If I never see another article about what Gen Z finds “cringe” again, it will be too soon.
Just when I thought the generational eye-rolls couldn’t get any louder, a new ‘cringe’ declaration has entered the chat.
This latest tempest in a TikTok teapot involves Gen Z’s apparent superhero-esque ability to detect AI-written articles by spotting an em dash. Yes — this perfectly innocent punctuation mark — the same punctuation mark that has been used by Emily Dickinson, Joan Didion, and countless award-winning journalists is now, according to 19-year-olds who have barely finished their freshman composition classes, irrefutable evidence of robot writing.
Readers, let me assure you: I am real, and I just used an em dash correctly.
Please understand, I’m not knocking Gen Z. Our social media platforms depend on these occasional generational skirmishes to boost their engagement and provide content creators everything they need to make a perfect outrage omelet. Our news outlets also rely on these “kids these days” stories for a quick bump in ratings.
In fact, your friendly statewide columnist may or may not also write columns with “Gen Z” in the headline because these manufactured feuds drive revenue.
So no, I’m not knocking Gen Z, but a few folks my age or older seem like they could use a talking to. Because what’s truly baffling isn’t that Gen Z has opinions — it’s that so many adults my age seem to care. Why are we, as experienced adults, so desperate for the approval of people who don’t remember life before the iPhone?
Gen Z just finished high school, many of them are in college, and some have entered the workforce. They didn’t learn the em dash in their grammar classes. They haven’t read enough sophisticated writing to see the proper use of this punctuation mark of beauty. They’re simply going on what they have been taught and their lack of experience in the written word is showing.
I don’t have a problem with that. I do not spend my days lamenting about what people with less life experience think. What I have a problem with is the people in my age group who fret over whether or not they, personally, are “cringe.”
Aside from proving once again that middle-aged anxiety and social media mix about as well as Justin Bieber and the law, this obsession with Gen Z approval also proves that many of us have forgotten what it means to be a confident adult.
Remember when Gen Z mocked “The Millennial Pause” — that brief hesitation before speaking in videos? We developed this habit because early video technology had a lag time and because we know from experience that a simple network glitch can cut off the beginning or end of a video. Gen Z wouldn’t know this, of course.
But what did Millennials do? Instead of laughing it off, countless think pieces emerged from writers my age, desperately explaining themselves to teenagers who have been on this Earth just long enough to drink a cup of coffee.
My grandmother was a member of the Greatest Generation and my parents were Baby Boomers. Say what you will about those two generations, but I don’t recall them ever spending even two seconds worrying about what was groovy, cool, awesome, bad, radical, awesomesauce, or amazeballz when I was growing up.
My grandmother lived through The Great Depression and World War II. Not once did she ever ask teenage me if her cardigan was “cringe” or if her stories about rationing sugar during wartime were “giving main character energy.” She simply lived her life, shared her wisdom, and let me figure out that she knew more than I did.
My parents never worried about whether their music choices or fashion sense met with my adolescent approval. They never hashtagged their struggles with #adulting — they just did the work of being adults. They paid bills, fixed what was broken, and somehow managed to do it all without seeking validation from people who were barely old enough to have their driver’s license.
Maybe that’s what we’re missing today—a quiet confidence that doesn’t need a clap-back, a viral meme, or a comment section full of “likes” to feel validated.
Instead, we get grown adults nervously combing through TikTok trends, hoping they’re not one em dash away from being digitally disowned.
Here’s a radical idea: instead of seeking the approval of people half our age, maybe we should start acting like the adults we supposedly are. Maybe we should be good examples instead of erratic trend chasers and people-pleasers.
B.T. Clark
B.T. Clark is an award-winning journalist and the Publisher of The Georgia Sun. He has 25 years of experience in journalism and served as Managing Editor of Neighbor Newspapers in metro Atlanta for 15 years and Digital Director at Times-Journal Inc. for 8 years. His work has appeared in several newspapers throughout the state including Neighbor Newspapers, The Cherokee Tribune and The Marietta Daily Journal. He is a Georgia native and a fifth-generation Georgian.
