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It took me two years to post my first TikTok. Before I could see how awkward I was on the video, I’d hit record, mutter to the camera, and hastily hit delete. I took the plunge after working out enough to eliminate any signs that I was about 30 years old trying to be cool. Or so I thought.
Apparently I’m still guilty of the Millennium Hiatus. After I hit the “Record” button, I wait a few seconds before I start talking to make sure TikTok is actually recording. Last year, 28-year-old Boston-based YouTuber and TikToker @nisipisa even coined the term on TikTok about how Taylor Swift can’t avoid the angry hiatus in her videos. “My God! Will she ever stop being sympathetic,” says @nisipisa, herself a Millennial. Gen Zers make up a larger portion of TikTok’s base and have grown up filming themselves enough to believe they’re recording correctly. Therefore, when it comes to short-form videos on Instagram (Reels), YouTube (Shorts), and Snapchat (Spotlight), the Millennial break is easier to find.
Unfortunately for me, today’s most culturally influential social platforms are no longer built around Millennials, and the break is far from the only giveaway. Millennials — and their behaviors — have defined the online ecosystem that has reigned for a decade, adopting sites like MySpace, Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter as jungle gyms in their internet playground. But now that we’re well into the TikTok era, the cracks are starting to show. While Instagram and Facebook are still popular, they’re trying to capture the magic of TikTok by turning it into videos and other ultra-shareable content that doesn’t come naturally to Millennials (even those born in the early 1990s like me). Now that Gen Z is taking over the spotlight, the internet quirks that Millennials have called their own for years can feel a little dated, if not downright annoying. The first generation to grow up with social media in the age of the mobile internet, Millennials are now the first generation to come of age, bearing the hallmarks of a bygone digital era.
After my eyes were opened to the Millennium break, I began to see my age everywhere in my internet experience. I get confused every time I change my Instagram design. I use GIFs to make jokes in Slack. I posted the lyrics of the song on my Instagram story. The range of behaviors is so broad that it’s so basic of my online behavior over the past 15 years that it’s not even worth fighting.
Of course, Gen Z has embraced them too, and the sarcasm once reserved for Boomers is now coming my way. “The quintessential Millennial’s online behavior is mostly silly little nuances that come together to create a persona that’s very confused and excited about normal or mundane things,” says Michael Stevens, a 24-year-old TikTok creator based in New England. , he told me via email. His impressions of Millennials have garnered millions of views on TikTok. These “silly little nuances” include starting videos with a sigh, dramatically zooming in on their faces for emphasis, and using phrases like “doggo” and “I can’t do it” that have become popular on Twitter and Tumblr. “My husband just went to the new Trader Joe’s near our house and I think he won the internet for the day,” Stevens said in a Millennial parody from July. “If it’s about adulthood, sign me up.”
Millennial internetisms exist because they were once the primary way to communicate online. Someone tweeted this in 2014 Parks and RecreationLeslie Knope and Ben Wyatt gave them “all the feels,” which would be acceptable, but now Gen Z is just using it as fodder for second-hand embarrassment, the same way Millennials groan as their Boomer parents try to navigate their Apple TV. Millennialisms spawned an entire genre of parody. On TikTok, creator Bianca Scaglione makes Millennial parodies for her 910,000 followers, exaggerating their awkwardness, especially live. (“And then they end up going live by accidentally trying to filter,” he opined.) Other creators mocked Millennials for how they posed in photos (no more selfies from above), for using Gen Z expressions (“slay, bestie” ) on TikTok for adopting something called “BuzzFeed accent when talking to the camera”. The list goes on: Millennials take Instagram very seriously, use portrait mode and fill their captions with obligatory words. They love to turn social media bios into lists — mine, for example, reads: “Kate. Ravenclaw. Cat mother. Knitting enthusiast. PA > OH > NYC.”
And given their need to get in on every new internet trend, Millennials are also sometimes active participants in their own criticism. Unable to beat the Gen Z creators who parodied them, some Millennials are joining them, recreating the fashion, hair and makeup of their youth in the same popular videos.
Millennials aren’t the only generation to be subjected to widespread and often unflattering stereotypes online: for example, notions of Boomers hating change or Gen Xers being lazy. Statement in 2019 OK Boomer went viral online as a symbol of collective exhaustion among both Gen Z and Millennial users, fighting stereotypes handed down to them from above. In the same year, a Facebook group called “All of us pretending to be boomers” was launched; 285,000 members still roleplay daily, posting pixelated memes about cars and asking “DID ANYONE ELSE LOSE POWER??” asks questions like
But this kind of mockery is different. While Boomers have fallen out of the internet zeitgeist, they haven’t fallen as far as Millennials, the first cohort to watch their youth fade in real time, heavily documented in memes, trends and headlines. internet they once reigned. They are no longer hot new product brands, nor are they the brands the world turns to for the next fashion trend. The internet has moved on and Millennials can either adapt or, like Gen Xers who still listen to Pearl Jam, don’t care if their choices make them look old.
While none of this bruises my ego, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. A 35-year-old desperately adopting the mannerisms of a 20-year-old is a different kind of stupid. Instead, despite the occasional embarrassment, the rest of the Millennial tics have gone from trendy to nostalgic. Also, when Gen Alpha comes for Gen Z’s internet, you better think I’m taking notes.