The me gusta face has no business being that silly lmao

Growing up, I was pretty impressionable. I've loved horror movies and creature features since I was a little kid.

One night, my older cousin decided to show me The Blair Witch Project. This was a few years after the movie came out and a little before I had open access to the internet; I was around nine years old.

He managed to convince me it was real and we watched it late at night. I was terrified. I remember having nightmares about being lost in the woods at night and the house at the end for months afterward. It didn't help that the house I grew up in was near a patch of woods.

Finding out it was fake a few years later was kinda therapeutic. Lol.

As an adult, I love the movie. It’s had a huge influence on my taste in film and horror. I love found-footage movies, but my biggest gripe is a lot of them waste the concept. The Blair Witch Project is a movie that utilizes the format to its full potential. It feels real in a way a lot of those movies don't. I think it has held up really well.

Do you guys have any movies that traumatized you as a kid but you later came to love?

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I'm curious about what games Zillennials are into but lurking Gen Xers, Millennials and Gen Zers are free to answer as well of course.

Growing up, I don't remember the world being as political or polarized as it is today. Social media, especially platforms like Twitter and Facebook, has changed so much over the years. I used to think of it as a place where we could connect and discuss everyday topics without it turning into political “wars.” But now, it feels like every conversation has some kind of political angle. The changes with Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter into the weird X have only amplified this shift. Does anyone else feel the same way?

Even in events like Eurovision, things have changed. I remember a time when people voted for songs based on the music, but now it feels like the focus is more on the most spectacular performance, with the music often taking a backseat. The 2000s to around 2014 had so many great entries that people genuinely appreciated for the music itself.

Speaking of entertainment, what happened to the good old days of movies and TV shows? With the rise of streaming services like Netflix, it seems like the quality of films and series has taken a hit. Personally, I prefer collecting older titles from second hand shops, anything from the '80s, '90s, or early 2000s. The humor in movies back then was so much better. I mean, shows from 2007 felt so much funnier than what we get today, at least were I live.

Sure, we have faster tech now with 5G and better smartphones, but there are definitely some things that were just better before.

I wasn’t a LEGOS kid, but a Lincoln log kid. I wasn’t really a Barbie girl either (I would draw sharpie on them, chop their hair & pull their heads off LOL, anyone else destroy Barbie’s?) I remember the Rosie O’Donnell Barbie and she terrified me! That doll was just really scary to me for some reason. However I preferred Polly pocket and you best believe I chewed on all the rubber clothes. I loved Bratz. Bratz everything. Bratz rock angels & Bratz forever diamondz video game on the PlayStation 2. And can’t forget the RC white convertible that came from the forever diamondz line. I was obsessed with the Betty Spaghetti dolls too, I wish those would make a comeback. I feel with being a zillennial, we only had a small portion of time where we played with toys until the booming of technology blew up in our faces and then we all transitioned to being chronically online. What toys do you remember playing with?

I feel like 2007 was a great year, but I can't remember much of anything in particular that happened that year. Maybe because a lot of us were coming towards the end of our childhood/becoming teenagers and it's one of the first years we truly remember well? Or maybe there were just a lot of great pop culture things going on at that time, I'm not sure. I'm curious what everyone's thoughts and memories of 2007 are!

Ya'll already know this. I don't need to say this. But I think a lot of us would be a lot happier, and maybe not even use this sub that often, if we all had a good group of friends around us and saw each other more often.

Yes, there's jobs and commitments and other things that unfortunately make us all too busy to see other people. I'm not denying that. But that IS the root problem to a lot of our anxieties. That and our comparisons to other "more successful" people in our age groups online (and of course financial and economic struggles. But I'm focusing on more intrinsic stuff)

But after Thanksgiving dinner this year and talking with family members I haven't spoken to in forever... You realize that you ain't alone in your struggles. I guess that is the same here with this sub, but it's different in real life. If you've got that smaller group of people who actually know you and care about you and you can trust and be yourself around (rather than just constantly reading through bags and bags of comments and icons from people you don't know projecting their own experiences onto you. Not necessarily with this sub, but others) life begins to feel a little bit better again. Dare I say, magical again. You feel like a human again.

I know it's easier said than done to find such people if you don't have them in your life. But if you do have them. Even if it's just one person, reach out to them. NOW (I mean, it's Saturday. Perfect day to check up on a friend). Because although Reddit can be helpful in finding likeminded people, if you stay on it and rely on it for too long, it'll age you just as fast as time itself. Saying from experience.

Do you think our micro-generation has the highest population of NEETs or Shut-ins?

I haven’t looked up data on this topic but from my anecdotal experience, many of my friends and people I graduated highschool and college alongside are mostly unemployed and not looking for a job. A few of them used to have healthy social lives and loved to go out and just do things and post Covid, they became almost total shut-ins, like barely go out to get groceries etc but otherwise spend all day in their room/house.

I’m not judging them whatsoever as I have been both things and only recently recovering from this and learning to go out and do productive things, job hunting etc - just very interested in hearing about this topic in relation to the lives of Zillennials or mid to late twenties crowd post pandemic.

I understand shut-in is a different thing from being a NEET but I feel like it’s worth a mention as well.

NEET: abbreviation for not in education, employment, or training: used by the government to describe a young person who is no longer in school and does not have a job or is not training to do a job. Unemployment. anti-unemployment.

bear with me here, I don’t mean to give my whole life story but rather some context into why I am in situations where this is noticeable

Also, Edit: ik higher education is just not financially feasible for many people so I don't want this to come off as something I'm ungrateful for or unaware of how privileged it is, but I just wanted to share bc its where I am at in my life, and I feel like many people can relate in some way, even if not directly to this perspective.

I might be in the minority here, but I noticed a shift in values between those who went to college before COVID and those who went during or after COVID. I am also aware that I might be projecting right now and that this story is hyper-specific to me, but I also feel like people around my age might be able to relate because there has definitely been a shift in personalities and party culture if you went to college before v. during v. after-COVID.

I went to a party school and joined a frat where blacking out was the goal of drinking most of the times. I’m almost 30 years old so I went to school between 2013-2017. Following school I worked in sales for 5 years and for the first 2 of those years I worked for a company that highly encouraged drinking and again blacking out. I also smoked a ton of weed from like 2014-2021.

It wasn’t really until the summer of 2019 that I got my shit together. I got a better job, moved in with a close friend (was living with roommates I hated before that, which likely contributed to the hedonism) and just focused on being more productive, though my old tendencies were def still alive and well. It wasn’t until COVID that I made significant changes in my life that led me to where I am today. Summer 2020 I was laid off which spurred me to find a new direction, I developed better habits and I eventually decided to take the LSATs and go to law school.

Flash forward to today and I’m in my third year of law school surrounded by many people five years my junior. I also have two younger siblings and four younger cousins. I even dated a 24 year old for the first half of this year. No one can really relate to me about my party days and most of them instead of drinking and smoking, at least in the way that I did, had long term relationships and did way better in school. Many of which were confused why I was (in their eyes) old and still went out or I haven't been in a relationship that spans longer than 6 months.

It hit me this summer at my internship working with a girl who went to the same high school as me who just graduated from undergrad and was able to secure a legal internship at a highly regarded company, essentially in the same position as me, without going to law school yet. she was extremely mature for her age, doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, and has been in a relationship for years. Not saying a relationship is the same thing as being productive, but to me it signals maturity, probably because I mostly focused on "hooking up" in college and have had picky standards in adulthood, so I feel like I wasted many opportunities at getting into a relationship. Not to mention how I was just not a serious person with my drinking habits in my early adulthood years. Particularly, 2018 was a shit show of a year for me.

However, since this summer, I noticed that I have seen more and more statistics talking about how Gen Z drinks less than any other generation, and I have seen a rising stigmatization in marijuana usage. Rather, people just seem to have their shit together in that front at a younger age and are focused on fitness, and other endeavors instead. There is definitely a trade-off with just increased, and less innocent, social media usage and how that affects that generation's personality, but that's a story for another day.

To be clear, my younger friends still like to go out and have a good time, but it's not the same as how friends my age did, and quite honestly continue to do til this day. I feel like we're stuck in some sort of Peter Pan syndrome in comparison, and I might not even had noticed if I didn't go back to school or have younger relatives.

I just feel weird being around many people throughout my 20s and even in my high school years, where partying was just a normal thing to do and blacking out was a funny story to tell the next day. At my school particularly, at the end of every weekend night everyone would have snapchat stories up where they were acting like drunk idiots the night before, contributing to its normalization in my life. I'm thankful that I got my shit together before it became too much of a problem, but I also feel weird that everyone I am around nowadays just can't wrap their head around my journey or even my past behavior as culture and standards have definitely changed over time.

I also feel weird that I had such a party animal rep back in the day, where though it makes for a good story, it's also like...why...

ANYWAYS, just wanted to share, because unlike in the 2010s where our generation was the main youthful characters of society, a new generation has taken the mantle with, what seems like, very different lifestyle values. Some better and some worse, but I definitely feel like it makes our partying habits age rather poorly.

I am still thankful though to have grown up when I did and to be around less social media judgement, shallowness, etc. that has definitely spurred in Gen Z and growing up entirely with their cell phones / social media. I still listen to old music from the 2000s all the time and cherish my childhood/adolescence greatly.

... And was taken to see OG Shrek in 2004? Peak zillenial experience imo.

28F, I feel super young at times. Older ppl call me a kid still. I feel proud that I'm slowly getting my feet into a career. I'm hitting athletic peaks I didn't know I could achieve (as a former D1 athlete I thought once college was done that was it).

But then I'm like wow...I'm almost 30, I still live with family because of the economy and a divorce and its a nightmare getting into a school for my masters then doctorate. Anyone else feel confused?

Is it me, or has Gen X fallen face-first off their rockers?

My mom just called me so adamant that "Timelines are shifting" and wanted to know which timeline I was a part of. For what, exactly? Well, to see if I was part of the timeline that remembered Brain (from Pinky and The Brain) saying, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking" or "Are you pondering what I'm pondering?" Let's forget that "Are you thinking what I'm thinking" is a gag just about every show, movie, and book has used since the beginning of time, or that video evidence suggests that it was actually 'pondering' (because wouldn't both exist if, for whatever reason, timelines crashed together and created this effect), or that the human memory is about as reliable as two bananas taped together to provide structural support for a skyscraper. It must be that timelines are shifting, and we're entering a '5D' world, and I'm just "closed-minded" because I won't believe every solitary brain fart that I read on the internet/hear out of their mouths.

This isn't the only insane thing that's come out of my parent's mouths, for example:

• Lizard people really exist and live among the elite
• The shadow government is real
• The sun we have now is different from the sun we used to have and is now a 5D sun; the world is also somehow transitioning to 5D
• Trump's failed assassination attempts were somehow divine intervention
• Giants exist and are hiding from us
• Shifting timelines
• Hollow Earth
• Dinosaurs weren't real
• Aliens built the pyramids
• Helene was created and directed toward red states to kill off red voters

All of it is just some terminally insane shit, and nothing I say ever fully disproves it because, "Urgh, you're just so close-minded; you're living in 3D!" Any real, tangible evidence is never even given a passing glance.

Has anyone else's parents gone this far off the deep end or started to jump onto the goofy but dangerously stupid bandwagon? What do you think this is? Is this Gen x's new grift?