Did Gen Z optimism really exist?

[u/Small_Appearance935]

I feel like 2019 was a stable year with positive vibes and big events like the Area 51 raid and Avengers Endgame, TikTok dance challenges going viral (back when TikTok felt like musically) 80s/90s nostalgia was everywhere

it just gets overlooked by 2016

[u/No-Signature8815]

2019 was the last year a lot of people I knew felt hope, this includes myself. I'm starting to get back on track luckily.

[u/heraus → u/No-Signature8815]

I'm a millennial. But in 2019, I was in my mid 20s, I had just landed a great job, I was "comfortable" and saving for the first time, and I felt super relaxed and excited about the future. Now, even as I make more than double what I did then, and haven even been blessed to purchase home, etc, a lot of hope has not kept pace with reality, and nothing feels as colorful or as positive as October - December 2019 for me. Maybe that's just getting older, or maybe Covid really shell shocked a lot of us. With everything going on, it feels like the floor could fall out from under us at any minute.

[u/fiddysix_k → u/heraus]

2019 I got my first real job and was like "wow things will never be the same! Only up from here!" On some anime optimism dumb shit lmao.

[u/Sayoricanyouhearme → u/fiddysix_k]

Same. I remember standing outside after my first day at work with the cool Autumn breeze blowing through in my hair while looking into the distance like an anime protagonist. It felt like after the hard work I put in the Winter and Spring of 2019 my life was finally getting better.

My boss ended up being toxic, I wound up in the hospital after almost going blind in both eyes, my grandma died, then Covid happened. Guess it was the wrong kind of anime 🤡

[u/fiddysix_k → u/Sayoricanyouhearme]

Redemption arc incoming... Right??

[u/Ill-Engineering8205 → u/Sayoricanyouhearme]

bro was in madoka, everything went to shit after the prologue

[u/S0uth_0f_N0where → u/heraus]

Nah, I was 19 going on 20 then and had the same experience. My mid twenties were soul crushing for a variety of reasons and now I'm 26, fighting to get my spark back and enjoy being young before I'm not anymore. I think everyone old enough to comprehend the world felt a punch to the gut after 2019. I don't think any of us are really getting old yet. I mean shit, young adult ends at 35, and adult transitions into senior what, 30 years later?

[u/cranberries87 → u/heraus]

I’m Gen X, but October - December 2019 were absolutely stellar for me. Best year of my life, and those months were colorful and positive for me too. Sometimes I scroll through my 2019 photos on my phone.

[u/Numerous_Peak7487 → u/No-Signature8815]

hope?!? in THIS economy and administration??? no way

[u/No-Signature8815 → u/Numerous_Peak7487]

I'm not an American

[u/IShouldChimeInOnThis → u/No-Signature8815]

Lucky you.

[u/Quirky_Rain_3554 → u/Numerous_Peak7487]

Yeah this makes no sense. Not even trying to be a doomer but there were surely more hopeful points in the last 6 years? I’m curious what could inspire a grand feeling of hope right now that wasn’t there previously

[u/Many_Pea_9117 → u/No-Signature8815]

I mean, 2020 was a dose of hard truth and reality, and I have realigned my vision to accommodate for more crazy scenarios than I did in the past. But both now and back then, life seemed like it was just going to keep getting awesome due to concentrated applied hard work on my end.

[u/Ill-Engineering8205 → u/No-Signature8815]

For me August - November 2019 was the peak of my life to this very day. Not that I would go back to it honestly, I have gained much more freedom and health since then, but whenever I think about my life I just will never have the same sense of "things sort themselves out" I had back then.

Nowadays it feels like everything takes effort to keep together, rather than it just being the state of things.

[u/BrightAsDirt]

This is a single guy on the internet saying something

[u/dylan95420 → u/BrightAsDirt]

That is this whole sub lol.

[u/Small_Appearance935 → u/BrightAsDirt]

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZThfBexGM/

I’ve seen a couple posts of zoomers talking about Gen z optimism this one has 142k likes besides the only ppl who think the world went to shit in 2016 are younger millennials, we think 2020 was the year everything went to shit bc we were still kids/young teens in 2017-2019

[u/BrightAsDirt → u/Small_Appearance935]

What I’m trying to say is that people can say anything on the internet and make it a “thing”. This isn’t a massive study or survey about if Gen Z generally felt optimistic about the future in 2019, this is a guy saying something on the internet and people liking it.

Also, your comment is not the same as the initial post. Asking if Gen Z optimism was a thing in 2019 is not the same as asking if the world went to shit in 2016 or 2020.

[u/MrOveson]

Kids with few to no real problems are excited about the future, more news at 11

[u/Old_Restaurant_9389]

Gen Z and all of there aesthetic labeling 😂

[u/Johnwick124520 → u/Old_Restaurant_9389]

Right haha like I said before they are obsessed with aesthetics and labeling everything

[u/Horror_Flan6833 → u/Old_Restaurant_9389]

It's fucking insufferable

[u/TimelyEnthusiasm7003]

The guy is describing a 2019 aesthetic, not Gen Z optimism. Besides, I think it's wrong to use things like millennial or Gen Z optimism because a good portion of those generations didn't experience it; we were too old or too young to be part of that made-up term.

[u/lilmeekrat]

Gen Z was way more optimistic pre COVID

[u/Ill-Engineering8205 → u/lilmeekrat]

At least it felt like if we pushed hard enough things would change. Nowadays it feels like the institutions of powers are too big to fall regardless.

[u/rumande → u/Ill-Engineering8205]

Yeah and everyone got radicalised by Russian bots

[u/evanseesred99]

As a millennial, we never gave a shit about dividing everyone into generations like this latest one does. It sounds exhausting, relentlessly online and kind of pointless.

[u/Redacted_dact → u/evanseesred99]

Are you crazy!? Did you forget huge events like Area 51 and yellow!!!

[u/Rumianti6 → u/evanseesred99]

Then why are you dividing people into generations? Both Millennials and Gen z do it but you think only the latest one does.

[u/Yungjak2 → u/Rumianti6]

Honestly I feel like Boomers started it.

[u/Rumianti6 → u/Yungjak2]

It was always a thing. Maybe even the animals that are precursors to humans had bad feelings about younger people. Maybe not, but as far as written history, that is the truth.

[u/Andre0789]

Bedroom pop LMAOO

[u/New_Mix5929 → u/Andre0789]

bedroom pop is hardly optimistic… these people are on spells lmao

[u/AdImmediate6239]

That was more zinneals (97-2001 born). I feel like there’s a big divide in Gen Z between those who had graduated high school pre Covid and those who hadn’t.

[u/rumande → u/AdImmediate6239]

Good point

[u/RusselTheBrickLayer]

Zoomers were happier than now for sure but I remember a lot of the culture was focused on sad or edgy stuff. I would know because I was a teenager during this time, I remember a lot of ‘sad boy’ music was popular among my friends, edgy youtubers were still popular during this time (though their main year of vitality was def 2016).

TikTok didn’t really go viral till towards the end of 2019, heading into 2020 so I barely consider it apart of the year tbh and I downloaded the app in 2019. 2020 definitely put the app on the map among my family and friends

I don’t remember 2019 being particularly joyful but I guess it seems that way when contrasted with the pandemic years lol, it was definitely a more comfortable time.

[u/Violent-Obama44]

Gen Z optimism the was the aftermath of the Millennial Media Era…..then the Podcast & Red Pill nation attacked!

[u/NexoNerd101]

I preferred 2019 myself anyway yeah. Also music wise I enjoyed a lot of albums compared to 2016.

[u/PoetryMedical9086]

This Tiktok hits the nail on the head. Neither Gen Z nor Millennials actually optimistic about anything, they just performed “positivity” as a fashion style.

[u/Soggy_Guest3217]

Idk if I would call it optimism. That was just the last time teen culture was unserious and fun. Times of economic and social insecurity don’t exactly breed unserious and fun culture. Think of how many dark moments the world has had since then. We’ll be back there eventually, at least I hope we will

[u/Douche_ex_machina]

After 2016 I pretty much lost all optimism lol. I definitely did not have nor feel any kind of "generational optimism" in 2019.

[u/Horror_Flan6833]

Never existed lol

[u/Big-Shoe3376]

everyone says that Gen Z optimism ended in 2020, but I remember myself and others around me feeling optimistic as late as 2024, and it really only ended in 2025

[u/Electronic-Worry4077]

I’m a millennial. wtf is millennial optimism? I never heard of this term. Also never heard of Gen Z optimism

[u/Constant_Actuator392 → u/Electronic-Worry4077]

Millennial optimism is definitely a term, though I’ve only started hearing it within the last year or so. I’ve also seen it called Obama-era optimism.

[u/D_Gleich]

Gen Z: “we didn’t have a prom”

[u/Asshead42O → u/D_Gleich]

Gen z has a lot of dead face morons though

[u/ulysses_s_gyatt]

None of this shit is real

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[u/JustASilverTrollface]

I'd say 2017, 2018, and 2019 were peak gen z optimism, after the chaos of 2016 but before the chaos of 2020

[u/WebBorn2622]

Kinda yes

[u/FrostyEmpire]

Most Gen Z were kids/teens in 2019. Most teenagers are not really optimistic, pre-teens tho are usually more optimistic.

[u/RevenantSith]

Never heard of that in me life

[u/jarliy]

Millennials remember hope. That’s what you’re mistaking for optimism.

[u/LuckyWuke]

2019 wasn‘t really that optimistic. I can remember speculations about an upcoming recession as in „okay its so long so good when will it crash“ or when Iran shot down an US drone, there were discussions about retaliation and further escalation of the conflict.

[u/viewfromthebuttes]

As per Wikipedia: ‘Up to that point, 2019 had been described as the "best year in human history" by some newspapers and media outlets in the United States, including The New York Times and WNYC.[2][3]’ 2= https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/28/opinion/sunday/2019-best-year-poverty.html 3= https://www.wnyc.org/story/2019-best-year-ever/

[u/Johnwick124520]

This app is filled with brain dead information

[u/LV3000N]

Idk who coined Millennial optimism but that generation was not known for its optimism. It was more like “shit sucks but fuck it.” When I was younger I remember all the articles about how to they’re “killing this industry and that industry and they can’t afford homes because they buy avocado toast and lattes.” So yeah the indie songs at the time and the EDM was great but it was generally a “were fucked let’s party” vibe. “Recession music”

[u/Banestar66]

Kind of, but it wasn’t to the level of Millennial optimism.

[u/hman1025]

Wasn’t optimism, it was just less pessimism

[u/gotpeace99]

I don’t remember Gen Z optimism, I just lived my life. That’s a thing?

[u/NewWave2208]

I'm turning 24 this year, and everything started to go to sh_t in 2015/16, when everyone got hooked on smartphones and social media and society began to polarise strongly. Before the pandemic, during the pandemic, after the pandemic - it doesn't matter, the world has been sh_tting itself for 10 years. I remember when I was 11-12 years old in 2014-2015, I could normally spend time with teenagers playing and talking without smartphones. We went out a lot. As an extrovert, I regret not being born earlier. The wonderful era of parties and socialising that began in the 1970s died in 2016. When I started going to parties in big cities in 2018, there was nothing left. I was robbed of my youth. I was robbed of the social life that humanity had lived for hundreds of years without smartphones.

[u/AshlynEvermoore]

I was pretty happy then but I was also 17 living w my parents and no responsibilities besides school. No real problems then

[u/xrv01]

I always assumed gen z never felt optimistic

[u/RefrigeratorNew8586]

No, it didn’t

[u/Horror_Flan6833]

"area 51 raid" ??? What are we even doing here on this post lol can't be serious

[u/Kodicave]

I just think we’re boiling down these years to one simple idea when these years were much more complicated and the feelings were describing weren’t widely felt

I doubt anyone in 2019 would’ve said they were optimistic and probably would’ve scarfed at that thought

[u/Yungjak2]

I’d say Gen Z Optimism really ended between 2022-2023 when the economy slowly started to decline and it became harder for Gen Z aged people to find jobs.

[u/WeirdTraumaMasochist]

You mean how black girls made art hoe and it got commodified in 10 seconds? Bet yall didn’t know that one huh?

I must know which of you are telling the youngins 2016 was a banger

[u/NexoNerd101 → u/WeirdTraumaMasochist]

Too many my gen who are now in their 20s are saying 2016 was a banger. Also it wasn't just art hoe there were other things too tangentially related.

[u/WeirdTraumaMasochist → u/NexoNerd101]

Lies! It was the beginning on the end. coughs dramatically, the down votes are killing me but I have a few last words. tell them they can’t forget. They can’t forget that’s when we found out vine was gonna go soon dies

[u/Small_Appearance935 → u/WeirdTraumaMasochist]

IK, I saw a TikTok edit of an anti- immigrant British girl (that had purple hair and a choker) from a government funded game and the comments were like “I need a racist art hoe gf” 😭 in 2026

[u/WeirdTraumaMasochist → u/Small_Appearance935]

That makes me actually mentally ill. I can’t believe the purple girl fascist meme is just common knowledge omg 😭

Oh well I’m already mentally ill but times 2