Opinion | What’s up with the ‘Gen Z stare’?

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If you’ve been on TikTok lately, you’ve seen it: the “Gen Z stare.” A deadpan face. Slight frown. Eyes somewhere between focus and frustration.

One clip shows a young woman staring blankly while her boss explains how “nobody wants to work anymore.” The caption that goes with it says she is practicing her “Gen Z stare” before her 9 a.m. meeting.

It’s a look that’s launched a thousand think pieces and triggered even more confusion across generations.

Some see it as disengagement. Others call it attitude. But what if it’s neither? What if it’s just how we’ve learned to survive in a world full of contradictions?

In group chats and voice notes, we laugh about it. One friend described it as “buffering in real life.” Another said, “I give that stare at least three times a day.” Most say it is a pause to consider how best to respond to a ridiculous statement or question. And while it’s funny, it’s also familiar.

It’s the pause before you answer a question like “Where do you see yourself in five years?” when the job market feels more like a game of musical chairs with half the seats missing. It’s the silence that follows being told to “lean in” when your rent, student loans and mental health all feel like weights pulling in the other direction.

We’re not zoning out. We’re just choosing not to perform enthusiasm for people or systems that haven’t earned it.

More than 2,800 young adults were recently surveyed by the Schultz Family Foundation and HarrisX. They found that nearly half of Gen Z feels unprepared for the jobs of the future, and only a third view their career as a top priority and as central to their success in life. Not because we are unqualified or don’t care. But because we’ve stopped pretending the old system still works.

We’re adapting. And often with a raised eyebrow and a blank face.

And yes, we’re building new maps in real time. On TikTok, YouTube and Discord, we’re swapping résumé tips, sharing interview red flags, and figuring out how to pivot careers when AI automates the entry-level jobs we were told to chase, leaving us with years of experience required for the lowest positions. We’re learning how to navigate a world that changed before we even arrived.

So next time you see one of us staring at you during a meeting or looking mildly unimpressed on a video call, don’t panic. We’re still here. We’re just observing. Thinking. Adapting. And maybe side-eyeing capitalism or certain remarks while we’re at it.

And if you really want to know what we’re thinking? Check the group chat.