𤯠INCRĂVEL: “A Credit Card Is Free Money”: 75 Times Young People Proved They’re Not Always The Brightest Ones đ˛
Told me he wanted to become a farmer because that seemed like a “chill easy job”. I think his only experience was from playing Farmville on his phone.
Kids these days sure feel different, donât they? Thatâs because many of them belong to Generation Alpha: the cohort born between 2010 and 2024. These kids are growing up in a hyper-digital world, surrounded by smartphones, smart assistants, and AI from day one. Theyâre often characterized by their tech fluency, short attention spans, and global awareness. Theyâre the first generation to be fully born into the 21st century. And oh, theyâve got some bold opinions for their age.
“I guess there are poor people in Jamaica, but they are so happy! They’re used to being poor. They’re not hungry. They can always just eat a coconut!”
We were both around 19 years old and I was at a party at her house. We had just met. After we were done talking I wasn’t invited back, which was fine by me!
“Rich people have it harder than poor people because rich people are more ‘isolated’ hence lonelier”…
I had a classmate when I was 17 whose father came to collect her from school one day.
“Oh god he’s come in the Porsche instead of the Range Rover, that’s so embarrassing.”.
The use of generational labels has definitely increased over time. From job applications to trend reports and internet memes, these terms are everywhere. But what do they actually mean and where did they come from? Generational names help capture shared traits, cultural influences, and major historical moments. Still, not everyone fits the mold perfectly. These labels are more like social snapshots than hard definitions.
A little girl asked me if I was a princess.
I’m a guy and at that time I was obese and I had long hair. I guess she was convinced Maui from Moana is a princess.
Overheard from 19 y/o coworkers, âi think iâm going to wait to get botox until iâm old, like 25.â iâm not sure what they think is going to happen in 6 years, but if they lay off the tanning beds and the vapes they should not be needing botox.
Letâs start with the Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964. This generation grew up during a time of post-war prosperity and societal shifts. They witnessed the rise of television, the civil rights movement, and the moon landing. Known for their work ethic and traditional values, many Boomers are now retired or close to it.Â
âThey wonât arrest me Iâm homelessâ
Yeah they will. Do you not see the constant flow of police cars showing up here 3+ times a week.
This person is only 2 years younger than me (mid twenties) and I was explaining how working full time is the standard for an adult, they thought I worked 5 days a week because Iâm âgood at thatâ and insisted most people in the US work like 1-2 daysâŚ. They were trying to get my pity by saying Iâm just an overachiever who loves work. Not true!
Iâve worked in education since 2008. The number of kids who literally think theyâre gonna make it to the NFL, be a TikTok star, etc is mind blowing.
Next up is Generation X, born between 1965 and 1980. Often called the âmiddle childâ generation, they came after the Boomers but before the internet boom. Gen Xers are known for their independence, resilience, and love for mixtapes and grunge. They grew up with rotary phones and dial-up but adapted to technology as it evolved. Sometimes overlooked in cultural conversations, theyâre also considered quietly influential.
“millennials never take responsibility for anything, the housing market, environment, economy. They blame everything on boomers.”.
I’m not sure if it counts as ‘out of touch’ as it’s just ‘massively dumb’ but I have to tell someone.
Apparently until he was 23, my cousin believed islands floated on water. One day I told him we were going to a Greek island on vacation and he got this big happy face as he proudly said “Did you know islands are actually stuck to the seabottom? They don’t float! Sometimes they have thousands of miles of rock below them!”. He looked so proud of sharing this revolutionary fact.
We were with some family members. All of us looked at him with a look that said “are you for real?” and we said that yeah, we knew. We’ve always known. Everyone does. It didn’t shame him as much as it should’ve.
A teenager once told me, âI donât understand why you donât have TikTokâ. I explained that I prefer to spend my time reading books and they responded âBut…why?â The sheer lack of understanding of alternative interests was pretty out of touch.
Following them are the Millennials, also known as Generation Y, born from 1981 to 1996. This group grew up during the rise of the internet, smartphones, and social media. Theyâre often associated with avocado toast, side hustles, and student debt. Millennials have experienced both analog childhoods and digital adulthoods. They are the ones that value flexibility, purpose-driven work, and memes about existential dread.
Debating at this Christmas party, it was my cousinâs in laws. My mistake for debating children, Iâll admit to that (they were highschoolers). Anyways I was stating facts and frustrating them, their epic comeback was âyou donât know anything, how many Instagram and tik tok followers do you have.â So my points were invalid because I have 100ish followers on Instagram, all of which I know and they had thousands of followers liking their thirst trap photos.
âWhat do you mean you donât have summer off? They make you work during summer?!?â
Yes child. Adults donât get summer break. You know when you go to the grocery store or the movies all summer? Those people are working. I have to work just like them.
The child was 17.
Their mind was blown.
My 12 y.o. nephew said “you don’t need to get me anything at all for my birthday! We can go shopping at the mall or you can give me money.”
Like… have you been taught what “anything” means?
Then thereâs Generation Z, or iGen, born between 1997 and 2010. These digital natives donât know a world without Google or YouTube. They grew up with smartphones in hand, social media in full swing, and a deep awareness of social issues. Gen Z is known for its creativity, mental health awareness, and short-form content obsession. And yes, theyâre the ones who canceled skinny jeans and love saying âno cap.â
Was giving a health assessment to a teen girl, had to rule out pregnancy as an alternative explanation for her complaint
Me: any chance you are pregnant?
Her: no
Me: when was your last period?
Her: 3 months ago
Me: are you intimately active?
Her: yes
Me: are you using any contraceptives or protection, not including the pullout method?
Her: no
Me: why do you think there is no chance of being pregnant?
Her: … I don’t know anymore.
The person didn’t say it to me — but in this Sam Seder debate with young people, he asks a young woman if she believes in divorce, and she says something like — no I don’t, they can get rid of the right to divorce — at 20 or something. Lots of dumb things said in the video (around 41:40) but I thought that takes the cake.
When I was a step mom to a teenage boy and caught him stealing money from us I got his dad to take his phone away for a period of time. He flipped out before going to school one day and said âwhat am I supposed to do in class??â I said âidk learn? Listen to your own thoughts?â He said âYOU TRY LISTENING TO YOUR OWN THOUGHTSâ
Actually now that Iâm saying this, at this stage in the game thatâs pretty freaky.
Looking ahead, we have Generation Beta, who will be born between 2025 and 2039. While still mostly unborn or in diapers, this generation is expected to be even more immersed in technology than the last. Think AI tutors, virtual reality classrooms, and digital-first childhoods. Theyâll likely grow up with climate anxiety, hyper-personalized tech, and possibly robot siblings. The future is wild and Gen Beta is at its front door.
I asked an intern to help me enter data into spreadsheets for an environmental project we had due soon. This was at an environmental consulting firm.
Them: âI am going to pass on that work task because I donât see that as something I need to do within the realm of what I plan for my career path.â.
When I was young I refused a lot of opportunities because I wanted to do a certain job. I was so clouded with my own understanding of how the world worked I sabotaged myself. I could have easily made good money in my early 20s. But I had this mindset on how I wanted to do things and how I wanted things to happen. I was out of touch.
It just blows my mind how many Redditors under 30 complain on this platform about feeling old and used up or they feel like itâs too late to find another path in life. Apparently feeling old is something for young people to do. Iâm 40+ and feel like my life has just begun.
Each generation comes with its own unique strengths and weaknesses. From resourceful Boomers to ultra-connected Gen Z, everyone adapts to the world they inherit. But one thingâs for sure, they all know how to live in their time. Whether itâs fixing things without Google or navigating life with memes and apps, they make it work. What seems strange to one generation is second nature to another. And thatâs what makes the generational mix so fascinating.
If the lottery system has so much money, why can’t they just cut everyone a big check instead of making you pay to play.
It was a Reddit poster, so I guess he wrote it rather than said it. He thought because I didn’t pay to listen to music I was pirating it even though I clearly wrote in my post I watch music videos on YouTube or listened to the radio. He didn’t understand that musicians distributing music in that format got their money from advertisers rather than from subscriptions. The whole thing would have been hilarious if it hadn’t been so sad the younger generation thinks the only legit way to consume content is through subscriptions. They have no clue how to be frugal and find free and completely legal means to listen to their music.
âYou guys need to learn to adapt.â
New colleague said to us. DURING a management/staff meeting about her atrocious work ethic.
Additionally, in some cases, itâs simply a lack of experience rather than ignorance. Many young people havenât had the chance to encounter things older generations grew up with. Theyâre not clueless, theyâre just navigating a world thatâs drastically different. What seems obvious to one generation might be totally foreign to another. These gaps often lead to hilarious misunderstandings and innocent questions. And honestly, thatâs part of what makes generational exchanges so entertaining.
However, these posts reveal just how out of touch the younger generation can sometimes be. Itâs not about being wrong, itâs about growing up in completely different worlds. These moments are funny, a little shocking, and weirdly endearing. And they remind us just how fast the world has changed.
Did you feel the younger folks were saying things that came off as totally out of touch. Share your thoughts in the comments below.Â
âIâm NOT taking a job at Orange Theory⌠I have a cOlLeGe DeGrEe!â – an unemployed recent Psych undergrad with restaurant and retail experience to me
Cool.
I told a couple of 18 year olds that I don’t have Instagram. They called me a liar and said if I didn’t want to be friends, I should just say so.
I had a new temp tell me he doesn’t get why I wouldn’t give my social security number on the phone to the power company in the staff breakroom. He laughed at me and said I was being too paranoid and no one cares what some government number is.
I had to stop using cursive at the last place I work because most of the staff who were all under the age of 25 didn’t know how to read it.
âHelen Keller wasnât both blind and deaf. How did she learn to speak?â
Gurl there are several movies and books and articles and chunks of history about this.
Darn TikTok.
Oh yeah, she was also in nursing school.
We had a young guest speaker at work who was there to speak to us about mental health. She advised us that if there was a task that we werenât up for, to tell our bosses that we werenât mentally equipped to complete that task that day.
For the record, weâre teachers. And her examples were tasks such as lesson planning, grading, and talking to studentsâthe main point of our jobs.
Recently, on this very platform, a U.S. member of Gen Z told me “Gen Z refuses to work hard for a mediocre life.”
Which I think is both a fair sentiment and simultaneously *completely* out of touch with what life can be like for a human being on Earth.
On one hand: the system in the U.S. and Canada is messed up. It’s fair to be angry at stagnant wages, the increasing cost of living, the erosion of competent government and rights. It’s fair to want something better and to be angry at the way things are.
On the other hand: really? You refuse to work hard for a mediocre life? Tell that to someone living in poverty. Tell that to the people around the globe who live under seriously oppressive governments or in war zones, making way less money than we do in the U.S./Canada, getting by on their hard work and making do with what they have.
I agree with the sentiment that things should be better. For everyone. But “refusing to work hard for a mediocre life” doesn’t solve those problems. Life isn’t fair for many of us, and crossing your arms and huffing doesn’t fix it.
Youâre old. You donât need more money. If they only knew.
“America was the bad guy and the worst of all the countries in WW2.” – numerous people ik, my nephew being one.
Another one was, “The US lost the revolutionary war.” Coming from a Brit who had numerous other opinions that made me seriously question the education system in the UK.
I work at a university. A 20 year old student came to see me to ask if I would be his dissertation supervisor in the next academic year. I said I couldn’t, since I would be leaving at the end of semester (to work at another university). He looked me up and down with dawning realisation and said ‘Oh right yeah, I guess you are retiring?’.
I was 35 at the time.
“100,000$ isn’t a life changing amount of money”
Boy shut up and do your homework.
Young girls think earning $80,000 – $100,000 a year is âaverageâ.
Talking to a kid at the dog park, and he asked me where I lived. I pointed to my van, and he said, “Why don’t you sell that and buy a house “. Who’s going to tell him? I live in San Diego FFS .
I asked an 8 year old what he wanted to be when he grew up. He said mcdonalds. I asked, oh you want to work at McDonald’s? He said no, he wants to BE mcdonalds. He meant the actual building. Didn’t have the heart to tell him that isn’t realistically possible.
My Niece and Nephew who come from a well off family. âThis is your house? Itâs really small. Why donât you go buy a bigger one?â
âYour phone screen is cracked, you should go buy a new one. Theyâre not that expensive.â
âYou should tell your house keeper to clean that upâ.
A teenage girl told me that she wasnât worried about her GCSE/exam results because she would just marry a rich man. She wasnât very happy when I asked her what would happen if she couldnât find anyone who wanted to marry her.
My cousin who is now 44 and still thinks this when he was younger he told me âpeople in south america are so happy they get to work in paradise at these cool resorts and they are all smiling and love it.â đ¤Śđťââď¸ Yes, because everyone in south america works for resorts and makes american money. And still they are worked to death for low wages. I saw a girl crying on a cruise ship because she hadnât seen her family in 2 years.
My kid asked me the other day if I saw the WW2.
My work colleague (22m) who still lives with his parents was so confused why i (32f) hadnât bought a house yet. I had to remind him that I left home at 18 and havenât had the luxury of living with parents to help save for a house deposit.
My brother thinks sick days should be illegal because heâs never had to take one. Heâs never had a job that wasnât WFH.
“I wanna go back to an easier time like the 50s or 80s when things like this didn’t exist” ignoring that a lot of ppl didn’t have civil rights spanning those decades .
“Poor is just a mindset”
Came from a young person who was born into wealth but constantly preached about how it’s all just about working hard and believing in your dreams.
“The only people who don’t live in houses are the poor.”
So condos, apartments, and $1M penthouses are for who? Her mom taught her never leave your parent’s home to live in an apartment, stay until you can afford a house. So many of us will never be able to move out, I guess. And not everyone can stay with their parents that long as an adult.
This came from my wife, so not younger than me but she thought that home equity was a bank account you can withdraw from. Not like a heloc loan, like a physical bank account that you can go to an ATM and withdraw cash from.
I told her about how the unit above us sold for 40k more than we paid so we probably have about 40k in equity, she said ‘we should go out to celebrate’ and I was like ‘why? we didn’t sell the house’ and she looked at me and dead seriously told me ‘well we can just take it from the money we just got’. It took me a few minutes of conversation to realize she thought that we just got $40k dropped into our bank account.
I love her dearly but sometimes she can be a bit dense.
As a Combat Vet, I was giving a talk to some kids at a local JROTC Class
At one point in time I guess some of them were getting hyped or some stuff and one kid proudly says âGod I canât wait to go over seas and end peopleâ
Figuring this should be a teaching moment for all of them I laid it out. Leaving your family, your kids, the uncertainty, the stress, the physical toll it has on your body, restless nights, the feeling of being hurt/hit, the feeling of what itâs like when your vehicle hits an IED and that first thought âok Iâm still aliveâ, seeing your friend who you spent years training with and all of a sudden heâs gone and what passing truly means.
By the time I finished you could hear a pin drop.
So I grew up in the South… middle of nowhere. Like, real nowhere. You know the kind of place where the gas station is also the town hall and possibly a daycare? That kind of nowhere.
Our town was so small, I graduated in a class of 35 people. And that included two dudes who didnât technically go to school, but theyâd just been hanging around so long we figured, you know what, give âem a diploma. Theyâve earned it. Just… by being here.
They didn’t even pave my road until I was about 13 years old. Even then they only paved it about 3 houses past mine because not enough people lived further down the road to support the cost of paving the whole road.
So one night, like most Southern teenage boys do, weâre out by a bonfire, drinking’ some beers we definitely did not legally purchase. And we start talking’ about the âWorldâs Richest People.â And this was back in the day, before Elon Musk, before Bezos… back when we thought the Ask Jeeves guy was a real butler who just lived in the internet.
So someone goes, âMan, Bill Gates. That dude is loaded.â
And across the fire, from the shadows, someone just yells, âBill who?!â
Like theyâd never heard of him. Which, I get itâwe were in a town where I’m sure some people still thought microwaves were magic. So someone tells him, âBill Gates, man. He invented Windows.â
Now, to most of us, that made perfect sense. We got it. Microsoft…Windows probably 95 at that point, maybe 98 who knows?
But not to this guy. He sits for a second, takes a sip of his beer, looks around real serious… and goes,
âWell⌠no wonder heâs rich. I mean, if we didnât have windows⌠weâd all just freeze to death.â
And hereâs the thingâI canât even argue with that logic. I mean, heâs technically not wrong. But also very wrong. But alsoâmaybe kind of a genius for even coming to that logic on his own?
I donât know. Thatâs the South for you. This guy may not have understood not one thing about computers…but he definitely understood the enormous importance of insulation and keeping warm.
In college, I had a friend who was looking for apartments near our campus and she came across multiple listings that were close by and under $1000… While showing me pictures she said, “Wow look at this, $800 for this whole house.”
At first I thought she was joking, because I thought there was no way in hell she could think that a 4 bedroom, 2 bath, newly built townhouse would be $800.
I had to hold back my annoyance, as I calmly explained to her that these listings were for bedrooms with shared common spaces around the house.
She looked distraught and disgusted by the fact that people would “lie” on the internet and “lure people in with photos of the entire house, making them believe they could have it all.”
Not the smartest pickle, but she was a nice girl.
My father passed 7 months after a stage 4 cancer diagnosis. A friend asked why I was sad since I knew ahead of time that he was going to pass anyway. Cold and cruel.
“I don’t go to the doctor or dentist so I don’t need health insurance “
Said by my 25 yo stepdaughter when I advised her legally at 26 she’d need to have her own insurance.
To give more context.
We were talking about therapy, which she was wanting to do after a long discussion. But she didn’t want to pay for it and we, her parents, offered to cover what wasn’t covered by insurance.
She is a grown adult all on her own when she left for college. For the first couple years of college she’d have visits for healthcare when she came home until she said she didn’t want to go anymore and refused. As a legal adult we can’t control whether or not she goes for healthcare.
I was giving a student a reading test and I asked them if they enjoyed reading “Nah, I don’t like to read. During covid I was making tik toks when all the people were passing”. No joke. Big yikes.
âi voted for USA’s current president as a joke because i didnât think heâd actually winâ we were both sophomoreâs in college.
I was once stuck having to sit next to two kids on an airplane. This was when they still served decent snacks. I was taking the chocolate out of my snack box when the girl next to me asked for it. She said that her dad had told her that adults really didn’t like those things, and she should have it since she was a kid. She also said that reading books was a waste of time, and only math mattered.
I ate my chocolate and read my book.
Someone last week said people that rely on social security & public transit are âparasites and selfishâ. Absolutely insane and unhinged take.
Just about everything a person under the age of 18 has ever said to me about politics has been pretty much nonsense no matter what side it aligned with. You donât pay taxes, you donât have a job, you dont have responsibilities, statistically you probably didnât even vote in the one election you were old enough for, and all of your info is from tik toks by an equally unqualified teenager. I donât give a … what you think about pretty much anything. I have one little cousin whoâs obsessed with Andrew Tate and Elon Musk so heâs immediately tuned out, and another one who says she has time blindness so sheâll be on disability forever and we need more support for people like her. I donât need their input.
Little cousin thought fast food jobs were easy. Then he got one to make his own money. He quit in a week.
Why do you hate men? Because I said Andrew Tate and Trump were awful people (I donât hate all men at all).
“Hey Dad why are you not afraid of planes? Didn’t you and mom and a bunch of other people have to run when they were crashing them everywhere?”
We live in Ohio.
Two come to mind: ‘You’ve worked here for 8 years??!….woah, that’s a crazy amount of time.
And
Last year on September 11th my colleagues and I were talking about 9/11 and the same guy walks in and asks ‘Why are you even talking about 9/11? I wasn’t even alive and it’s like ancient history and not relevant anymore – They built a new building’.
Something about a skeeball toilet, I think. I wasn’t really sure what he was saying tbh.
Told me that he will never go to work and will instead make money by investing. I asked where he will get the money for investing a large enough sum to live off of it.
Itâs not fair that just because he (industrial electrician) went to school and studied gets paid that much more than me (working as a barista).
âShe doesnât understand that Iâm a busy guy. I have important things to do.â -6 year old complaining about his teacher giving too much homework (it was one color by numbers page and he had a full week to complete it).
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