Let’s talk about Gen Z—aka Zoomers. Born between school lockdown drills and melting polar ice caps, these kids didn’t get a childhood, they got a content stream.

By the time they were old enough to vote, they already knew the system was a busted slot machine. Pull the lever, get more debt. Pull it again, get a job that pays less than your rent. Pull it a third time, get clowned on by some Boomer in the comment section saying, “When I was your age…”

Yeah, when you were their age, you could flip burgers and still pay rent. Now that same job won’t even cover half a phone bill—and Zoomers need that phone just to stay sane. Or to feel like they’re not totally alone in a world where everything is on fire except the billionaires.

But here’s the kicker: they know the game is rigged. Totally. They know it. And they scroll anyway.

That’s not apathy. That’s survival.

Zoomers don’t “check out”—they log in. To memes, mutual aid threads, burner accounts, TikToks about wage theft, climate grief, and depression. That’s their language. Sarcasm and sadness in a 9:16 ratio.

And when the older generations ask why they don’t just fix things—vote, organize, run for office—Zoomers stare blankly, like “Oh, you mean participate in the same rigged system that screwed every generation before us? Sure, let me just go get a clipboard and a lobotomy.”

They’re not lazy. They’re fluent. Fluent in meme culture, fluent in burnout, fluent in knowing too much and having zero power.

You want to know why Zoomers don’t trust anyone over 40? Because they’ve watched the planet choke while the grown-ups doubled down on capitalism and TikTok bans.

This generation grew up in a haunted house called Earth, and everyone’s acting like they should decorate the place instead of run screaming.

They don’t want your empty optimism. They don’t want to rebuild. They want the truth—and a nap. Or maybe just a thread about how to make a depression meal that costs less than $2.37.

So before you go blaming Zoomers for not trying harder, maybe ask what the hell we handed them in the first place. Spoiler: it wasn’t a future.