Gen Z targets Millennials again — this time over side parts and skinny jeans

NEW YORK - Generation Z has taken to what this millennial reporter can only assume is their social network of choice to drag us avocado-gobbling, job-jumping, home-renting, world-traveling, college-debt-ridden, lazy, selfish, broke, whining, apparently-now-loathed-by-all-other-generations Millennials for all those things but also how we part our hair.

"Gen Z'ers are calling millennials old and they're not really handling that very well," said Dr. Corey Seemiller, an associate professor of leadership studies in education and organizations at Wright State University.

Seemiller described this Gen Z chirping as playful banter.

"Here's a new generation, [saying] 'Pay attention to us,'" she said.

But, like every generation before ours relinquishing its dominant influence over pop culture to the new class of kids, we 25-to-40-year-old Millennials mostly appear unwilling to surrender our skinny jeans, side parts, favorite emojis and general schtick.

"I think [Millennials] are learning day by day that maybe they just have less impact than they thought that they did," Seemiller said.

Again, nothing novel or historic has transpired here, just another example of the cruel endless march of time — in 2021, advanced by those most active on social media.

"Those who are on it most are the ones that are informing what the trends are," Seemiller said, "so you're going to see that mostly being Gen Z at this point."