The evolution of hand gestures and Generation Z
Asmile is a smile but a dial’s not a dial. You probably have no idea what I’m talking about so here’s an explanation. New Yorker by the name of Daniel Alvarado shared a Tik Tok video of his two kids miming a phone call and their version of the gesture was simply placing their palms against their ear.
The video went viral. (Confession: I have never used Tik Tok because I can’t really figure it out, but it’s very popular. In China alone there are over three million users).
Linguists have identified the Generation Z problem, as they call it, by explaining that they have no lived experience of technology we previously used – such as landlines, for example. Close your eyes and travel back to the early ‘90’s, when if you wanted someone to call you or to let them know you would call them, all you did was simply place your pinkie near your mouth and your thumb on your ear because that’s what landlines looked like and how they worked – an earpiece and mouthpiece in one simple banana-shaped structure. If someone placed their palm on their ear, at best you would probably think there’s something terribly wrong with them – like maybe they have a horrible ear infection or some sort of tiny insect or spider that was driving them crazy by beating on their ear drum.
Language expert Prof Vyv Evans, in an article published by the Guardian, said: “The thing about gestures is that they are culture-specific and so mean different things to different socio-economic or generational groups.”
It makes sense, right? Why would a Gen Z individual understand what a police officer means when he pulls them over and makes a cranking, rotating gesture with his hand? They have never seen a roll-down window – and because cops are not of their generation, I have yet to see one mimic pressing a button that symbolises the same thing. I don’t get pulled over often because I don’t drive a lot, but when I do, I still get the ol’ roly-poly mime but I’m fortunate enough to understand what it means.
In that same situation the latest generation might think the law officer is participating in some weird TikTok challenge, who can say?
As for the culture-specific portion of Evans’ study, I can speak to this personally. A couple of years ago when we visited Thailand we found ourselves developing all sorts of strange gestures to request a thing. At most restaurants a mere air signature had zero meaning, in more than one instance staff just assumed we were calling them over, at which point we either showed them our wallets to express that we wanted to pay them or just handed the money over.
All of this makes a lot of sense. But isn’t it strange to think we live in world where palms on ears don’t symbolise ear infections and opening and closing your hands doesn’t symbolize a book, although, to be fair, I have yet to see a youth scroll up and down in the air with their index fingers or tap an imaginary corner as a symbol to turn the page on their iPads or Kindles.