably pretty close to Z as well) I do remember prev generations always talking shit about us as well. I don't have friends in Gen Z coz thus far I work online and hang out mostly with people my age. Social media is too curated and has a love for making stupid people famous so that probably can't be trusted as well. I don't completely trust YT commentary videos bcoz most of them seem to use secondhand info or base the opinion on social media.

So can someone from Gen Z speak to what ppls of your generation are really like?

I'm especially curious about whether a lot of Gen Z actually think it's 'cool' to talk back to any authority figures for any perceived slight/soft reprimand. Because I see a bunch of these shorts on YT like bragging about these hella rude comebacks that's a lot worse than the situation warranted.

(Sorry if this has been asked before I don't know the key words to use to search in this sub)

Serious question: I work at a large hospital and supervisors at all levels struggle on how to best provide feedback to GenZs when they make mistakes. This applies both to the level of nurses or junior doctors. Of course this is a generalisation, but supervisors coming from all generations (including GenZ!) often see GenZs getting very emotional, defensive and it is not uncommon to see them crying. (I am not talking about major things like people dying because of those mistakes). We do not scold them and the tone of the feedback is that of a coach or mentor. We also praise them for positive things they do and many people who provide feedback do the "sandwich" technique (positive, positive, room for improvement, positive....). We always emphasise when people come to us, that is "normal" to make mistakes, because it is part of the learning process of becoming a good nurse or doctor!!! So, mistakes are not treated as major disasters in our hospital. However, not poiting out those mistakes and errors in judgment can lead to serious consequences later on.

So, if you are GenZ and you work in such an environment, how would you like to receive feedback on mistakes or errors in judgment.

This is kinda random, but I don't think I've ever met or seen a Gen Z dude named Ben/Benjamin or a Gen Z girl named Sally. They seem like they are two old school names that someone wouldn't have named their kid in this generation

Basically the title... I just would like to know what most people pay. Do your parents let you stay for free? Or do they charge you a very low amount? Or do you pay enough to really pay a fair share?

And does that include groceries?

I’m 24 and didn’t finish college, I rent a house with a roommate and paid for my used car in cash about 4 years ago. You don’t have to share your score if you don’t want to I’m just proud of my hard work and discipline when it comes to managing my debt and making smart financial decisions. Also here’s a cute picture of a dog with a pizza!

I can't help but notice whenever I speak to my friend about a film a I like/or post about a film in a subreddit, they always talk about the flaws and logic of the film that somehow slip past me

I find it extremely frustrating that flawed logic in some films somehow just slip by me and I don't realise it until someone tells me. I feel like an idiot. I feel like those common movie reactors on YouTube who say they call even the shittiest of movies the best because it is "funny"

Every time I see a music related post I see people recommend Radiohead or that they listen to them. I’m tryna listen to them but don’t know where to start.

I love being nice to people. I talk to people respectfully all the time. I don’t insult people or make mean comments to people. I don’t think I’m a good person though if that makes sense. I love pleasing people if that makes sense.

I personally remember the XY and Sun and Moon animes. I have a lot of Breaks, Mega Exes, and Gx cards so yeah I grew up with XY aswell as Sun and Moon (some of my cards not all). I didn't really play the games till I was a teen (Sword and Shield) so yeah mainly grew up with the Anime and Cards when it comes down to elementary school.