Gen Z gets a bad rap. Various members of older generations have painted them as weak, neurotic, helpless, and fragile. This is as simplistic as it is insulting. While these negative characteristics appear in most generations, Zoomers are not especially prone to them, and they are certainly not the wilting flowers that most of their critics insist they are.
Take, for instance, a news story that will not die.
Zoomers are honest, far more stable than we older generations will admit, and have a unique tenderness of spirit, which is astonishing, considering the timeline they’ve grown up in.
In October 2022, the Daily Mail ran “Gen-Zers say they feel attacked whenever they see a 'passive aggressive' thumbs-up emoji” and the New York Post: “Gen Z canceled the 'hostile' thumbs-up emoji and wants to ban these 9 others.”
Psychology Today even hopped onto the pile, with an overly thoughtful examination of the question, “What's So Wrong About Using the Thumbs-Up Emoji?”
Last month, the story reappeared. It mostly rattled around the buzzier spaces of the internet, but the Independent published an editorial titled “The thumbs-up emoji isn’t passive-aggressive – Gen Z need to get over it.”
“Get over it” can be such an ironic phrase. In this case, the people who need to get over it are the ones using the words “get over it,” where “it” denotes a weird, accusatory obsession with an entire generation being accused of obsessive weirdness.
I would guess that a fresh batch of “thumb emoji Gen Z” articles will appear two years from now.
Of course, there have also been plenty of more considerate takes, mostly from the highbrow outlets that are otherwise intolerable. This editorial by the Washington Post, “Gen Z’s new punctuation,” looks at the “major transformation in which emojis young people use to communicate humor.”
Maybe emojis are only for us old people, a kind of modern hieroglyphs. There are generational differentiations in the realm of emojis.
Other sources — myself included — prefer to see emojis as an advancement in the power of words. The thumbs-up emoji is, after all, now a legally binding signature in Canada. Now, admittedly, I’m often unsure what they’re saying. But it’s because I avoid learning their slang, as a kind of respect. Which also means that I could fundamentally misunderstand the character of the generation. What if they really don’t like the thumbs-up emoji? How would their movement affect the world?
The burden of proof would rest on them. They would have to convince greater society to abandon the thumbs-up emoji for the sake of a more peaceful society. Or they would swallow the annoyance and make a joke about it.
We've all experienced a strange and nagging habit unique to a previous generation. A few of these rankle us, even if it’s unclear why. Maybe something about the specific mannerisms or customs seems rude to us.
By the way, these annoyances can lead to positive change in society. Minutiae of this sort can become the glue that fortifies a generation, even an entire zeitgeist. But it can also become the giant clown shoes on the generation’s state fair caricature. So even if Gen Z were outraged by the sight of emoji thumbs, Zoomers would be no different from us and our own eccentric dislikes and hang-ups. But that’s not even the case. So I’ll take them at their word that the “Gen Z triggered by thumbs-up emoji” narrative is contrived.
Zoomers are honest, far more stable than we older generations will admit, and have a unique tenderness of spirit, which is astonishing, considering the timeline they’ve grown up in. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, they missed proms, graduations, freshman parties, and classrooms; they were forced into isolation instead. They have a warped sense of normalcy.
They’ve handled it well.
What I see in them is the next generation of Americans following roughly the same path as the wild young folks who preceded them. This revelation ought to transform cacti into daisies. It should fall on Millennials, Gen Xers, and Boomers like a cartoon anvil. Zoomers are working hard right now. And they won’t comply with some of the social assumptions we mistook for mandates. We haven’t even gotten to see their unique inventions yet, only glimpses. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some participation trophies to polish.
