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 