NYT and WaPo running identical Gen Z v. Millenial sock trend strories?

[Anonymous]

NYT:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/20/style/gen-z-crew-socks-ankle-millennials.html

WaPo:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/fashion/2024/06/21/millennials-crew-ankle-socks-tiktok/

Here's the gist of both: Millennials are stuck on no-show socks that seem old-fashion now. Gen-Z likes full length crew socks.

How strange that this extremely niche story idea happens simultaneously?

FWIW, I'm gen X and only recently realized that crew socks are cool again.

[Anonymous]

This topic was all over tiktok for a while, I’m sure they just jumped on the trend of talking about it because it was big on sm.

[Anonymous]

Maybe they are both being paid off by an athletic sock company.

[Anonymous]

BIG SOCK strikes again

[Anonymous]

Old fashioned, not old fashion.

[Anonymous]

The constant millennial vs gen z discourse is very bizarre. I cant remember millennials particularly caring what Xers were up to, and certainly not fixating or constantly trashing them the way Gen Z does to millennials. Why are millennials still the center of style discourse when theyre in their 30s? It's all so odd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The constant millennial vs gen z discourse is very bizarre. I cant remember millennials particularly caring what Xers were up to, and certainly not fixating or constantly trashing them the way Gen Z does to millennials. Why are millennials still the center of style discourse when theyre in their 30s? It's all so odd.

That's because Gen X is the forgotten latchkey kid generation.

[Anonymous]

Gen X high five to all the Gen Zs out there!

Are they also wearing them with high top converse chuck taylors?

[Anonymous]

Those two newspapers usually have two versions of almost any story?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe they are both being paid off by an athletic sock company.

I like pp’s social media theory better, although it’s likely someone paid influencers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The constant millennial vs gen z discourse is very bizarre. I cant remember millennials particularly caring what Xers were up to, and certainly not fixating or constantly trashing them the way Gen Z does to millennials. Why are millennials still the center of style discourse when theyre in their 30s? It's all so odd.

That's because Gen X is the forgotten latchkey kid generation.

Well the recent TikTok trend where some stupid GenZ twit calls GenX the worst generation ever has been hilarious.

Your Mom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The constant millennial vs gen z discourse is very bizarre. I cant remember millennials particularly caring what Xers were up to, and certainly not fixating or constantly trashing them the way Gen Z does to millennials. Why are millennials still the center of style discourse when theyre in their 30s? It's all so odd.

Exactly. When we (millennials) were young we wanted to be cute and go out with our friends and our peers were our focus. I certainly did not focus on what some 40yo mom was wearing.

Gen Z has too much time on their hand and too many platforms for various nonsense. Also their fashion is terrible, don't care what they think of my socks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gen X high five to all the Gen Zs out there!

Are they also wearing them with high top converse chuck taylors?

My kid often is, yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The constant millennial vs gen z discourse is very bizarre. I cant remember millennials particularly caring what Xers were up to, and certainly not fixating or constantly trashing them the way Gen Z does to millennials. Why are millennials still the center of style discourse when theyre in their 30s? It's all so odd.

Exactly. When we (millennials) were young we wanted to be cute and go out with our friends and our peers were our focus. I certainly did not focus on what some 40yo mom was wearing.

Gen Z has too much time on their hand and too many platforms for various nonsense. Also their fashion is terrible, don't care what they think of my socks.

I believe the stats back this up. Gen Z is not going to parties, not having sex, not drinking, which may sound good on the surface, but many of those things are important milestones of young adulthood and indicators of a healthy social life. Many of them are perpetually online without many real life friendships or other areas to focus on, so now they spend a lot of their day fixating on what 30 and 40 somethings are doing. And they're oddly competitive about it. Very perplexing.

[Anonymous]

I'm a millennial 40+ mom who hates the tyranny of no show socks (incredibly hard to find ones that don't slip down) so I'll happily return to crew socks.

If Gen Zers are actually making fun of millennials for this (I don't know, I'm old and will not TikTok on principle) then what they need to understand is that millennial women have a generation have just been sold trend after uncomfortable trend on the premise that the very worst thing we can do is be comfortable or happy in our own skin. There was the tyranny of not only low rise jeans but at the same time the insistance in thong underwear (a movement with its own song! Underwear that literally requires you get waxed! Wt actual f!). There were backless going out tops, underwire bras from Victoria's Secret, spray tans, some kind of ban on one piece bathing suits. No show socks were the least of it. Being a millennial woman in your 20s and 30s meant discomfort and never feeling like you were "allowed" to just be yourself. And millennials did not start these trends-- they were sold to us via a monoculture that no longer exists. Television (not streaming platforms) with advertising, block user movies you saw in actual theaters, and a music industry that relief on radio and music videos. We consumed more media than any prior generation but unlike Gen Z we consumed what we were given-- we didn't have the choices that exists now via streaming and user-created content.

You can make fun of us if you want but you could also try to understand us. Also, since the oldest Gen Zers are now 25 or so, guess who is actually making the trends you're currently wearing? You guessed it-- millennials. I bet you anything there is some millennial merchandising exec at Hanes who was like "you know, no show socks are hell annoying, what would be great is if we could bring my back crew socks."

You're welcome.