What I'm Thinking About Today ...

Last week I had to go in for my biennial lupus exam. The doctor I regularly see is always pleasant to talk with, and she’s pretty thorough when it comes to test results and exams. She gave me the usual speech about how, despite whatever I might be feeling, I looked good. (Yeah, thanks.) Then she did the awful thing: she sent me for more tests. So down to the lab I went.

At the lab, I encountered a number of younger people wearing blue lab coats, all milling mindlessly around. My name was called, and I was ushered in to the back room for a blood draw.

When I offered my name and birthdate (they’re supposed to ask for it), the phlebotomist looked at me blankly, nodded slightly, and started gathering the needed supplies. I wasn’t sure if she had heard me, so I tried a different tactic.

“How are you today?” I asked, as is my custom. She froze, looked at me for a moment, her mouth slightly agape, her eyes blank, her face registering no reaction whatsoever.

Little did I know I had just received ‘the Gen-Z stare’!

My immediate reaction was ‘What the f-ck is up with that?’ I let it slide and remained quiet during the whole process.

When I left, I tiptoed carefully out of the lab, like the last scene in the movie ‘The Birds,’ where the survivors quietly and carefully tiptoe past rows and rows of birds hanging out on the playground equipment. (If you haven’t seen it, you should; it’s creepy as anything!) I made a point not to make eye contact with anyone, lest I cause them to swarm.

So - the ‘Gen-Z Stare.’ (The what? What the heck is that?) According to an article I found yesterday, Gen-Zers are prone to using a prolonged blank-faced stare in various social situations. I’ve encountered it almost everywhere I go, and although I’m not horrified by it, nor ‘terrified’ as the author of that article suggests, I do find it both amusing and disturbing, depending on circumstances.

From the HuffPost:

On TikTok, people have coined the “Gen Z stare” as a way to describe the eerie, blank stare that the generation born between 1997 and 2012 often offers up to strangers they meet. Instead of a customary greeting, these young people do the opposite. They don’t react and stay silent to whatever you might be saying.

Apparently it is some sort of a ‘thing’ now, an ‘etiquette crisis’ worthy of extensive commentary and debate as to its etiology and intent. The MSM would have us believe that this specific action has resulted in a sort of generational warfare in which ‘older generations’ (especially Boomers) find themselves on the losing end because they insist that Gen-Z ‘conform to some obscure social standard’ that has yet to be fully defined (I think they’re referring to ‘courtesy’).

(Boomers are apparently the ‘Big Ticket Targets’ in main-stream media: the more Boomers you can ‘own’ in some way, the higher your score. But I digress…)

In terms of etiology, there are a number of theories:

• Gen-Zers did not have a chance to develop good social skills because of the pandemic (which doesn’t work for me as a reason unless somehow they were only four years old during the pandemic and have been in suspended animation since);
• Growing up, they spent a great deal of time online and did not have regular in-person interactions (and given what I often see from parents and the way they interact with their kids, I might allow this one);
• They don’t feel the need to conform to society’s standards of behavior (so terminal rudeness is really just a sign of non-conformity?) 

According to the authors of a number of ‘news-outlet articles,’ there are thoroughly researched and verified theories as to why young people do this, but those authors choose not to cite references or discuss research methodology, because, well, ‘science.’

A few young people interviewed for the articles I read claimed that they routinely use the ‘stare’ as a defense mechanism; they slip into a ‘zone’ to protect themselves from information overload and sensory assault.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I would prefer that the person who is about to stick me with a very sharp object intended to draw blood NOT BE in a ‘zone’ outside of the zone I am also currently inhabiting. They don’t need to tell me their life stories – I just need to know that they’re conscious.

Does anyone remember the movie ‘The Time Machine’ – the good one from 1960 with Rod Taylor, not the crappy one with Guy Pearce? When the ‘Way-Back Machine’ spins out of control, he finds himself in a strange time thousands of years in the future, where there are now only two types of humanoids: the Eloi and the Morlocks.

The Eloi are all young and beautiful (and surprisingly blonde), and dumber than dirt. They have no ability to reason or empathize, they do not seem to care about their history or circumstances, and they have minimal interactional skills. They also do pretty much nothing to defend themselves when needed.

The Morlocks live underground, never see the light of day, and apparently eat Eloi; they are blue-skinned, easily injured and have terrible haircuts, much like a few basement-dwellers I know.

Whenever the Morlocks are hungry (or bored) they use an alarm system that puts the Eloi into a trance-like state and draws them towards underground caverns from which they cannot escape. That is what comes to mind for me when I see the ‘Stare.’ I suppose a current-day equivalent would be the announcement of a Taylor Swift concert.

I understand being overwhelmed by external stimuli, and I understand having a 

short attention span, but I have never understood rudeness. You don’t have to be effusive and bubbly (like Violet; if she were quiet for a long time people would think she was ill), but I can’t think of a single justification for being rude. A simple response is all that’s required, otherwise I’m going to start thinking that all these young people are suffering from severe head injuries.