About

The Gen Z Stare, also known as the Zoomer Stare or Gen Z Gaze, is a slang term to describe a blank, expressionless stare said to be common among members of Generation Z that they use in place of a greeting or small talk. The phenomenon was brought to light by Millennials and Gen X members in 2025 amid discourse about Gen Z customer service being perceived by some as subpar, related to the Gen Z Stare. The term later went viral on TikTok in mid-2025. Many Zoomers pushed back against the idea in viral posts, often linking the stare's purpose to their own bad impressions of Millennial, Gen X and Baby Boomer customers.

Origin

Discourse about Gen Z customer service being perceived as poor notably went viral in 2025. However, the earliest known post about the Gen Z Stare was shared by TikToker^[1] @meghan.alessi on July 29th, 2024, who said, "I swear, every time I'm in public and it's a Gen Z worker, they just stare at you." The video on the topic received over 1,800 likes in a year (shown below).

Spread

On April 12th, 2025, TikToker^[2] @h_ppy.no0dle.b0y_ posted a video, also talking about Gen Z customer service. He wrote, "Maybe a hot take but the Boomers are right about the apathetic behavior displayed by Gen Z." His video gained over 59,000 likes in three months (shown below).

On June 3rd, X^[3] user @pbprot tweeted, "I’m so sick of the new style of customer service where people just stare at you when you walk up to the counter/service desk," receiving over 28,000 likes in a month.

Later that day, X^[4] user @lauren_wilford quote-tweeted the post, writing, "In general, Gen Z culture doesn’t have a norm for greeting/acknowledging people they don’t already know," gaining over 24,000 likes in a month (shown below).

On June 18th, 2025, the New York Post^[8] notably covered the phenomenon and slang term in an article titled "Beware the ‘Gen Z gaze’: Young service workers’ refusal to greet customers is setting off older generations."

On June 21st, the Facebook^[11] page Old Photo Archive reposted a tweet complaining about "the new style of customer service" in reference to the Gen Z Stare, receiving over 770 likes, 290 comments and 60 shares in roughly three weeks (seen below).

On June 25th, 2025, TikToker^[5] @thedisneygirlie posted a video about the Gen Z Stare from the perspective of a Millennial. She relayed a story about her own trip to a Chipotle where she experienced a Gen Z Stare moment. Over 16 days, the video received over 19,900 likes (shown below).

On July 4th, TikToker^[6] @kelsotalks posted a video in which she mocked the complaints over the Gen Z Stare by doing a skit about "daily customer interactions." Over one week, the video received roughly 571,700 likes (shown below).

The slang term was also widely discussed on various subreddits in early July 2025, such as /r/GenZ^[9] and /r/blackladies,^[10] the former of which received over 430 upvotes and 170 comments in three days, and the latter of which garnering over 270 upvotes and 140 comments in two days.

On July 10th, 2025, TikToker^[7] @madylamb posted a video in which she mocked the idea of the Gen Z Stare, also by playing out a frustrating customer interaction in a skit. In a day, her video gained roughly 1.4 million likes (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References