Extremely Online: OK, Millennials
as a millennial,” a young woman announces, eyes locked on her iPhone camera. Soon her background morphs into a photograph of Hillary Clinton, whom she kisses on the cheek before picking up a tablet streaming
The Office. “Ahahaha, Michael,” she mocklaughs. Created by @glamdemon2004, the video is one of many that cropped up on TikTok this summer showing Gen Z’s concerted ridicule of millennials.
Sure, the roasts are meant to be funny— playfully chiding the generation for eating avocado toast and thinking that enjoying Harry Potter movies are a personality trait. But like all jokes, these hinge on truth: that every generation is ripe for taunting and desperate to define itself in opposition to its near elders. Not unlike the deadpan dismissal “OK, boomer,” these microfights are Gen Z’s way of waging the endless war over who is less shitty. The TikToks can be read as satirical portraits of millennial whiteness, but they’re also drawing a line in the political sand. They say: We’re in. You’re out. As one user, @opposumgal, says, “We’re doing the work [you] were supposed to be doing. Baby, y’all were supposed to save the climate … What did you contribute? Mumford & Sons?”
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