I was born in 1984, which puts me in that Elder Millennial/Xennial category (EMX for short). EMXers remember life before the Internet, home computers, and smartphones. We excelled at T9 texting and wore the F outta JNCO jeans first, then skinny jeans later. A Millennial brought you Facebook (okay, fine, I concede that one hasn’t ended up great but it was cool before the Boomers took over, jk jk jk!). Here’s a list of things that we’ve done and a Reddit thread of positive contributions.
But, time has done its thing and our generation has taken a step back to the latest gen of young adults, Gen Z. Gen Z has a lot of good qualities. They’re great at speaking out to push for political and social change and stand up for themselves in the workplace. They’re also busy rolling their eyes at the side part hairdo and canceling my beloved skinny jeans. AS IF! Well, according to Gen Z, Millennials apparently have a tell that makes it easy to spot us while out in the wild: ankle socks. Yup! Apparently ankle socks are a “Millennial giveaway” and soooo out of style.
Gen Z is at it again. First, they came for skinny jeans. Then they came for side parts. Now it’s about socks.
A TikTok that says you can tell someone from Gen Z apart from a millennial based on the socks they are wearing at the gym is going viral.
Gen Z wears crew socks, and millennials/everyone else wears ankle socks. Yes, they’re coming for ankle socks!
People on TikTok are asking “Am I uncool?” for their choice in socks. [One] person bregrudingly retired their ankle socks. Other people disagree with the ankle sock hate.
“Gen Z will never scare me out of wearing a side part or ankle socks!” [another] millennial screamed.
Not all millennials are doom and gloom about this new sock development. Another person said they always thought ankle socks were ugly: “I always had trouble getting them to stay on my feet.”
I know that every generation has its own contributions to how it’s shaped society as a whole, but shut the front door and get off my lawn with this crazy talk! What’s wrong with ankle socks? I never gave up skinny jeans and I sure as hell am not giving up my ankle socks! Though, to be fair, I generally wear the same pair of Rothy flats that Mr. Rosie bought me for Christmas 2019 with my skinny jeans, so I’m not wearing socks anyway, but STILL. It’s the principle of the matter! I will freely admit that all of my workout socks are the Puma ankle socks you get at Costco, and I love them, so come find me at the gym, lol. I actually gave up crew socks for them years ago, and I am not going back. Look, Gen Z, we can all peacefully co-exist on this one issue, mmmkay? You can have my ankle socks when you pry them off my cold, dead feet…actually, no, you can’t. Bury me in the ones I’ll be wearing when I die on this hill.
@shivonnbomb Its REAL!!!!! #millenialsoftiktok #genzvsmillenial #genz ♬ original sound – Paige Mills
Photos credit: Danilo Capece and Syd Wachs on Unsplash, Cottonbro and Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels
My son (13) insists on crew socks and now I know why. They are so ugly. I said what I said.
💯 crew socks should only be worn under pants where you can’t see them
My son is 14, and same.
Gen Z dresses like a bunch of hobos so 🤷♀️.
Also what is up with the bucket hats? I swear they are regressing more and more into the 90s and are now in the early nineties stage of dressing. Soon they will be wearing 80s fashion.
Apparently it’s now cool to wear some kinda socks with those Rothy’s. Really. You can buy some pretty, sheer socks on Amazon or whatever but again – yeah full-on, visible socks are the thing of the moment.
Nooooo whyyyyy
Props to Gen Z for refusing to walk around with cold ankles.
I’m for weather appropriate sock choices.
Exactly, Jen! I live in California, and the idea of long socks with Nikes in the heat gives me heat stroke. Gen Z is into comfort, but I am post-menopausal and I need shoe liners to prevent blisters. Young people aren’t trying to solve that problem. But they don’t want blisters on the backs of their ankles, and that is a danger with ankle socks if they slip down into the back of your shoes.
Can you tell that I think about appropriate sock choices A LOT?!
Yeah! It’s 30C with high humidity: I need my ankles to breathe! (but I’m prone to blisters so I also need socks) When winter comes and it’s -15C, then yeah, crew socks FTW. There’s a season for everything
Exactly! Keep your dignity, Millenials, double down on the side part, skinny jeans, and ankle socks (when seasonally appropriate). Soon enough, Crew socks will be uncool.
Now I know why my stocking stuffers gift of ankle socks go unused.
I’m 56 years old, and this is just the way every generation’s young people are. It’s how the newbies separate from older generations. My grandparents used to talk about it. We’d all laugh. It’s dumb. Soon they will be the ones who are out of style, and they will remember how stupid they sounded.
I had hope for newer generations that they didn’t find it necessary to make these kinds of divides about what people wear and do. Do they realize that they are just like the generations before them in having to make divisions in what is considered “cool” and “uncool”?
I’m convinced it is all marketing to get people to buy new things before the old ones wear out.
Yeah I’m getting sick of all these articles coming out about how “something millennials wore is lame now” / “gen z is wearing something different from what millennials wore”
Like, wow. New, younger generation having different fashions?! The shock. The horror.
I don’t know if it is just clickbait, but the constant pitting of the two youngest generations against each other makes me feel uncomfortable.
The fun part about getting older is not caring what the kids think about my taste. Have fun with your crew socks and ingrown leg hairs!
Lol I kid (mostly) but these types of things always crack me up, there’s no way I could be mistaken for gen z anyway, so why should I try? Is it bad to look my age bracket? I’m not trying to look like “How do you do fellow kids”
Hahahaha same! I’m in my late 40s and I don’t care if my socks are no longer de rigueur. In the spring / summer I wear no-shows with my sneakers, and in the fall / winter I wear knee socks. If I’m wearing flats then it’s often with no socks at all. Woe is me, I guess?
Yup! Same here, only I’m Gen X.
@Beth I agree. I call myself “trend averse.” I just wear what I like. I tend to catch up with a trend right before it peaks and then get used to it and refuse to try the next big thing until it’s about to peak etc. I enjoy fashion, I just can’t keep up with fads and trends. I also don’t want to be the living embodiment of the Steve Buscemi “how do you do fellow kids” meme.
Millennials got a bad rap, we are like the scapegoats of the generations. The boomers blamed us for everything and now Gen Z is clowning on us. I don’t gaf about impressing anyone. Maybe I’ll try the socks and maybe I won’t. In the meantime I’ll just keep wearing my sandals without socks because that is a goofy ass trend that should never have been born. I said what I said
Exactly! Gen X here, I read all that kind of stuff and shrug. Wear what you want.
Hard same. I’m a Baby Gen Xer (1980), old enough to not care what Gen Z or anyone thinks, and it’s a beautiful state of mind lol. Also I feel like Gen X energy is *not* doing the cool, trendy thing anyway, so my ankle socks are their own generational statement. 🤷🏾♀️
“How do you do fellow kids”
Stealing this for future embarrassment of said kids
Right? I’m almost 50 now and I doubt it’s my socks or my side part that are the first give aways.
LOL
There was an article on news.com.au recently that said young people know whether you’re a millennial by whether you get paper receipts at shops or not. Straight away I thought yeah maybe the person budgets or claims tax. Young people don’t carry wallets either apparently.
Well reality is..they are dressing like Gen X for sure and older Millennials. They are dressing like we did when we were the same age and they seem to have no clue they are dressing like their parents when they were the same age.
Proof that it is uncool: I wear black ankle socks with Doc oxfords and black chuck taylors all summer. I am 54. The minute I put on crew socks, they will also be uncool. So, should I ruin it for the kids?
Hahaa YES @Frankly let’s do it!
They can wear whatever they want, and yes, my 15 yo younger daughter definitely hates ankle socks.
I don’t mind trends as long as it doesn’t prevent me from finding the clothes that I want to wear and that look good on me. The problem with skinny jeans and those dreadful low rise jeans before them is that they prevented me from finding the straight-legged or wide-legged high rise jeans that this long wasted woman loves.. I hoarded them during the previous style eras.. can finally re-stock up!!
As a former ballet dancer I don’t wear any socks, ever, not even in boots, in the midst of winter, just cushioned leather insoles.
I hate skinny jeans, and I can do without side parts. Ponytail or slightly messy bun, and I’m good. Some would say I march to the beat of my own drums.
So these kinds of intergenerational squabbling always amuses me, a xennial, no end.
The feet in the header pic are rockin’ some serious GenX 1990s fashion.
They are 100% just repeating Gen X fashion. Gen X was influenced by the 70s and hippy 60s so it is just a circle of bad fashion lol
This is not about socks but boomers and computers.. Most of the internet was started by boomers.. Someone said yesterday on a comment to a post that young people should be helping their boomer neighbours with their computers. We’ve been using computers since before Rosie was born and the internet since, well for me 96, which was as early as regular people could in my country. I find this casual ageism (like fb comment) really weird. I’ve used computers longer than most commenters have been alive.
I find the tik tok generation nauseating so that’s my casual ageism. They’re deluded into thinking they’re interesting and they’re innovative. What we did WAS actual innovation not reinventing a boring wheel. And not giving ourselves participation awards.
I’ve been wanting to ask TikTok gen why their feelings about everything deserve so much space and respect, yet they’re fine with attacking people over their age, which is a physical factor people have no control over.
I’m not a boomer but I’m sick of “ok boomer” and all of its iterations. while I like that Gen Z is being taught to hold their own, I don’t like how blatantly disrespectful they feel entitled to be. respect is a two way street.
While I’m at it, I’m soooo tired of working with Gen Z people. they demand so much “support” for doing their job. I have one girl who works under me I have to “support” in showing up on time for work, even though she demands her mother bring her to work because she is not capable for getting there on her own. I have to keep asking her how I can “support her” in doing her job, because she will not do her job. This girl also continues to whine daily about her mom not serving her meals she likes even though she’s “explained her food boundaries” to her mom. She’s 26! I just wonder how they’re going to function when they can’t live at home and have employers treat them like infants anymore.
Lol, you’re not realizing you’re doing exacyly what you accuse others of?
“We are innovative and they are not!”
The generation above you thought exactly the same about your generation.
LOLOLOL this basically negates your entire point – “They’re deluded into thinking they’re interesting and they’re innovative. What we did WAS actual innovation not reinventing a boring wheel.”
I’m sure the generations before boomers also thought that they were innovative and boomers were just a bunch of hippies. Each generation does the next thing and rolls their eyes at the generations before and after. It’s how it goes.
As for the computer thing – my father is an electrical engineer (and a boomer.) We have always had a personal computer in our house (I was born in in 1982). So I am well aware that boomers like my father have years more experience with a computer than I do.
That said, the way computers, phones, the internet, social media, etc are major parts of our daily lives are NOT the way they were major parts for the boomer generation. I have spent infinitely more hours on the internet than either of my parents. I have spent more time on social media than they have.
I mean my father, the electrical engineer, still can’t figure out that when he posts in a FB group its not private and I can see it (and if you want to know what he’s commenting on……its pictures of calculators from the 1970s and 80s.) That’s all that Rosie meant. It wasn’t some huge dig at boomers, but you sure took the opportunity to slam Gen Z.
That… Is the most boomer comment ever
Every time I am in the gym, I notice (especially as summer arrives down the shore), people with their sweatpants tucked into the long socks. They look ridiculous and they are almost always Gen Z kids. Also, shoulder pads in their workout shirts! Whatever. Gen X here just trying to stay in shape and under the radar. I’ll listen to these kids ‘fashion advice’ once they’ve had to dress themselves with their own money for several decades.
At this point of my aging journey, I give no effs. I like my Belega ankle running socks in the summer and I just re-stocked. In the winter I use a thinner trouser sock for dressier occasions and good old fashioned tube socks for everything else. No one is paying attention if I’m wearing jeans anyway. My question is a more broad question: What do you do with old socks that are getting holes. I don’t want to throw them away but they are outliving it’s usefulness (same with underwear). I would appreciate some help with this. Fabric in landfill is bad.
We grew up dirt poor, and I have a core memory of my mom using my dad’s old (but freshly laundered) underwear as a dust cloth. Depending on the material, socks can be especially good at grabbing dust and pet hair – you put it on over your hand and run it over weird shaped stuff in your home like spindles on the stairs. I still do this with old socks because it’s easier than maneuvering a rectangular dust rag from the store around it. You toss it in the wash and you’re good to go.
I use them to clean up cat barf. you could always learn to darn! wool socks, I will mend.
You could try to learn how to darn them. There are accounts on instagram that show people making such repairs, including on sweaters and patching jeans and it’s soooo mesmerizing. Or, there are places that will recycle clothes. Also, depending on the size, perhaps they could be used for dusting?
you can make rice bags out of old socks to heat up for body parts that ache after working out or whatever, and you can also put soap in them and use them as a body scrubber/exfoliator.
I also keep freshly laundered old socks on my cleaning cupboard so I can clean up spills/stains with like colored fabric.
You can google textile recycling in your area. Although unless you live in a pretty progressive state, it’s doubtful you’ll find a state/local sponsored program. There are also several clothing manufacturers that offer textile recycling, but the most common I’ve seen is for denim. There are also companies that will recycle your textiles, but you have to pay the company to take your old textiles, which is probably why it’s not more common.
Old socks make excellent dust rags – put them over your hands.
If they’re cotton, old underwear make good rags too – for painting, using chemicals or solvents, cleaning outdoor things that have details and/or can’t be hosed, etc.
Gen X popping in to comment. The beauty of growing older is that you have already participated in whatever “new” trend that pops up. Center part? Yup, did that in the 1970s. Still an absolutely unflattering look for me. Knee high socks? Yup, 70s and 80s. Bell bottoms? 1970s. Boot cut? Yep, early aughts. Big hair, sleek hair, short hair. Oversized tee-shirts and oversized flannel. Hairy pits and legs. Thin brows, thick brows. Check, check, check.
Gen X here as well, and yeah, I’m not about to start caring what Gen Z thinks of me or my sock choices. I personally have very short legs and have always preferred ankle socks over crew because crew socks make my legs looks even shorter. So at the end of the day, I’m gonna wear what works for me. If Gen Z thinks I’m lame, well darn, I guess I’m a big old lamo then. On another note, I find it funny that Gen Z is declaring anything regarding fashion choices considering they continually rip off prior generation styles, and what they do invent looks pretty appalling. I personally think high crew socks look like old man socks, so they can have that one all to themselves.
Exactly! They’re not inventing anything new with their trends, just taking from the past. The funniest to me is the “joggers”, like sweats with elastic at the ankles had never been done before. I wore them in the 70’s and remember how hard they were to get off over track shoes in high school.
Gen X here for the roll call! My Gen Alpha child has been wearing crew socks for a year or two and she and her friends love them with crocs and birkenstocks and sweats with elastic ankles. I kind of love that they’re into this aggressively ugly yet comfy combo. It’s a hard pass for me, though!
If I knew how to use TikTok, I could post a video telling GenZ that their fashion choices are mystifyingly unflattering. But I don’t care enough. I just tell my kids they look cute as I wave them out the door, and they tell me I look cute with my ankle socks and muumuus and we’re all happy.
Seriously! Baggy jeans and crop tops look good on Gigi Hadid and no one else.
This is why teenagers like them. They won’t like that style after 30 that’s for sure.
I’m Gen X/Elder Millennial and my sock choice has always been seasonal so more leg coverage as the weather gets colder, and less when it’s warmer 🤷🏻♀️ I kinda hate the silicone grip on no-show socks, though. Also not gonna stop side parting my hair. I’ve worn a centre part in the past, but after I stopped wearing bangs, centre parts have just meant fighting my growth pattern, so I’ve stuck with a side part since the turn of the millennium. I also don’t care if my socks or my hair are a “tell.” I’m not trying to hide my age.
Lol, sure – fight for political and social change while giving people crap for wearing the wrong kind of socks.
Hahaha! while they’re ageist AF. Sooo progressive. /s
I’ve never understood why anyone would listen to young adults and teenagers to determine what’s cool. I remember being that age. I didn’t know sh**, I was just loud and obnoxious about my opinions.
And I definitely didn’t know how to dress to flatter my body shape. Judging by the Gen Z kids I see, they don’t either. And stealing decades old fashion trends is what every young generation does. Nothing about this is innovative or new, they’re just too young to know that.
Millennial rant over.
Have fun with the tan lines!
So weird to me when people get offended by changing trends and complain that something they like is out of style.
Trends are superficial. They dont mean anything deep and they’re not about you. But they do change and flow—when people get sick of looking at one thing, they want to look at a different thing instead. No one is *demanding* everyone give up their ankle socks or skinny jeans, or whatever. The times are just moving on. If you don’t care about being on trend then don’t do it, whatever, na zdrovya. But also it’s crazy to get offended when what you like isn’t in anymore. You don’t have to keep up, but you can’t expect the everyone else not to change because you don’t want to…
You’re right, it’s silly to be offended when styles change. But I think it’s OK to be offended if people insult you for not following what they say is the new style.
Honestly I hated ankle socks and the way they always slide down in my shoe and am enjoying some higher socks. They are unflattering but I like the way the youths are embracing some practicality.
Looks like I have a different understanding of what constitutes ankle socks. Most commenters & those Gen-Z-ers seem to be using the term to describe what I think of as no-show socks. Ankle socks actually extend to just above the ankles, actually covering the ankles. Crew socks are mid-calf or just below mid-calf. Anyway, that’s what I grew up with.
Gen Z has HORRIBLE taste if you ask me. They wear ill-fitting jeans/pants and super baggy stuff and cheap looking fake leather pants and socks that go halfway up their legs. I get that the fashion world has also embraced some of these looks, but fashion is terrible right now. I haven’t been wearing my skinny jeans in a while bc of covid (wasn’t going out) and weight gain (perimenopause), but they’ll be back in due course!
I wonder if the side part thing is still a thing? Because that was definitely a few years ago!
They are repeating early & mid 90s fashion. This isn’t anything new at all. Also think they really value comfort over looking fashion attractive.
I literally had to look up the difference between all these specific sock types. Here is the actual low-down for any other clueless boomers out there like me:
https://cdn.thewirecutter.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/20171017_sock_lengths_single-1024×534.png
Hey kids!
Enjoy your blisters!
I wore crew socks when I was younger too. Get back to me when you realize it’s not worth looking cool at the gym. Less fabric is more when you’re sweating!
I have a huge claustrophobia about crew socks (probably cause it was what was forced to wear growing up in the 80s)…. I literally feel like I can’t breath even looking at people wearing them… free the ankle!
LMAO. Do they think we care? In high school I wore glittery jeans from Wet Seal and one of those North Face shell jackets despite the frigid cold. In college we went to $7 open bars and you can guess how that went. Bad decisions are part of growing up. Gen Z can have their tube socks and all of their other silly trends; I’ll stick with practicality.
I’m Gen X and I’m cracking up at the return of JNCOs and JNCO-style stove-leg pants! After seeing the skinnies for what seems like 20 years, all of a sudden my nephews are all about that old-school skater style. Just last week I saw a group of 14-16 year olds in my neighborhood out on the lawn wearing JNCOs and PLAYING HACKEY SACK and I was like, “Did I go through a wormhole back to 1990 somehow?” But to each their own. I’m still mostly a leggings gal but I did find a nice pair of high-waisted wide-legged jeans at AE recently and will admit they have a nice drape. But I’m 5’9″ and most of my shorter friends are going “I could never…”
For the love of all that is holy, just please don’t bring back knee-high, striped tube socks worn with super-short gym shorts, like my older siblings wore in the late 70s and early 80s.
I couldn’t take it.
I’m a 1984 model too and growing up back in my home country you could always guess the origin and age of some tourists who were walking around with crew socks and sandals so I’m not getting in that trend thank you very much. I would rather be a proud geriatric millenial.
I love watching trends. And reading all of your comments. Makes me revisit memories from so long ago. Lately, as I age, I have gotten more nostalgic and have been looking at old photo albums. Decided I like albums with real photos instead of trying to scroll through thousands of photos on iCloud. So that’s my next big culling project. Going through the ridiculous numbers of photos saved and sorting the ones that we want printed to fill albums with. I miss dropping off films to be developed (it’s the anticipation of seeing how the photos turn out). Nowadays, it’s so expensive and of meh quality.
Japan lately has become the IT destination. For sock trends, baggy clothes, midis and minis, look no further. My gen Z kid who makes annual visits to see relatives loves the range of clothing choices there. Always come back with an xtra suitcase full of thrift finds and clothes. The Japanese are big on socks so I’ve got a drawer full from tabi (for traditional geta or setta sandals), five-toe socks, to socks of every length. So if you visit, wear what makes you comfy.
Why you so obsessed with us, Gen Z?:)
The terminology is making my head spin. It is my understanding that no-show socks, ankle socks, and crew socks are all different things. It seems like they are coming after no-show socks, but calling them ankle socks. Or are ankle socks (which stick up about 4 inches outside of the shoe) also consider just as bad as no-show socks? I consider ankle socks to be ones like in the red-black-and-white Nikes in the picture top. Those are still OK, correct?
I’m with you, @Tiffany, and commented as such above. What they seem to disdain are the no-shows, not ankle socks.
No socks and no side parts, damn you kids are making it hard for this old lady to be stylin’
And you kids better put on some foot deodorant for your stanky feet!
So I’m a young millennial, as in, I’m only a few years shy of the start of Gen Z and while I def don’t feel like one of them I do tend to listen when they declare something “out.” At first when they came for side parts and skinny jeans I was like “Oh, please.” But then fewer people started wearing them and well, they started to look outdated as hell.
Things go out of style, such is the nature of fashion and different generations and while I think it’s dumb to follow every single trend, it’d be like hanging onto teased hair and blue eyeshadow from the 80s. At a certain point, if you hang onto a look long enough, you’re going to have a timestamp LOL.
thissss. adopt some stuff, have some core timeless looks. if you adopt trends it keeps you looking fresh and everything comes back around anyways so just shelve a look for a bit.
At this big age, Imma wear what I want. One thing I noticed about Gen Z is they like ugly clothes, do you, I will continue to do me. I wear crew socks ( nice ones) with sneakers and shoes where they make sense.
totally. I love crew socks, but they don’t go with everything and I’ll be damned if I’m getting a weird shin tan line.
I heard this on the radio over and over a “teaser” to keep us listening for hours to this radio station so we could hear the “report” about Gen Z and ankle socks, this weekend, when driving to visit my grandma.
When I got to my destination, and tol grandma to a local grocery store for trendy people that has a coffee shop inside of it…every single person under the age of 25 who was also wearing closed toed shoes, was wearing ankle socks.
This seems like one of those “a local news agency wrote an article about sock height based solely on watching 2-3 TikToks from some 19-year-olds about sock height.”
It was sold to me on the radio as “will you be able to buy ankle socks ever again!? Gen Z is putting ankle socks out of business!!”
As a xennial, I’m going to jump on the trends I like, and leave the rest. I’m so glad flared jeans, cargo pants and chunky loafers are back, but I’m keeping my side part and ankle socks.