mental-health

Wrinkled wisdom – Zoomers and Boomers

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Okay, Boomers, let’s learn more about Zoomers—our Gen Z family members aged 13 to 28 years old. 

Some easily stand out for their “broccoli cut” or “Zoomer perm.”  It’s that popular haircut that combines shaving the sides short and perming the long hair on top.  A fun internet trend highlights how fashion recycles older looks and jokes that Gen Zs have adopted their grandma’s curly perm style.  

Zoomers are the first generation to grow up totally in the digital age.  It’s often said that they could scroll before they could walk or talk.  A bit of an exaggeration.  But, over a third scrolled or touched a screen before they were one year old.  They are true digital natives!

Gen Zs are heavy users of YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat.  They utilize social media for entertainment, news, and product discovery.  They are the most likely to buy a new product or service promoted by an online influencer.  Another group that doesn’t watch TV ads! 

Zoomers, not surprisingly, have created a new lexicon that has invaded dictionaries over the last few years.  Thanks, lexicographers!  This helps us Boomers translate what the kids are saying.  Much of this slang will eventually fade…or could we just be delulu?

Huh?  “Delulu?”  It’s Gen Z shorthand for delusional.  Wishful thinking.  It might have a limited future, but we could be delulu about that.  “Bussin” is used to describe something that is exceptionally good or delicious. 

Another new slang word is “adulting.”  Gen Zs feel that they won’t be grown up until around age 27 because of financial and other pressures.  They take online “adulting” courses to learn traditional life skills like cooking, laundry, and managing personal finances.  They might also use the word as a verb—I am adulting today and not wearing my PJ bottoms to the mall.  Let’s face it, adulting is hard!  And Boomers have been there; done that.

Much more fun is “hard pass.”  We always appreciate an assertive NO.  While “rizz,” short for charisma, is cute, it’s hard to believe it was the Oxford Word of the Year in 2023.  This year it made it into Merriam Webster.  Who knew?  Not us! 

“Bed rotting” is the term for spending excessive amounts of time in—you guessed it—bed.  A slang term we can understand.  Yes!!!  “Sus” is just short for “suspicious.”  “Ick” made it into the dictionary.  Oh, but Gen Zs define this as a sudden loss of romantic or sexual attraction to a person.  Heck, we’ve been using it for decades to express plain old disgust.

Another Gen Z word to hit the dictionary is “doomscrolling.”  This describes their habit of spending excessive time on the internet scrolling distressing news or social media content that leaves them sad, anxious, or angry. 

There is a solution!  Digital detox.  When we hear the word detox, we thinkof it as steps toward recovery from alcohol or drug addiction.  They’re referring to social media detoxes because many of the generation are burnt out from scrolling.  To detox, some Zoomers have even turned to flip phones, which they call dumbphones, to minimize constant, distracting notifications.  Wow.  Does digital detox cause withdrawal symptoms??  Yup! 

Check with the kids on the 6-7 fad…Dictionary.com’s 2025 Word of the Year.  It’s not even a word!  It’s more than cool to Gen Zs and the bane of school teachers everywhere.  We dare you to uncover the meaning. 

So, our Wrinkled Wisdom for today?  Because of how Zoomer’s use it, drop “ick” or “icky” from your vocabulary.  Stick to “ew” or “that’s gross” to express disgust.  Interestingly, Gen Zs are reviving lots of Boomer hobbies.  Propose helping them with baking, knitting, or vinyl collecting.  And, when they get excited by your offer, throw in some Boomer slang.  Like…Gee, no need to flip your wig!

Wrinkled wisdom – Sleep Tight, Wake up Bright

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Diet, exercise, and sleep are the three pillars of a healthy life, especially as we age.  Okay, we can choose to eat nourishing foods.  We can choose to go to the gym or take long walks.  But we sure can’t just choose to get a good night’s sleep.  If only!

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that more than a third of U.S. adults don’t get the recommended seven hours or more of sleep every night.  We’re not alone!

Just walk into a drugstore and take a look at the sleep aid section.  It’s huge.  Options include Sleep-eze, ZzzQuil, Sominex, Kalms Night, melatonin, and more.  If they don’t work, doctors can prescribe Halcion, Restoril, Lunesta, Ambien, and Sonata.   Still not sleeping?  Explore functional mushrooms as seen on Shark Tank!

We stumbled onto an article headlined “simple things” to do to promote a good night’s sleep.  We like simple things so we read on.  First, avoid caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol four to six hours before sleep.  Hmmm…the alcohol thing could be tough.  We’re limited to happy hour?? 

Next, set your heater or air conditioner at a comfortable temperature.  Okay.  Makes sense.  Avoid your cell phone, TV, and computer an hour before you are ready to go to bed.  Huh?  So, what are we supposed to do for that hour??   Brushing your teeth takes minutes.  Guess it’s time to read a book.  Maybe Meditation for Beginners??

Apparently, some people do better with a small amount of noise when sleeping.  You could run your ceiling fan or buy a white noise machine.  They are very, very popular.  Creating a soothing nighttime playlist is an option.  Your partner’s snoring obviously doesn’t count.  Are earplugs the answer to that snoring??   Maybe not!  They are one of the most common objects removed from ears in hospitals’ emergency rooms.

Another tip about what to drink when.  Forget the coffee, tea, or juice when you wake up in the morning.  We’re supposed to drink water first.  That is certainly easy to do while making the coffee or tea or pouring the juice.  And let’s face it, we are thirsty in the mornings because we don’t drink a bunch at night so we don’t have to get up and pee multiple times.  Chug some water first thing?  Good with that.  Doctors recommend adding some soluble fiber powder…if we can remember.

So, when’s the best time to stop drinking water at night?  Two hours before going to bed.  Take your vitamins in the morning.  Don’t flood your body with fluids at night.  You’ll really regret it.

As we all well know, waking up in the middle of the night to head to the john has become more common as we’ve gotten older.  There’s a reason.  Our bodies produce less of the hormone that helps concentrate urine and retain fluids.  Peeing during the night even has a name—nocturia.   Some clever individual made it up by combining the Latin word for “night” and the Greek word for “urine.”  

What about naps?  Experts say a short nap—less than 90 minutes—is okay since it’s a lighter phase of sleep, not that deep, restorative sleep that you should get throughout the night.  Yet it’s often so elusive for so many.

And, experts say we should wear socks to bed.  Nothing to do with keeping your feet warm.  Actually, just the opposite.  Why?  Sends a signal to your brain to lower your core temperature—a cue that it’s time for…sleep! 

Lack of sleep sure hits our vanity hard.  None of us want to look in the mirror in the morning after a bad night’s sleep.  A tired face boasts droopy eyelids, circles under the eyes, sagging mouth corners, wrinkles, and fine lines.  No, it’s not just aging!  

So, our Wrinkled Wisdom for today?  Since sleep is our most important behavior, go for broke on a good mattress.  If you’re a “princess and the pea” type, sorry, you’re on your own.  In your next place, make sure the john is about seven steps from your bed.  You know why!  We wish you sweet dreams.  But putting that song on your nighttime playlist won’t help!   Oh, and remember—nightlights are your friends.