The phenomenon known as the “Gen Z stare” — a blank and expressionless look — is appearing all over social media feeds and in coverage by the New York Times and NPR. While every generation gets a chance to be a punching bag for older generations, there are real cultural influences and neurological developments behind this viral gaze.
@yoleendadong Millennial meets Gen Z at a coffee shop 🤣 #millennialsoftiktok #genz #genzstare #millennial ♬ Coffee and Chords - ya-su
Members of Generation Z are currently about 13 to 28 years old, meaning COVID-19 arrived during formative developmental stages of their brains. Ashley Wilkinson, a clinical site supervisor at Provident Behavioral Health, pointed out that the prefrontal cortex, situated right behind the forehead, is the last part of the brain to develop. That is the stage some older members of Gen Z are currently experiencing.
“Research does show, and continues to show, that the brain finishes developing around the age of 23-25,” Wilkinson told St. Louis on the Air. “The brain develops kind of from the inside out. There’s inner parts of your brain that develop first that control things like breathing and movement. Then your emotions come into it next. Regulation, thought processing, decision-making comes last.”
But that stage can be delayed by trauma. For the members of Gen Z, the COVID-19 pandemic emerged just as their brains were reaching that critical growth. As an example, Wilkinson pointed to how the lack of in-person bonding and interaction during quarantine orders has delayed social and emotional learning.
“In our brains, we have neurons called mirror neurons, that mirror the other person and learn from them. So when we have a lot of our time socially being taken up and a lot of our social learning experience is coming from a screen,” Wilkinson said. “We're losing out on some of those mirror neurons that we get from being live and in action with other people.”
Even with those challenges, the members of Gen Z have a lot going for them. Wilkinson said that younger adults are significantly more open to discussing their mental health and seeking professional help than older generations. She said there is also some evidence that suicide rates in teens have dropped in the last few years.
“Between 2019 and into the pandemic, suicide rates were climbing pretty astronomically for U.S. youth. But in the last couple years it’s been going down,” she said. “It’s just by a couple of percents, down 4% from what it was before… but that’s many lives. It’s such a good direction and I hope we can continue to move that way.”
She continued: “Our Gen Z population, they are a big part of bringing awareness and also support to each other. That’s going to be encouraging further research. This is our future and I’m really excited to see what they bring to this field and to this world to continue making it a better place for people to live.”
So when a Gen Z’er is staring at you with no expression, it’s not that they’re necessarily bored or disinterested. They’re likely catching up on years of social development.
For more on the unique circumstances around Gen Z’s social and emotional development, including perspectives from Gen Z’ers and how parenting styles change and shape future generations, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Darrious Varner is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
