What is the Gen Z stare?

Depending on who you ask — and yes, which generation they belong to — the Gen Z stare can mean slightly different things.

In general, the stare itself is the blank, often emotionless look that Gen Z seems to employ largely in customer service settings when met with questions or greetings.

In one recent TikTok video, user Janaye, who goes by @abovethecrest on the app, explained the expression from her perspective: “The Gen Z stare is specifically when somebody does not respond or just doesn't have any reaction in a situation where a response is either required or just reasonable,” she says in her video.

She goes on to explain a scenario where, in her job as a flight attendant, she told a member of Gen Z to put a bag under her seat in order to prepare for takeoff, only to be met with a blank stare instead of a verbal or physical response. The Gen Z-er’s mother eventually had to intervene to get her child to put the bag underneath the seat.

“I heard someone else say that it seems like they’re waiting for ChatGPT to tell them how to respond,” she said in the video.

But what does Gen Z have to say about their namesake facial expression?

Gen Z, of course, has been pushing back on the categorization of the stare as “rude” or “disinterested,” instead taking to the app to offer up another interpretation of the look: as a device employed when they believe a customer (or frankly anyone for that matter) is not “in the right.”

On TikTok, creators have been posting skits and POV videos to demonstrate the kinds of real-life exchanges that might trigger the stare — especially in customer service settings. In one clip, a user role-plays both sides of a conversation between a customer and Gen Z employee to illustrate just how baffling an interaction might be cause one to deploy the stare:

“Can I do a strawberry-banana smoothie?” the fake customer asks.

“Yeah, I can do that. Anything else for you guys?”

“No. But does the strawberry-banana smoothie have banana in it?”

In response to the question, the user delivers her best Gen Z stare. And, users in the comments were quick to support the usage of the expression in this scenario.

“We stare because we are in shock,” one user commented.

Another added, "'Oh you have a gen z stare' hypothetically, if you heard the words that came out YOUR mouth....you would stare too 😭.”

Jeff Stevens