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Blame it on Instagram Face: Is Gen Z Actually Aging Faster? · Mini Scroll

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  This episode of Infinite Scroll is brought to you by Coach Love,
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  forms. Available now in retailers and
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  online, on January 24th, 2024 Kylie Jenner attended the Jean
• 0:34
  Paul Gaultier Spring 2024 Couture show in Paris.
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  Dressed in an ethereal cream colored corset gown with a sheer
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  overlay that showed off her signature Kardashian Jenner
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  curves the 26 year old channelled Greek goddess in her
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  front row look. But despite being at a fashion
• 0:51
  show, it was something else about Kylie's look that took
• 0:53
  center stage that evening. Her face.
• 0:57
  Kylie stepped out wearing minimal makeup to the show and
• 1:00
  this decision has probably haunted her ever since.
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  Immediately, social media was flooded with criticism of
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  Kylie's face, saying how old she looked for her young age.
• 1:11
  The consensus online was that Kylie ruined her natural,
• 1:14
  youthful looking appearance with filler, Botox and other work
• 1:17
  she's had done, work she was arguably bullied into doing by
• 1:21
  the media who has picked apart her appearance since she was a
• 1:23
  child, and we wonder why 10 year old girls are lining up at
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  Sephora to buy Retinol. But whether social media trolls
• 1:31
  decided that Kylie looks 26 or 46, the conversation quickly
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  devolved into something bigger. Because Kylie's face is just one
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  very high profile example of the latest accusation against young
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  people that Gen. Zed, who are between the ages of
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  12 and 27, are aging like milk. From Centennial World, I'm
• 1:51
  Lauren Meisner, and this is Infinite Scroll, a podcast about
• 1:55
  Internet culture, the creator economy and how social media is
• 1:58
  shaping Gen. Zed.
• 2:00
  Welcome back to Infinite Scroll, everyone.
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  All right, I need to thank you all so much for the messages
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  that I got last week after I kind of opened up about how I've
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  been feeling this past, I guess 6-7 weeks now.
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  I got so many DMS from you guys just saying that you are
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  enjoying the new format and just kind of words of encouragement
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  better. I've started putting some things
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  in place to alleviate my workload a little bit and help
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  me with that. So I am excited for you know the
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  episodes to come and the following months.
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  I think once we kind of close February off, I think starting
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  March everything will be much better.
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  I think that my energy will be back.
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  I think I'll have a lot more things in place to keep the
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  business going at the pace that it needs to.
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  So as always, Please remember to rate, review and subscribe.
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  Apple review, you can just interact on Spotify.
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  Just answer the little question. I think it's just usually like
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  AQ and a did you like this episode or how did you feel
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  about this episode? Something like that.
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  I love reading those as well. And remember to sign up to our
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  newsletter, which is also called Infinite Scroll.
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  So on Wednesdays, we send out a commentary article about a
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  trend, creator, drama or news. And on Friday we round up the
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  five biggest thing pieces on the Internet from that week.
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  And of course, please also join our Geneva group, which is also
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  called Infinite Scroll. That's where you can chat with
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  other people who are obsessed with Internet culture and
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  creator drama NT And you can interact with me OK?
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  Just have a couple quick little comments or reviews to read out.
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  So Leah says I am in high school right now and planning to start
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  my own podcast, and Infinite Scroll has always been an
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  inspiration to me. You got this Lauren, so excited
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  for this next chapter. Thank you Leah and Courtney and
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  OG, she says A mating A mating. She says amazing app as always.
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  Thank you Courtney and Jessica says on YouTube.
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  I just found your channel and honestly so surprised.
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  Your channel isn't bigger. You're so informative.
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  I am definitely subscribing. Thank you Jessica.
• 4:12
  I also wish that the channel was bigger Over the past few months.
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  There has been lots of discourse online about Gen.
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  Zed and how they're aging, and it seems this discourse came
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  about for a few main reasons #1 the rise in aging filters on
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  TikTok. Examples of this include the
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  aged filter, where users can see a side by side of themselves now
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  versus an older version of themselves.
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  This filter currently has 26.4 million posts on TikTok and the
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  Time Travel effect which shows users what they would look like
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  in the year 2073. Both of these filters have
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  millions of posts and views, but it's not all just for fun.
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  As Kelly Holterman writes for the New York Times quote, young
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  people and experts say it's no surprise that a generation
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  raised on social media and that came of age in the era of
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  filters and face tune might be particularly attuned to the
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  natural physical changes that occur with age.
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  This is particularly noticeable in how people post with these
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  filters, with most young people using them to ask their
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  followers how old they think they are, or to showcase how,
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  quote UN quote poorly, they will age.
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  Reason #2 for the acceleration of the aging discourse is
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  because a couple of Tik toks that went viral recently.
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  The 1st is by a creator named Taylor Donahue.
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  On September 18th, 2023, Taylor posted a TikTok talking about
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  how one of her followers thought she was significantly older than
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  she is. I was humbled so quick tonight.
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  I was on live with my boyfriend and someone was like, how old's
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  your girlfriend? And John jokingly responds 47.
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  And the girl comments. Oh, I thought she was early 30s.
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  I am 23. At the time of recording, the
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  video has over 4.1 million views and 270,000 likes.
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  Taylor's comment section was soon flooded with users
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  commenting on her appearance, with many also shocked that she
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  is in her early 20s. Users went on to give Taylor
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  unsolicited advice as to why she looks quote UN quote old.
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  Some of the popular comments under her video include It's
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  Your Style. It's Kind of Giving Mom and the
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  jewelry, eyebrows and your vibe gives Soccer Mom late 30s.
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  Aside from the comments section, users also stitched Taylor's
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  video offering their advice. One creator at book hoarder
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  under score 321 posted a video that has over 800,000 views,
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  saying that Taylor looks old because of her quote Newscaster
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  makeup While Taylor's video mostly sparked discussion about
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  Gen. Zed fashion and makeup styles.
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  A TikTok by Jordan Howlett suggested that young people look
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  older now than previous generations did at the same age
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  because of the state of the world.
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  It is mainly because of the stress come here.
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  We live in a time nowadays where millennials look way younger for
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  their age while Gen. Z looks way older for their age.
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  If you don't believe me, I'm Gen.
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  Z. Get closer.
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  I am Gen. Z and nobody ever believes me.
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  When my mom and I walk out in public, people think that my mom
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  is my younger sister, right? When I tell people, oh, I'm
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  going to go hang out with my family, they think I'm talking
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  about my children. I don't have kids, right?
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  I'm talking about my parents. I'm still the child.
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  Does that make sense? I'll.
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  I'll put it to you like this. Zendaya is older than me.
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  Tom Holland is older than me. That's you know what I'm saying
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  right now. There was one time I wanted an
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  autograph from Dwayne, the Rock Johnson, right.
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  I was standing for hours for this autograph and when he
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  walked up to me I said can you please sign this poster?
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  It's for Jordan, right? He then took it and put dear
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  Jordan, your dad is a great guy. He stood out here for hours and
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  then gave it back to me. And before I can correct him, he
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  looked at me and said times were way more difficult back when we
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  were kids. Am I right?
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  And then he tapped my shoulder and left.
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  Dwayne is 52. I'm 26.
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  What? What I'm saying is so Gen.
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  Z definitely looks older. I'm not going to lie to you.
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  TikTok users were shocked by Jordan's age.
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  To be fair, with one user writing your Gen.
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  ZI thought you were like 36. So when Kylie Jenner stepped out
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  for the Jean Paul Gaultier show with a more understated makeup
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  look, it further amplified this ongoing discourse on TikTok.
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  Now we can't explore the concept of aging in the digital age
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  without discussing Instagram face and how this phenomenon has
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  impacted young people. According to Wikipedia quote,
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  Instagram face is a social trend for women to adjust their
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  features to conform to a single template, either by applying
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  filters to their photographs on social media or via cosmetic
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  surgery. The template face is young, with
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  poreless, unwrinkled skin and plump high cheekbones.
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  It has cat like uplifted eyes and long lashes.
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  It has a small symmetrical nose and lush lips.
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  It has a blank expression. The face is exotic but
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  distinctly white and ambiguously ethnic.
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  The face has been described as quote well tanned with South
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  Asian brows and eye shape, African American lips, Caucasian
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  nose, and a Native American or Middle Eastern cheeks.
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  Basically, everyone is getting the same tweakment to their face
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  to suit this aesthetic and it's making everyone look the same.
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  Hence Instagram face. The popularity of Instagram face
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  coincided with the heyday of Instagram influencers around the
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  early to mid twenty 10s and there are conflicting opinions
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  on why Instagram face became the go to aspirational beauty
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  standard of our time. One opinion is that this
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  combination of features really stands out in photography, which
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  is why so many influencers aspire to have it.
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  Another opinion is that many of the most popular early Instagram
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  influencers had this look already, and therefore it became
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  desirable. It's hard to know what came
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  first, basically the chicken or the egg.
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  But what we do know is that many of the world's biggest
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  influencers helped perpetuate this trend, most notably the
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  Kardashians. Now, there's not enough time in
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  the world to express how damaging the Kardashians have
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  been to the female beauty standard, and that is something
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  that I have personally grappled with a lot, being a fan of their
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  show and enjoying watching their lifestyle.
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  They are so surgically enhanced, they're so filtered and they're
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  so edited that they're often compared to cyborgs or uncanny
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  valley. The interesting thing here
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  though is while the Kardashians may have played a huge role in
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  perpetuating Instagram face, I believe they're also the victims
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  of this trend. I don't think the Kardashians
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  set this facial beauty standard. I think they got a lot of
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  enhancements when the Instagram face trend was in its early
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  days. Because The thing is, Instagram
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  face as an aesthetic is not necessarily a new beauty
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  standard. I know we like to blame the
• 10:47
  beauty standards of today, largely on social media,
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  influencers, and specifically the Kardashians.
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  But I do think people forget how unrealistic and toxic beauty
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  standards have always been. For example, when I was 12 years
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  old, Angelina Jolie was the beauty standard.
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  I vividly remember magazines and entertainment news television
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  programs analyzing her face and discussing how amazing her lips
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  were. I would also argue that
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  Instagram face is actually largely modeled after Angelina
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  Jolie's face. She has the OG Instagram face.
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  She kind of is the blueprint for real.
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  But ever since I was that age I have wanted lip filler.
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  And this was before Instagram, before the Kardashians had a
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  show, and before Kylie Jenner had lip filler.
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  I used to roll up little pieces of toilet paper and place them
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  between my lip and my gums to push my lips out to make it look
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  like I had lip filler. I know that is super depressing
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  to hear, but when I was a preteen all I did was look at
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  magazines and wish I looked like those celebrities and that is
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  not so different from what preteens are doing and looking
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  at on social media. Now this is not to discount the
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  negative impact the Kardashians have had on young women and the
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  beauty standard, but I feel like there is a lot of missing
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  context from the conversation when we talk about their
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  influence and trends. Like Instagram Face.
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  It did not exist in a vacuum with Instagram Face in mind,
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  because the whole vibe of Instagram Face will come up a
• 12:15
  lot throughout the rest of this episode.
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  So keep it in mind. Let's explore the main arguments
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  for why Gen. Z is allegedly aging rapidly.
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  The first thing I want to discuss is the death of the
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  tween. We did an entire episode on this
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  with Taylor Lorenz last year on the fact that really tween
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  culture has died, but the rise of social media.
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  It feels like there is no longer that middle space to bridge the
• 12:38
  gap between childhood and adolescence.
• 12:41
  In our episode with Taylor, we bring this shift back to the
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  culture that social media has fostered.
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  When young people are exposed to aspirational influencers who are
• 12:50
  5 or 10 or even 15 years older than them, they want to become
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  like them. They want to dress 5 or 10 or 15
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  years older than their age, and they want to use adult skin care
• 13:02
  and adult makeup techniques and to buy adult products.
• 13:06
  As a result, there has been a tangible decline in tween
• 13:09
  specific shops, products and styles because they basically
• 13:13
  stopped being in demand, psychologist Ash King told
• 13:16
  Annabelle Ben David for Centennial World quote.
• 13:19
  Between period of human development is a unique and at
• 13:22
  times challenging one, as it signals the point at which
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  children begin to become interested in forging their own
• 13:28
  identity as separate from their family unit.
• 13:30
  While they're not yet in the full thrall of adolescence, they
• 13:33
  might begin to be curious about who they are, what they value,
• 13:36
  and how they wish to be perceived by others.
• 13:39
  Now it seems that tween Hood has blended with teenagehood, and I
• 13:43
  would also argue that teenagehood is starting to blend
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  with young adulthood. This is extremely different from
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  the 90s and the early 2000s where there seems to be a
• 13:53
  distinct tween experience with content, magazines and shops
• 13:57
  catering to this demographic. As Annabelle and David wrote for
• 14:00
  Centennial Quote, we have seen just about anything tween
• 14:04
  focused suffer. In recent years, iconic tween
• 14:07
  shops like Justice Sinclair's have filed for bankruptcy, not
• 14:10
  to mention the many old school teen magazines such as L Girl
• 14:14
  and Cosmo Girl that have ceased publication entirely.
• 14:17
  Most recently, this discussion gained traction after TikTok
• 14:21
  users started questioning why tweens are obsessed with
• 14:23
  Sephora. Tell me how I went to Sephora
• 14:26
  yesterday and there was like a whole bunch of like little 1012
• 14:29
  year old girls, little preteen girls getting drunk, elephant,
• 14:34
  Charlotte Tilbury, all of like the Super expensive skin care
• 14:38
  and makeup products. And it got me thinking, I'm here
• 14:40
  like, wow, like these girls are never going to get the feeling
• 14:43
  of like, entering womanhood. For me it went like Claire's,
• 14:46
  then Ulta, then Sephora. Like I just started shopping at
• 14:50
  Sephora. A store catering towards an
• 14:52
  older demographic. In these videos, TikTok users
• 14:55
  wonder why children, some as young as ten, are coming to
• 14:58
  Sephora to buy skin care and makeup products from expensive
• 15:01
  brands like Drunk Elephant, Glow Recipe and Rare Beauty.
• 15:05
  Many expressed concern for these young girls, as these popular
• 15:08
  products are typically unsuitable for children, with
• 15:11
  most sitting in the luxury category and formulated with
• 15:14
  strong ingredients. Others have noticed how the
• 15:18
  obsession with Sephora reflects a broader shift in the beauty
• 15:21
  industry, where girls are being taught to be worried about aging
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  before they even hit puberty. This leads to another suggestion
• 15:29
  about why Gen. Z might be looking older because
• 15:31
  they started using active skin care much younger than previous
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  generations. However, this theory hasn't had
• 15:37
  a lot of support, but it's something to consider.
• 15:40
  While the death of the tween has been a topic of conversation for
• 15:43
  a while, people have only recently started discussing how
• 15:46
  it is making young people look older.
• 15:48
  In a TikTok by at Hope You Find Your Dad, whose real name is
• 15:52
  Andra. She blames the decline of tween
• 15:54
  fashion. There are two things though that
• 15:56
  I think we could tie to the accelerated aging issue and this
• 15:59
  is like the death of the pre tween or the tween years.
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  I remember when I was growing up the tween years which roughly
• 16:04
  fell between like 10 and 13 were huge.
• 16:07
  Like we had entire stores dedicated to them.
• 16:10
  You know we had limited 2 which became justice.
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  We had all those specifically directed towards tween stores.
• 16:15
  That encouraged kids to still kind of remain kids around that
• 16:18
  time period. Nowadays there aren't really
• 16:20
  stores built for tweens, and the ones that we do have remaining
• 16:22
  are kind of as embarrassing if you shop there.
• 16:25
  Now that tweens and older teenagers and even young adults
• 16:28
  are essentially styling themselves the same, it makes
• 16:32
  age harder to discern. The death of this stage of life
• 16:36
  is also probably leading younger people to feel less prepared for
• 16:39
  the future and therefore more concerned about getting older,
• 16:42
  especially when you consider how bleak Gen.
• 16:44
  Z's future might seem in Andra's same TikTok.
• 16:47
  She also notes how the increased popularity of plastic surgery
• 16:51
  and fillers might be aging Gen. ZI.
• 16:53
  Think an even bigger problem on this issue is that all of a
• 16:55
  sudden society is pressuring new kinds of Botox, injectables and
• 16:59
  all sorts of plastic surgery on even younger people than ever
• 17:03
  before. And because a lot of these
• 17:04
  procedures are brand new, we don't have a lot of data for how
• 17:07
  they hold up overtime. But I have suspicions that it's
• 17:10
  not going to go well. And we're already starting to
• 17:12
  see this in these unedited photos of celebrities that have
• 17:14
  been coming out, who have really been and leaning into these
• 17:17
  surgeries. From BBL's tobacco fat removal,
• 17:20
  social media has raised awareness about plastic surgery
• 17:23
  more than ever before. As a result, preventative
• 17:26
  procedures like baby Botox have become especially popular among
• 17:29
  young people. According to 2023 data from the
• 17:33
  market research firm Civic Science, 15% of people ages 18
• 17:37
  to 24 have tried non invasive cosmetic treatments such as
• 17:41
  Botox injections, dermal fillers and enzyme peels, the highest
• 17:45
  percentage of any age group surveyed.
• 17:48
  An additional 12% of people in this age group said they intend
• 17:52
  to try it, and just over one in 10 people ages 25 to 34 said
• 17:57
  they've tried such treatments, with 14% of people in this age
• 18:01
  group saying they intend to try it.
• 18:03
  For comparison, only 5% of people aged 55 and up said
• 18:08
  they've tried such treatments, and only 3% said they intend to
• 18:12
  try it. Roman Madden, a New York
• 18:15
  dermatologist, told Medpage today that his younger patients
• 18:18
  often learn about Botox from TikTok.
• 18:21
  He also notes that the research on starting Botox too early is
• 18:25
  not clear yet, but there seems to be a risk that the patient
• 18:28
  could develop antibodies to the treatment and become Botox non
• 18:32
  responder. This data shows that the age
• 18:35
  demographic trying injectables is getting younger and I think
• 18:38
  this comes down to education and accessibility.
• 18:41
  The TikTok for You page and YouTube recommended pages are
• 18:44
  filled with before and after videos of specific procedures
• 18:48
  and creators analyzing different celebrities and their plastic
• 18:51
  surgery. Take Lori Hill for example.
• 18:55
  Lori has almost 500,000 subscribers on YouTube and is
• 18:58
  best known for her celebrity analysis videos where she breaks
• 19:01
  down the possible procedures that they may have had.
• 19:05
  In 2022, Lori was criticized by Doja Cat after making a video
• 19:09
  speculating about the plastic surgery procedures that the
• 19:12
  singer has had done. Doja reacted to the video on her
• 19:15
  Instagram story, criticizing Lori for her speculation.
• 19:18
  While Lori has faced a lot of public Flack for her content,
• 19:22
  she is just one of many in this fairly new subcategory of
• 19:25
  creators who analyze celebrity and influencer.
• 19:28
  Plastic surgery creators like Lori Hill have arguably helped
• 19:32
  lift the veil on plastic surgery and what is actually available
• 19:36
  to us, but this knowledge of plastic surgery and procedures
• 19:39
  has also shifted the expectations of beauty.
• 19:42
  So while social media gets a bad rap for being the bad guy that
• 19:46
  introduced us to Instagram face and unrealistic beauty
• 19:49
  standards, which as I mentioned before, isn't the case.
• 19:53
  Unrealistic and uniform beauty standards existed long before
• 19:56
  Instagram launched in 2010. I would argue that what social
• 20:00
  media could be blamed for is the democratization of procedures to
• 20:04
  achieve this unrealistic beauty standard.
• 20:07
  And that's the expectation that everyday people look as
• 20:10
  beautiful as the celebrities and influencers we see online.
• 20:14
  An expectation that disproportionately effects Gen.
• 20:17
  Zed, who have only known life with social media.
• 20:20
  So as the work that celebrities and influencers get done becomes
• 20:23
  increasingly transparent through spreading the word on social
• 20:26
  media. Around Plastic surgery has
• 20:27
  lifted. As a result, it seems that Gen.
• 20:30
  Z are more willing than previous generations to get plastic
• 20:33
  surgery, psychology professor at Northwestern University Renee
• 20:38
  England tells Callie Holterman for the New York Times quote.
• 20:42
  Gen. Z grew up endlessly scrolling
• 20:44
  through idealized versions of their own faces and the faces of
• 20:47
  others. They have encountered more
• 20:49
  imagery of people with anti aging cosmetic procedures and
• 20:53
  fewer examples of faces that have naturally aged.
• 20:56
  Given that these procedures are typically associated with an
• 20:59
  older demographic, it seems we may have conflated the look of
• 21:03
  having work done with being older.
• 21:06
  Quote Certainly Fillers and Botox can make everyone look the
• 21:09
  same age. For example, Kris Jenner and Kim
• 21:11
  Kardashian look like twins in their latest Instagram photos.
• 21:15
  Professor Meredith Jones at Brunel University for Dazed
• 21:19
  Quote. A lot of cosmetic work makes the
• 21:21
  old look younger, and by default the young look older because
• 21:25
  they look the same. So rather than thinking, oh,
• 21:28
  everyone looks 25 now, we tend to think, oh, everyone somewhere
• 21:32
  looks between 45 and 75. And on the democratization of
• 21:37
  these procedures, I have another anecdote.
• 21:40
  So I got lip filler for the first time when I was 23, which
• 21:44
  was almost 10 years ago and I had to get lip filler from a
• 21:49
  board certified plastic surgeon. And this cost me over $800.00
• 21:56
  for half a syringe because that is how inaccessible it was just
• 22:00
  a decade ago. Now this was in Canada and I was
• 22:04
  the only person at the time that I knew in my entire life who had
• 22:09
  any injectables. But what's interesting is then
• 22:11
  when I moved to Australia less than a year later, my filler was
• 22:15
  a dime a dozen. And that's because the
• 22:17
  regulations around injectables at the time here were much more
• 22:21
  relaxed than they were in Canada O.
• 22:23
  As a result, way more people performed injectables an the
• 22:27
  prices were lower because it wasn't as specialized.
• 22:30
  So that meant way more regular people got filler and anti
• 22:33
  wrinkle injections and all of that kind of stuff here than
• 22:36
  they did in Canada at the time. So yes, the rate of young people
• 22:40
  getting injectables is rising, but that also correlates with
• 22:43
  these procedures becoming less expensive over the years and
• 22:47
  more accessible. The barrier to entry is just
• 22:50
  much lower. So more people in general are
• 22:53
  trying them and some of those people of course are Gen.
• 22:57
  Z. Because of this accessibility,
• 22:59
  it's also become more expected that most women have a little
• 23:03
  something, you know. Having said that, the average
• 23:06
  Gen. Z is probably not getting
• 23:08
  procedures as much as we are exposed to it while scrolling
• 23:11
  through social media, as Serena Smith writes for Dazed Quote.
• 23:15
  Essentially, as individuals like Kylie Jenner are hyper visible,
• 23:19
  it's likely we're looking to them as bellwethers for how Gen.
• 23:22
  Z look, even though the majority of us haven't been getting lip
• 23:25
  filler since the age of 16, unlike the youngest Kardashian
• 23:28
  sibling. Another popular theory As for
• 23:31
  why Gen. Z quote UN quote looks old is
• 23:34
  because of the way they dress and style their hair and makeup,
• 23:37
  which was the main criticism that 23 year old Taylor from the
• 23:41
  TikTok I mentioned before received.
• 23:43
  Many people who defended Taylor in her comments section claimed
• 23:46
  she looked older because her style is more put together.
• 23:50
  While many millennials were known for wearing business
• 23:53
  casual to the club back in the 2000s and early twenty 10s, Gen.
• 23:57
  Z's clean girl and preppy style stand in stark contrast to how
• 24:01
  we typically expect young people to dress. 1 user named at Winter
• 24:06
  and Summer wrote quote. I'm so noticing that Gen.
• 24:08
  Z, who dress more formal and tailored, give off older vibes
• 24:12
  instead of the baggy, sloppy look user at, Nicole wrote.
• 24:16
  I'm 30 and I feel like a lot of the girls in their 20s look
• 24:19
  older than me. Not that they're wrinkly or
• 24:22
  anything, I think it's just their style.
• 24:25
  Other TikTok users have noted that Gen.
• 24:27
  Z's penchant for nostalgia makes them seem older.
• 24:31
  The fast-paced trend cycle has made it that something from
• 24:33
  almost every decade is in fashion, where Gen.
• 24:36
  Z tends to draw on many different eras.
• 24:39
  Often these are nostalgic styles that millennials associate with
• 24:42
  older generations. As Kelsey Weakman writes for in
• 24:46
  the know quote, there is long been a rule in fashion that
• 24:49
  declares all popular styles must go from being trendy and
• 24:53
  outdated to trendy again over the course of 20 years.
• 24:57
  The so-called 20 year rule controlled the trend cycle for
• 25:00
  decades until TikTok took over. Since the COVID-19 pandemic
• 25:05
  began and TikTok usage increased 180% among 15 to 25 year olds,
• 25:11
  we've seen fashion from the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, Y2K
• 25:15
  and the 20 tens. Tumblr era come back in style.
• 25:19
  Those are a lot of trends to cram into a measly 2 year
• 25:23
  period, as young people of any generation tend to be the
• 25:27
  cohorts that create and adopt trends.
• 25:29
  The accelerated trend cycle thanks to TikTok means that Gen.
• 25:32
  Zed is wearing styles older generations wore not that long
• 25:36
  ago and many of us still associate these styles with how
• 25:40
  Boomers or Gen. X or Millennials dressed in
• 25:42
  their youth. And when we see those styles
• 25:45
  now, it can feel like an older person who is just stuck in a
• 25:48
  trend they loved from their youth.
• 25:50
  Kind of like when you see an older person with an 80s perm
• 25:54
  these days, you know that they found that style in the 80s and
• 25:58
  they haven't changed their hair since.
• 26:01
  Or a more recent example would be Y2K.
• 26:03
  If you saw someone wearing Uggs just a couple of years ago, that
• 26:07
  would feel really dated and you would assume that was a
• 26:09
  millennial who was still holding on to the trends of their
• 26:12
  teenage years. Now Uggs are on ironically back
• 26:16
  in style, but if you're not keeping up with the micro trends
• 26:19
  that happened so quickly among youth culture, now an older
• 26:22
  person might look at Gen. Zed wearing Uggs and assume that
• 26:25
  they're a dated millennial, TikTok user at Jordan T
• 26:28
  Alexander explains. Quote, I think it is because
• 26:31
  Y'all look like Y'all's moms. A lot of fashion that is really
• 26:34
  popular today, especially the timeless fashion part of it
• 26:37
  pulls from the 80s and the 90s. You will see people wearing the
• 26:41
  same stuff as so many different age ranges, like nothing is
• 26:44
  discerning anymore. And then she goes on to mention
• 26:46
  that with trends like baggy jeans coming back, they are
• 26:49
  quote reminiscent of yesteryear, making Gen.
• 26:52
  Z look older. Finally, the prevalence of
• 26:54
  vaping among Gen. Z is often brought up in this
• 26:57
  aging conversation. According to a November 2022
• 27:00
  report from the CDC, one in six US high school students and one
• 27:05
  in 20 US middle schoolers are using a nicotine product at
• 27:08
  least once every day, with the vast majority of those nicotine
• 27:13
  users ingesting it via vaping. So while boomers and Gen.
• 27:16
  X had cigarettes in their youth, Gen.
• 27:18
  Z are vaping. And to be fair, most people that
• 27:21
  I know my age as a millennial vape too.
• 27:24
  But I think one of the biggest differences is that I don't
• 27:26
  really know anyone who smoked or vaped regularly as a teen or a
• 27:30
  young adult. Vaping really came into the
• 27:32
  picture in our late 20s. Obviously I don't need to go
• 27:36
  into why nicotine use can accelerate aging.
• 27:39
  It's well documented, but what isn't well documented is the
• 27:42
  long term effects of vaping. So I would argue that the jury
• 27:46
  is out on whether or not vaping is actually making Gen.
• 27:49
  Z look older, especially because you don't usually see those
• 27:52
  signs of aging so quickly. It's also important to note that
• 27:56
  Gen. Z does do a lot of good things
• 27:58
  that would prevent aging that previous generations of young
• 28:01
  people didn't like. They wear sunscreen, they don't
• 28:05
  do tanning beds nearly as much, They stay hydrated, and they
• 28:08
  also drink a lot less alcohol. So obviously there are many
• 28:12
  opinions out there about why Gen.
• 28:13
  Z is apparently aging more rapidly than previous
• 28:16
  generations. But at the end of the day, is
• 28:19
  this even really true? Are Gen.
• 28:21
  Z actually aging like, quote UN quote milk?
• 28:25
  Well, it wasn't that long ago that there was a viral
• 28:27
  discussion on Twitter about how Boomers and Gen.
• 28:29
  X looked super old as teenagers too.
• 28:33
  I think the reality is that Gen. Z actually is just getting
• 28:36
  older. The oldest, Gen.
• 28:38
  Z is turning 28th this year. And as millennials and even Gen.
• 28:42
  Z themselves have children, the demographic online is getting
• 28:46
  younger and younger and therefore the idea of someone
• 28:49
  who looks quote UN quote old online is also getting younger.
• 28:54
  So while I think some of the points we explored might be
• 28:56
  valid, it's also important for us to remember that the Internet
• 28:59
  is fickle. And more importantly, the
• 29:02
  Internet is not always right. Just because the topic drives
• 29:05
  viral conversation and turns out think pieces from mainstream
• 29:09
  media who as we know, are desperately trying to stay on
• 29:12
  the pulse with Gen. Z, it doesn't mean that these
• 29:15
  topics hold any weight at all. Infinite Scroll is a podcast
• 29:19
  written, produced, and presented by me at Lauren Meisner for
• 29:22
  Centennial World. Additional research and
• 29:25
  reporting is by Annabelle. Ben, David, thank you so much
• 29:28
  for listening. I love you guys and I will talk
• 29:30
  to you next week. Bye.