The shift in voting patterns between 2020 and 2024 has sparked lively debates online, with much of the discourse focusing on the ongoing rivalry between Gen Z and Millennials.
Many Gen Z individuals have expressed frustration with Millennials, emphasizing the differences in their cultural touchstones and online behaviors. One Gen Z user tweeted, “They got Obama elected twice, like they’re so much better than my generation,” referencing the Millennial-era political movement that brought Barack Obama into office twice.
Meanwhile, Millennials have not held back in their own critiques. A Millennial responded by saying, “Oh, the skinny jeans and side parts are cringe? Literally no one I talk to got radicalized by a YouTuber selling muscle milk, you illiterate dipshits.”
Another tweet hit particularly hard for Gen Z: “I’ll take a BuzzFeed Millennial over a TikTok-brained Gen Z ANY DAY.”
The back-and-forth between the generations has become a hot topic, as people weigh in on their respective pop culture experiences and social awareness. One Millennial argued that their generation grew up with a healthy skepticism about the internet, with pop culture reflecting distrust in digital narratives. “We grew up on the Matrix and were young adults when Catfish dropped. A lot of our pop culture was based on being distrustful of what you see on the internet,” they said.
Meanwhile, some Millennials reflected on their own generational pride, with one user declaring, “Millennials are the last good generation. Sorry, not sorry.”
There’s also a clear frustration with the current state of younger generations. A Gen Z critic put it bluntly: “Gen Z gotta be the worst generation of all time. Can’t read, can’t write, can’t add, can’t fuck, can’t joke, can’t dance, can’t dress, can’t drink, can’t smoke, can’t not elect a fascist conman.”
Another pointed out the troubling trends among some Gen Z men, saying, “Libbed out so hard I forgot Gen Z men are being raised on a steady diet of Andrew Tate and Twitch conspiracy theorists.”
Still, some Gen Z voices have acknowledged that Millennials got it right on certain issues, like the body positivity movement, with one tweet saying, “They’re cringe, but they were so right about the body posi movement.”
In the midst of this generational bickering, Millennials continue to assert their dominance in certain areas, such as computer literacy and a general skepticism toward online disinformation. One user wrote, “Crazy how Millennials were the only ones to learn how to use computers and we apparently are also the only ones who learned to see through disinformation on those same exact computers.”
Millennials are also recognizing their place as the most educated demographic to date. “Millennials coming to terms with how they are the most educated demographic to have ever existed and will ever exist for the foreseeable future,” tweeted one.
As the debate rages on, it’s clear that the generational rivalry between Millennials and Gen Z is far from over, with each side presenting their unique perspectives and frustrations.