Why Gen Z are actively choosing to be ridiculous

Wednesday 12 November

Why Gen Z are actively choosing to be ridiculous

Welcome to Lessons in Lifestyle...

On a recent stroll through trendy East London, 25-year-old operations associate Jay Dix noticed something uncanny: everyone was dressed just like him. Every matcha-carrying creative was parading a canvas tote bag from the US budget grocery store Trader Joe's, treating it with the reverence of a 24-karat gold Labubu doll.

It's a curious trend considering that Trader Joe's, which has more than 600 stores across 43 states, does not have a single branch in the UK. The craze for the bag itself has snowballed, with shoppers paying five times the retail price to secure one on eBay or begging their friends who visit the US. to score one (or several) on their behalf. Read more about the trend here.

Elsewhere this week, Lydia Spencer-Elliott looks into why Gen Z proudly label themselves as "the most unserious generation" and consistently come up with phrases and terms that no older group can understand. "Every time a new piece of slang emerges, adults rush to understand it. This desperation has seemingly led to an increase in impenetrable absurdism; The 6-7 trend, surrealist AI-animation Ballerina Cappuccina, and Alexey Gerasimov's skibidi toilet YouTube series are all among so-called 'brain-rot' terms of the year," she writes. "But there is nothing to understand beyond all this nonsense being funny, distracting and addictive."

And, if you weren't already clued up on the biggest social media trends right now, then delve in Hannah Twiggs' piece about the tug of war between food vloggers and the vendors at London's Borough Market. The tipping point came last week at the food hub, when a TikToker was thrown out while reviewing an apple crumble. Get the full beef here.

In this week's newsletter, you can expect:

Until next time!

There's a new influencer in London, and he goes by the name of Trader Joe. Find out why the U.S. grocery store has become such a hit among Brits, and why belonging has never been so important when it comes to fashion trends

Do you think that drinking in your youth can improve your chances of career success?

According to a new study, binge drinking may have the ability to advance young people's careers by breaking down social inhibitions and reducing awkwardness.

After tracking the drinking habits of more than 3,000 Norwegians from the age of 13 to 31 across an 18-year period, Norwegian sociologist Willy Pedersen found a curiously strong correlation between those who'd had heavy drinking sessions in their younger years and those who'd gone on to achieve higher levels of income than people who'd abstained or drank very little.

But the question is: do you agree that boozing can improve a person's career prospects? Vote in our poll and share your views in the comments here.

Last week, we asked you whether you turn to ChatGPT for advice about your personal problems, after Andrew Griffin wrote about the large uptick in people telling the AI chatbot about their most intimate issues.

As it turns out, 22 per cent of readers admitted to seeking life advice from ChatGPT, while another 11 per cent said they do so sometimes.

A strong 56 per voted for never, while 11 per cent of readers said they do it rarely.

One reader wrote: "I'm fascinated about anyone who uses a Large Language Model like ChatGPT for therapy or advice, because an LLM has no knowledge or insight, it's simply a statistics-based generator of text. A clever product for sure, but an empty product. It's almost akin to rolling a dice. Why not do that instead?" – Flubber

Thanks for voting.

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