We used to be a proper country. Where dancing on sticky living room floors, sneaking beers from your parents' refrigerator and bumping music on stereos were hallmarks of adolescence.
Gen Z, apparently, doesn't know that. Or at least not to the same degree Millennials and Gen X-ers do.
On social media, some members of Generation Z − the cohort born between 1997 and 2012 − have confessed they never went to large house parties as teenagers, to the shock, horror and nostalgia of older Gen Z-ers, Millennials and Gen X-ers, who remember them fondly.
In one Reddit post, a Gen Z-er innocently dared to ask if the ragers depicted in teen movies from the 1980s through the early 2000s were ever actually real. According to thousands of Millennials and Gen X-ers in the replies: Yes, sweet summer child. They certainly were.
Sociology experts say it's true Gen Z, overall, has not had the same party experiences as prior generations − and there's a number of reasons for that. For starters, COVID drastically impacted the way people socialize, and its ramifications are felt to this day. Plus, in the era of smartphones and social media, any embarrassing moment can now live in infamy online, so Gen Z grew up far more cautious about letting loose and making mistakes in public.
