TikTok is a place of endless fads that rise and fall at a pace faster than the stock market in 2008. Now there’s a new trend on the block, where you can test yourself to discern whether you’re more similar to Generation Z or the mighty millennials.
The TikTok test was first published by a creator on the platform called Ludny (@Ludknee on TikTok) and has since gone viral. But the key differences that distinguish what generation you fall under aren’t necessarily related to your birthday.
Instead, Ludny’s challenge is related to the kinds of gestures and actions that you do by habit or by choice. Apparently, the way that you pick up your phone and the pair of jeans that you put on this morning are some of the strong indicators that reveal whether you fit in as a member of Gen Z or as a millennial.
Ludny published a series of questions that covered an array of personal quirks, gestures, and movements. The test covers questions ranging from how you choose to take a picture, to how you roll down a car window, to whether you wear skinny or loose jeans. Within that, she claimed that your choices and answers can reveal what generation you fall under.
The original TikTok video has gone viral, accumulating over 4 million views and over 244,000 likes. The caption, “Testing my best friend to see if she’s a millennial or Gen Z,” sets up the point of the test.
Ludny then asks her friend to act out several gestures without providing context for why. She asks her to pick up a phone and then hang up that same phone. Then, she asks her to make the shape of a heart with her hands.
Ludny follows up by asking her friend to show how she would take a picture before requesting to see how she would roll down a window. Finally, she asks her friend to stand up and show off her jeans.
Apart from first showing how she picked up her phone, Ludny ranked all her friend’s answers to the test as millennial ones. Therefore, Ludny’s test established some of her ground rules for determining whether you are more like Gen Z or the Millennials.
If you pick up and hang up a phone as if it’s still connected to a landline, you’re probably a millennial. If you take a photo like you still need to use two hands to hold a camera, you’re probably still stuck in the golden days of the actual camera. Millennial?
Furthermore, millennials still have to manually roll their car windows down, and they are required to bring all available fingers together when making a heart with their hands.
If these haven’t been a tell-tale sign, your skinny jeans might just give it away.
At the end of the TikTok, Ludny provides some guidance on how Gen Z would respond to the prompts. She shows that Gen Z would pretend to pick up and hang up the phone like a mobile phone, and would take a photo like they’re holding a phone up (one hand, obviously).
Gen Z likes to work smarter, not harder; winding down your car window would only require holding down the car window switch, while you’d only need your index and middle fingers to execute the shape of a heart.
Lastly, when it comes to jeans, Gen Z would opt for a loose or baggy style of straight-fit jeans. Gen Z cancelled skinny jeans many, many moons ago.
Following the video, people quickly entered the comments section to share their own thoughts on whether the questions and associated answers were reflective of one’s generation.
“This is later Gen Z or even Gen Alpha. I’m 2000 and I’d do everything here like the millennials lol,” stated one user.
Another person added to the debate: “I’m Gen Z and definitely did the ‘millennial’ way but maybe it’s because I’m an ‘older’ Gen Z.”
“Nah bc older Gen Z does the same stuff as millennials,” someone wrote, while another stated: “The millennial jeans and heart just look so much better though. Gen Z heart is so upsetting.”
The most fitting comment to conclude: “Gen Z seems to not understand how the world works.”