People Born In The 90s & 2000s Don't Care About 10 Things Older Generations Constantly Worry About
Xavier Lorenzo | ShutterstockWhether they're millennials or Gen Zers, people born in the 90s and 2000s often take on a unique mix of personality traits and values from both sides of the aisle.
From bridging the gap with technological usage and digital literacy, and even challenging traditional workplace norms in unique positions, their values often reflect those of younger generations, while still having the skill of bridging gaps with older peers. However, they actually don't care about a lot of things older generations constantly worry about. They may empathize, but their priorities are elsewhere.
People born in the 90s and 2000s don't care about 10 things older generations constantly worry about
1. Following strict dress codes
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"Zennials," born at the cusp of Gen Z and millennial generations, often adopt the values of authenticity that their peers do. Even while existing amongst traditional social norms, they tend to take a more unique approach to self-expression, dress, and workplace expectations by adopting a new kind of personal dress code.
Rather than trying to conform to uncomfortable, rigid, sterile dress codes at work, younger generations instead opt for authenticity. They want to stand out and support their own identity, rather than conform to traditional dress codes that are both uncomfortable and misguided.
2. Company loyalty
According to a 2024 study, company loyalty is dwindling in many ways for younger generations, as they begin challenging traditional norms, setting work-life boundaries, and addressing all the complicated, toxic workplace dynamics that make their lives difficult. However, for older generations, who have been bred into a kind of company loyalty that's not always protective of their health and personal time, keeping up with it can be stressful.
While they may have been financially comfortable and looked after with benefits earlier in their careers, staying loyal to an employer who doesn't actually care about them later on in life only puts them at a disadvantage. Especially in a modern workforce that requires specialization and diverse experience, of course they're more anxious and stressed about keeping loyalty a top priority.
3. Tying productivity to self-worth
With younger generations combating the "hustle culture" of older peers and conceptualizing wellness culture in an entirely new way, productivity has less of a grasp over their self-worth and well-being. However, for older generations, their outcomes and work still play a big role in their sense of personhood and often dictate their stress levels, especially when they don't create space to take care of themselves.
From staying busy all the time to feeling virtuous by not taking the time off from work that they're entitled to, Gen Xers and baby boomers find themselves worrying more about symptoms of burnout and busyness when they never get a break from it.
4. Revealing their mental health struggles
As a study from the Indian Journal of Psychiatry explains, mental health is still somewhat stigmatized for older generations of Gen Xers and boomers, creating barriers for seeking support and help when they need it. So, while young people certainly fret over and think about their mental health a lot, especially with social media in their back pockets at all times, many older generations worry about support and revealing their struggles at higher rates.
They may equate their self-worth to strength, but when mental health is crafted as a "weakness," it can feel like something they have to suppress and hide.
5. Managing toxic relationships
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While there's certainly a line between setting healthy boundaries with toxic family and friends and completely cutting someone off because you don't want to put in the work to mend a relationship, older generations tend to cling to the value of hard work. Even in relationships that should have drained them and made their lives harder, they take pride in the hardship and difficulty of life, urging them to hold onto relationships that might be better let go of.
Sometimes, it's the people who choose not to forgive and instead put themselves first who actually feel the most peaceful. Young people don't worry so much about overextending themselves to make relationships work, especially as "no contact" dynamics and boundaries become more openly talked about and accessible.
6. Feeling disconnected from loved ones
Whether it's feeling the disconnection of adult children moving away or being forced to build community online, many older generations are grappling with a unique kind of loneliness others don't understand. Especially when they value face-to-face communication and connection over modern digital alternatives, they take on more stress when they're expected to both learn digital skills and cope with disconnection.
While they may use social media and cell phones to compensate for loneliness, it creates more strain and resentment in many individuals than it ever does in a Gen Z or millennial person's life.
7. Defending traditional values
Like the values of any generation or age group, older people who still find meaning in traditional values and societal norms feel protective of them. They're woven into their identities and lifestyles in a way that, when young people challenge or bash them, it feels like a personal attack. From work ethic expectations and even old-school mentalities of "respecting elders," they're resentful and annoyed by a disintegration of the values they had no choice but to adopt themselves.
Especially as more Gen Z and millennial people continue to push back against tradition, hold businesses and people accountable for opposing values, and speak their minds passionately out in the world, this creates more stress for traditional generations, who are clinging to a version of the world that doesn't exist anymore.
8. Adopting online banking options
While millennials are the most accepting of online banking options, regularly using things like Apple Wallets on their phones and transferring money without leaving their homes, older generations are far more suspicious of online alternatives to in-person banking experiences.
With a tendency to use cash and physical cards in person, and a preference for doing all their financial behaviors at an in-person bank branch, they worry about societal shifts to digital expectations. With more people and businesses turning away from cash completely, the distrust for digital banking they've cultivated feels impossible to ignore now.
9. Climbing the corporate ladder
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While many older generations have committed their lives to climbing the corporate ladder, or more recently, keeping and holding positions of power in the workplace amid changes, many young Gen Z people and millennials are uninterested in the concept as a whole.
Not only are they staying in a specific role, but they're changing employers more frequently, seeking meaning and flexibility over things like compensation and power at work.
10. Maintaining privacy
Despite knowing they're online too much, Gen Zers and young millennials are still oversharing and doomscrolling on social media constantly. Whether it's sharing their lives daily or resorting to communities online to cope with in-person disconnection, maintaining privacy isn't something they're necessarily worried about, at least not enough to change their behavior.
However, growing up in households where privacy was a virtue and most conversations around family issues, mental health, and money were inherently taboo, boomers and Gen Xers can't help but worry about privacy. Whether it's digital safety online or being perceived poorly amid stigma for sharing vulnerably in person, they take on much more stress about privacy than young people do.
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a senior editorial strategist with a bachelor's degree in social relations & policy and gender studies who focuses on psychology, relationships, self-help, and human interest stories.
