[rglover]

My wife and I have been talking about noticing the general cognitive decline in people we interact with. We both started to notice that people have been getting a little bit...goofy (spacing out, not really reciprocating communication, hyper-limited attention spans, etc).

We both land on a combination of social media and economic effects (people stressed to make ends meet leading to an anxious mind). AI is on the lower-end of our concerns.

[lesinski]

I am a party magician in my spare time -- I walk around parties and show short bits of eye-catching magic to guests.

I have noticed that some young people (~18-30 yo) lose attention within as little as 5 seconds. I could have someone choose a card and in that amount of time, they have spaced out -- no phone, just staring blankly. I have two rubber bands examined and by the time they are handed back, someone is on their phone.

The most annoying part is that -- because I construct my routines for minimal attention spans -- within 2 more seconds, something magic happens and everyone who's paying attention reacts. And the 1-2 young people who zoned out start panicking about the FOMO, "what happened?" "do it again!" Sorry folks!

[mitchell_h]

google "gen z stare". This is such a commonly observed thing that it got a name, meme, tiktok sound, and news articles.

[lcnPylGDnU4H9OF]

For what it's worth, the nature of the stare seems to be in dispute:

> With this, a lot of Gen Z “clapped back,” if you will (this essentially means they rebutted), saying that this stare comes from listening to Boomers or Millennials ask them obvious questions or start demanding things from them that warrant a look that says, “Are you actually serious right now?” or “I don’t get paid enough for this.”

https://www.insidehook.com/internet/gen-z-stare (first result after searching "gen z stare" on DDG)

Not saying some people don't get bored and start looking at their phones way too fast (uh, like drivers at a stop light? that's not limited to gen z), just that there might be another reason for any given blank stare.

[kjkjadksj]

Hearing mindnumbingly dumb things from customers is as old as customer facing jobs though.

[QuantumGood]

You say "people", any filters? Young/old, working/not working. I notice changes in each new generation that are at least cognitive adjacent.

[jay_kyburz]

My partner was telling me about the Gen Z stare last night. Apparently when you try and talk to them in the workplace they don't know how to respond so they will just stare back at you.

[Traubenfuchs]

And you know what your partner telling you about the gen-z stare story means?

They are a social media trend addict, just like anyone else. Because the gen-z stare is a new meme that bubbled up to the top of social media infinite scrool content in the last week.

[jay_kyburz]

And here I am bubbling it up to the nerdiest social media of all! :)

[rglover]

All ages for both of us (I'm OP). All spans of economic status (poor, middle, rich—doesn't matter).