If you find yourself frowning upon something someone younger is doing, that most likely means one of two things: you’re either too old to understand what the current youth is up to—as most of us probably are—or you’re simply a grumpy person in general, which is an entirely different matter.

If you belong to the former category, find comfort in the fact that you are far from the only one baffled by all sorts of youngster trends. Be it a new hairstyle every other male under insert a certain age here is walking around with or activities teenagers are taking part in, it might not be easy to identify with a generation that grew up in an entirely different world. But we should probably at least try to understand them, no matter how confusing it all is. (Goodness knows, we’ve gone through a phase of trends our parents found odd, too.)

If you’re curious about what are some of the things young people do that absolutely baffle those older than them, scroll down to find netizens’ answers to an ‘Ask Reddit’ thread on the matter started by u/Fyre-Bringer to find out.

If you scroll down, you will also find Bored Panda’s interview with Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center of Innovation in Social Science, Dr. Deborah Carr, who was kind enough to answer a few of our questions regarding generational differences.

Read More: 50 Younger Generation Trends Older People Just Can’t Wrap Their Heads Around

#1

Just fully watching videos in public with no headphones. Where are your headphones? I don’t want to hear your TikTok clips.

Image credits: Kataddyr

#2

Gen X here. I don’t understand the eyelash thing where they’re so long and fluffy that you look like Snuffleupagus. I also don’t understand the nails that are so long you can’t function. Like, how do you wipe?

Image credits: nrkelly

#3

Not knowing how to use punctuation. The lack of punctuation drives me nuts. I shouldn’t have to read something 50 times because you don’t know how to place a period or a comma when needed.

Image credits: meandtwoboys

#4

Assaulting people as a prank.

Image credits: Clean_Phreaq

#5

Making every single phone call via speakerphone, especially when holding the phone directly next to the side of their head because they can’t hear.

Image credits: veni_vidi_vici47

#6

Literally commiting crimes as part of social media trends. Especially the “licking ice cream at the store and putting it back” challenge, that’s a straight up health code violation.

Image credits: Heroic-Forger

#7

Creating GoFundMe pages for cosmetic surgery and/or procedures.

Image credits: marcellad4d6dcad63

#8

Not being taught to tell time by where the hands are on a clock.

#9

Millennial here: Baffled at the number of people having children with various “baby daddies” and “baby mamas” that all seem to be horrible people. Do they not vet their partners at all before making them parents? It’s like there’s not even the expectation anymore that two people would raise their kids together.

(Note: This probably sounds judgemental, but I genuinely am just baffled.).

#10

Doing incredibly embarrassing things for social media attention.

Image credits: hazzmg

#11

Mostly Im baffled by how poorly educated young people are these days. History, Geography, Sciences, Maths, Literature..so much knowledge is missing.

Image credits: ZapatillaLoca

#12

Face tattoos. I don’t really have a problem with tattoos generally, but come on man, it’s your face.

#13

Broccoli haircuts.

Image credits: Johnny_Menace

#14

That literacy rates are plummeting. This one is so confusing! How can you be the chronically online generation unable to read?

Image credits: Tough_Music4296

#15

Taking parents to job interviews.
Lincoln_Park_Pirate:
It just happened at my workplace for the first time (television). Blew my mind. Mom waited in the lobby but came in for the negotiations. Applicant was 26 years old.

Image credits: Tsquare43

#16

Becoming addicted to nicotine. I thought younglings would be a little less stupid than us.

Image credits: computer_crisps_dos

#17

Young people seek information by watching TikTok content rather than Googling the answers. If you have a lot of time to spare, you will often get good info, but I’m middle-aged, and I’ve always been a big reader. I will do almost anything to avoid having to watch stuff (or listen, for that matter) when I can more quickly visually skim and immediately determine if the information is relevant to me and seems legit.

#18

Anything Andrew Tate.

#19

I’ve trained 3 early 20s co-workers now that don’t use the Shift key to capitalize letters. They hit caps lock, type the letter to be capitalized, then hit caps lock again.

I can’t wrap my head around it.

Image credits: mowglimg

#20

I’m not really too baffled, I just see a lot of worrying trends.

The main thing that concerns me is the steep decline in mental health among young people since smartphones went mainstream and we got the internet in our pockets. I’m not shocked at all to see it but it is very bad.

Image credits: protomanEXE1995

#21

Vaping. Isn’t it clear by now that inhaling fumes is not really a good idea?

Image credits: LordGigu

#22

The popularity of “nuisance streamers” with younger folks. I don’t find being a public nuisance even a little bit entertaining or funny, especially when its being filmed.

Also just in general the trend of filming, photographing and trying to make “content” out of their entire life in some vain hope of becoming internet famous. I don’t get it. Last thing i’d ever want to do is have my entire life posted on the internet.

#23

Allowing every one of their friends on Snapchat to know their location at all times. Like seriously. My 23 year old coworker and her friends are constantly revoking and then reinstating their visible location depending on if they’re happy or mad with each other. If someone notices that they can’t see where another person is, they’ll actually bring it up, wondering what they did to upset them. Her best friend will ask her friend to check her boyfriends location, and whichever friend he told her he’d be with, to make sure they match. I told my coworker that it’s weird for everyone you know to know where you are.

At least I can kinda understand family members knowing, but even then, my siblings don’t need to know where I am at all times, and my parents should maybe stop constantly checking once I hit 18? 21 surely. Lol. Her sister will text her asking why she went certain places because she constantly checks location on her. They have an app on their phones specifically so they can always see where family members are. Her dad texted her once she got home and didn’t come inside after 5 minutes. He knew she just drove up. She was simply typing out a reply a text to a friend before getting out of her car. Again…she’s 23.

Idk, I guess if you grow up with it, you don’t think it’s weird. I’m 43, I certainly didn’t grow up with people having the ability to know where I am at all times unless I told them or called them.

Image credits: CallejaFairey

#24

Not using condoms. My generation was raised hearing about Ryan White and seeing Very Special Episodes about why we didn’t want AIDS and everything else. Apparently some younger people aren’t worried about it anymore.

#25

Making fun of another kid because they don’t have a specific water tumbler. It sounds like somebody is trying to parody “making fun of other kids for having the ‘wrong’ brand of clothes or phone”.

#26

All the self labeling. When I was young, we avoided labels at all costs!

Image credits: 1mamapajama

#27

Calling anyone with a different opinion a troll. I see it over and over and over.  I do not understand and I can only feel pity.

#28

I listened to a 23-year-old (more than a decade younger than me) say she wanted to start ‘preventative Botox.’ Girl…

#29

I know a girl that had plastic surgery by the time she was 19. When I first met her, she was literally a ten. Now, she’s funny looking.

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