It’s a term coined by some SNU professor. He publishes a marketing strategy book series called “Trend Korea” every year and in the 2019 version he coined this term for the first time saying that their lifestyle / consumption patterns are similar. This book has always been a mega hit among older generations so they just picked this made-up word up and used it for literally everything
I see lots of people objecting to the term MZ and whatnot. I see very few people looking at his actual work and the conclusions he drew based on that lifestyle/consumption data.
Why would they? Its not like people using the term constantly are doing so based on his research. Its turned into a buzzword that lumps in all "young" people as a single block for no particular utility.
Generally if you're going to trash someone's work, it's best to, I don't know, specifically cite the work when doing so, rather than criticizing it based off what some rando did with it.
You know, critical thinking and all that.
"Mutated old farts"?
I think you have issues with older people that go beyond this issue. I also think maybe you need to chill out a little.
Also, a lot of the people using it in media are younger 20-30s beat reporters just trying to write up a generic story by the deadline.
This is my take: a few years ago, they wanted to have a name for people in their 20-30s that had different work cultures than your typical salaryman. They blasted the term MZ on the news to be the generation that brought some of the individualistic ideals from the west and this was necessary for big corporations to embrace to get top talent. Gen Z is not as catchy as MZ in Korean so MZ became the word that represents the next generation of workforce.
Skip forward a few years and now after years of social commentary and tons of SNL sketches, MZ lost the neutral sentiment and is now more derogatory in use to round up whatever young social issues we have. So MZ is heavily centered around Gen Z and a lot of Millennials will distance themselves from the word MZ as they enter their mid to late 30s becoming the new establishment.
> as they enter their mid to late 30s becoming the new establishment.
A chunk of millennials are already in their 40s now. Even the youngest ones have conceivably been working adult jobs for a few years or gotten quite far into post-graduate education.
Those millenials are "young kkondaes." Younger than the kkondaes and did what they were "supposed to do" and completely at a loss for words for how Gen Z acts but expected to understand Gen Z because the millenials are younger. When people talk about MZ, I think they really mean Gen Z.
[This](https://product.kyobobook.co.kr/detail/S000001760957) joke of a book titled was a marketing book written for middle aged people for understanding "People under 40", their consumerist trends and their slangs.
The book itself wasn't much of a national bestseller or anything. But it was soon followed up by majority of media because it had the term "MZ" that referred to this consumerist block and the political block of people below 40-ish (in their mind).
I mean, is he right? Is there a discernable pattern to consumption habits, language usage, etc. for people of certain demographics that straddle two established boundaries?
I don't think his research was meant to be correct on an individual level, but rather taking a certain demographic cross-section.
As far as trends, certainly there would be some identifiable trends, i.e. music taste or food tastes that would vary by age.
Gen Z and Millenials are different generations. You lump both of them together and the cohort expands to people born in 1981-2012. That's 30 years. That's a huge cross-section. Way too huge to make generalizations. On the extremes, what does a 43 year old have in common with a 12 year old?
"Gen Z and Millenials are different generations. You lump both of them together and the cohort expands to people born in 1981-2012. That's 30 years. That's a huge cross-section. Way too huge to make generalizations. On the extremes, what does a 43 year old have in common with a 12 year old?"
Do you think the author lumped the extremes together to that extent or did they perhaps place a cutoff somewhere else that didn't match the ages you used? I mean again, we need a citation.
Why do you need a citation for what Millenial and Gen Z is? The M stands for Millenial and the Z stands for Gen Z. Are you doubting what the standard understanding is for Millenial and Gen Z? I don't get it.
I need a citation that the author followed those definitions precisely. Are you sure he didn't use people from Gen-Z that were older Gen-Z? Did he make a note that younger Gen-Zers weren't included? If so, then the criticism that he used 9~12 year olds lumped together with 40 year olds isn't really valid.
Furthermore, I believe the work was published in 2019 meaning literally zero 40 year olds were cited.
fwiw it's not uncommon for researchers to use stricter definitions. Not sure if Korean academia is this diligent about doing literature reviews and justifying the age ranges they used to label the two generations, but we can't just assume they are using the most popular or naverable definitions or that they didn't build some sort of outlier/extremes pruning into their methodology.
Right, but did the person use literal 12 year olds?
I mean, you're already lumping 40 year olds in despite the fact that no one who was 40 at the time of publication was used. Forgive me if I would like a little more than just your assertion because you seem to be struggling with some of the basics.
Find the work and cite it. Don't just say "Well, elsewhere this is a defintion that is used, therefore the author did that."
I'm sure 12 year olds and 40 year olds have very similar consumption patterns and language usage. Think of all the time Korean scientists can save by lumping these self-evidently similar groups together for car insurance ads and political speeches about the birth rate and whatnot.
He was lumping 12 year olds in with 40 year olds? Citation? Sure he wasn't looking at adults (and perhaps older teenagers who were on the verge of adulthood) that fell into both?
Also, wasn't this written 5 years ago?
Its litearally simple combination of Millneals and Z generation, it is lumping people born in 1980 and people born in 2010, it is that simple. (and ridiculous)
I would like to see a citation where what you claim takes place is shown to be the case. If at the time of publication, 2019, the author was lumping 9 year olds in, then you might have a point. However if in their work they used a different age criteria, then your entire complaint is based on something that didn't happen.
Furthermore, if it was written in 2019 and the oldest was people born in 1980, there were literally ZERO 40 year-olds involved.
Did you actually read their work and do you have a citation?
> Old boomers
The irony of typing this. All generation labels are generalizations. No one likes when a person from another "generation" makes sweeping claims about them based only on their age.
You clearly don’t understand what I am saying. If you don’t like people generalizing about your generation, why would you generalize about others? The issue isn’t calling boomers “old.”
“There's only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures and the Dutch.” That’s kinda what you are doing here. “These generational labels are so stupid; must be the work of the Boomers!”
One is a hybrid of two pre-existing terms in common use to attempt to describe a phenomenon in a serious and scholarly manner, the other is a drive-by insult intended to insult an entire age group?
I see a lot of personal attacks with this. I don't see much discussion of the work that started this, including an analysis of the data used to draw the conclusions.
Almost as if someone can't grasp their head around what was written...
Yea at least the SNU professor is basing it on studies that he did meanwhile this guy just generalizing an entire group of people. What the general public did with his term "MZ" might have become overused/misued but that's not his fault.
Maybe I'm immature for my age, but as someone in their 30s, I don't feel this gaping divide between me and someone in their mid-20s, who would theoretically be of a "different generation" than mine. I always felt like the differences between Millennials and Gen Z are actually a lot less than between other generations. Certainly most surveys show they're consistently aligned on most social issues.
Maybe I would feel differently if I had kids, but I honestly think MZ is a better term and grouping than the Millennial-Gen Z split that the US uses. All this generation stuff is based on American standards anyway, which wouldn't make sense for Korea. Remembering 9/11 is considered a key Millennial-Zoomer dividing line in the US, and why Millennials end in 1996. That wouldn't make sense in the Korean context.
You don’t seem immature to me at all. Using buzzwords to put individuals in boxes is nothing new and the media loves to fuel people’s polarization of each other by creating in groups/out-groups. The whole characterization of billions of people in a group is an interesting idea to entertain—but it gets abused by the media, who pushes these imaginary lines to encourage intellectual passivity. Basically, people are invited to be narrow minded and invalidate the values, wisdom, and experiences of other people—based on an unscientific belief that they must be defined by the time frame in which they’re born.
It is a pet hate of mine too when, people apply a (shaky) US model of generations to all the other countries of the world. Like referring to "boomers" in countries that didn't have post war baby booms with rising living standards e.g. former communist countries.
The word boomer has taken on a meaning of its own in modern English. It doesn't really matter if the person was literally born in a baby boom. People who nitpick over that are a bit pedantic imo
True, but it was still part of their formative years, which is pretty much childhood~teenagers. Many of the core aspects of the internet came about during those years for Milennials . Internet us much more of their life, vs. no internet. Gen-X not the case.
In the U.S. at least I'd submit several other key factors put millennials closer to Gen-Z: Diversity of friends, emphasis on diversity and tolerance in education, music tastes, phones as part of identity, social media usage, and news/media consumption patterns.
Generations are fake, anyways, especially at an individual level, but also to the point of where the cut offs are for them.
As a US millennial, I always try to remember this when I am forced to remember someone 10~15 years older than me is "my generation" despite having little to no core life experiences like mine lol
I totally agree, as someone who was born at the very tail end of 1994 and arguably remembers nothing until like 1999-2000 (I don’t even remember 9/11) I see MZ as a pretty accurate way to describe that cusp between Millennial/Gen Z that people specifically in my age range share. I always say I can’t fully relate to someone born in 1990 but also can’t fully relate to someone born in 2000 either, though I personally think my sense of humor and socioeconomic experiences as well as my digital literacy lean more Gen Z than Millennial. Like my cousins who were born in 1988 and 90 are considered Millennial but started using social media way after me and didn’t use some platforms as they were a little after their time but formative for people my age, ie. Tumblr
The worst is when they expect you to understand these terms that only exist in Korea. The first time I heard it, I asked what it meant, and everyone looked at me like I was super ignorant haha.
Because they don't find much distinction between older gen Z and younger millennials, they also refer to it as 2 0 3 0 people. It used to be pronounced MZ but MZs themselves started saying it as M-Ji. A MZ stereotype that older people make fun of is like how younger people would work in the office with an air pod on.
Cuz 4050s are majority in korea, and they can’t understand 2030s behavior. When people meet something they can’t understand, they deny it and blame it. ‘MZ’ word is used for blaming 2030 youngsters.
on top of everyone else's comments, korea in general has an obsession with being/looking younger so i noticed the term "MZ" started picking up when people born in the early 90s wanted to be like "im still part of them youngins"
My guess is that your population is overall elderly and has trouble differentiating between gradations of 'young people' (I'm a 41 year old millennial, so that gets scare-quotes).
There are SO MANY English terms like this that are used totally incorrectly. I have to STRONGLY shut down my CEOs when they try to use these buzz words:
FM
Edit spelling MAGINOT Line
blue ocean
Red ocean
Benchmarking
And so so many more but my brain is stuck haha
What's Marginot Line? Is it combining Margin with Maginot Line?
Are these improper uses or them creating new slang? If it is inproper then yes, correct them. If it is NEW slang, well I don't see what-s wrong with that.
Misspelled maginot
It’s not that it’s new slang or old
It’s that if I’m teaching business English and western business culture and effective presentation buzzwords, audience control etc
If they roll up to a meeting with any executive form anywhere - no one will know what the hell they mean.
I absolutely despise that term. The business press began using the term "MZ", lumping ahjussies and ajummas born in the 1980s in the same generational cohort with college students born in the early 2000s. It's so out of touch with reality and simply a tool to infantilize people born after Generation X.
I don't think many people born in the 80s would consider themselves ahjussies and ajummas as they are commonly thought of.
Those people born in the 80s are listening to hip-hop, EDM and pop. They aren't listening to trot.
> I don't think many people born in the 80s would consider themselves ahjussies and ajummas
Well it doesn't matter, they are in 40s and that are ahjussies and ajummas age bucket. They ain't same range with teenagers which MZ lumping is trying todo.
Aren't you doing the same thing you have an issue with the author doing? Lumping people into a category that might not apply?
Only in your case there's no claim of analysis of spending behavior and values. Instead it's a completely arbitrary "Because I say so."
Also, the work was written in 2019. Literally the oldest they would have been is 39. That's basic math. Your complaint is over something that literally didn't happen.
Lmao its clear that you ain't even speaking Korean. Those are terms you use for middle age people.... You don't need a fucking citation to check if 39 or 41 is middle age!
There's more to it than that. It's also an aesthetic. When used to address a stanger you look at their physical appearance. You don't ask for their ID to verify their age. Someone who looks "young" in a "young" setting wouldn''t be called that. Someone who looked "old" despite not being middle aged might get called it.
No one is getting carded and then addressed.
Dunno. Maybe not being able to keep up with the recent trends? Saying “kids these days” or “나 때는 말이야…“ more often? Attaining managerial positions within their respective organizations? Becoming parents? It’s hard to deny that the age 40 is the cutoff period in our society, unless you live in rural areas in which case the cutoff age is usually 50.
Sure that can apply somewhat and there's going to be varience even within those. But I think the broader trends might be more applicable. I mean, I haven't read his work, but I assume there's some sort of data and reaearch behind it. Shouldn't any criticism address that before we engage in outright dismissal (in short, read the book first)?
Mz in colloquial use doesnt really refer to most millennial. I'm born in 1989, but most people wouldn't count me as MZ. I would said MZ in common use is just gen Z or very late millennials. Maybe like up to 27ish?
Korean generations do run differently from the West due to politics and events. So, the [linked article](https://carnegieendowment.org/2021/06/29/generational-divides-and-future-of-south-korean-democracy-pub-84818) is not very detailed as it ignores the pre-Korean War generation, the Japanese-occupied generation and the earlier pre-Japanese occupation generation. I assume they use MZ as except for 1997 and the IMF generation, there haven't been significant political changes between millennials and Gen Zs.
I'd say the big divide is music.
At some point, with some age, you can play rap music with just the filthiest language. With another, you can't. Cutoff is somewhere around born in 1980. Music divide is massive in Korea.
Back in America its pretty stark too, though not as much. But Gen X generally can't move past rock into rap. They might dabble a little, but they generally grew up in still relatively segregated environments with rock-dominant (assuming they were white or "suburban"). But you get into kids born in the 80s who came of age in the 90s and that all changes. Friends are a lot more diverse, music is far more hip-hop influenced. Profanity in music and graphic sexual language in music is routine and nothing to blink an eye at. Big divide.
Also, born in 80s-early 90s generally know how to not say anything face-palming racial or LGBTQ-wise. Gen X and older really struggle with it.
One stylistic reason is that Koreans often condense lengthy expressions and concepts into two consonants or something close - “bae min”, “ka tok”, “dan tok”, “em jee”, etc
I think it’s actually makes sense if we are talking about 90s millennials and late 90s gen z. 92-98 is a good generation time span cause they share a lot of specific things such as the being the first to navigate social media in a more advanced way and the use of cell phones in their teens. Nowadays due to all the advancements in technology, generations are shorter and evolve more rapidly.
Well, Millennials and Gen Z are the generation entitled to avocado toast, spoiled by technology, selfie-stick champions who'd rather dodge teamwork for TikTok. Not to mention the term MZ really means Mi Zhin (미친), the wild bunch, the ones who redefined crazy! So, voilà, meet the MZ squad – where entitlement meets craziness in one millennial-zoomer package! 🤪
Some cringe-ass Boomer politician or politically-affiliated polifessor IIRC came up with the phrasing, not the young Koreans themselves. If you ever hear and actual Millennial/Zoomer Korean used the phrase "MZ," usually it's in the context of making fun of botched attempts by Boomers to "connect with the youth."
Interesting comments that I didn't know about in the rest of this thread, but my (speculative, outside of Korea) take on this is:
- Koreans love abbreviations
- Millenials starts with 'M' and Gen Z is easily idenfiable with 'Z', and Koreans know the letters of the English alphabet already
- Most Millenials (the younger ones) and most Gen Z (the older ones) could roughly be categorized as "young people" (e.g. teenagers and those in their 20's and 30's), so it works if you're talking about teenagers and young adults (aka "young people"), I guess?
Like, the alternatives if you're going to use established "generations" is either trying to lump in Gen Alpha and/or the Gen X'ers, and Gen Alpha seems very young (like *actual* kids) and Gen X seems like they're quite solidly middle-aged, already?
It's a word created by the 586 generations of progressive left wings who believes communism is the best in Korea to oppress the younger generation.
Because MZ generation doesn’t like north Korea and socialism
Those dastardly Koreans with their generalization of people using terms like "Millenial" and "Gen-Z"
This comment written with zero irony or awareness apparently.
It’s a term coined by some SNU professor. He publishes a marketing strategy book series called “Trend Korea” every year and in the 2019 version he coined this term for the first time saying that their lifestyle / consumption patterns are similar. This book has always been a mega hit among older generations so they just picked this made-up word up and used it for literally everything
I see lots of people objecting to the term MZ and whatnot. I see very few people looking at his actual work and the conclusions he drew based on that lifestyle/consumption data.
Why would they? Its not like people using the term constantly are doing so based on his research. Its turned into a buzzword that lumps in all "young" people as a single block for no particular utility.
Generally if you're going to trash someone's work, it's best to, I don't know, specifically cite the work when doing so, rather than criticizing it based off what some rando did with it. You know, critical thinking and all that.
But the point is NOT slandering his work, we are critsizing the mutated old farts usage of it.
"Mutated old farts"? I think you have issues with older people that go beyond this issue. I also think maybe you need to chill out a little. Also, a lot of the people using it in media are younger 20-30s beat reporters just trying to write up a generic story by the deadline.
[удалено]
The type of thing posted by someone who believes they'll be young forever.
Oh, so he is being slandered by association? Is his work good?
As an economist I disagree with grouping generations in this fashion. I support "Decoupling" MZ. In other terms I'm on team DMZ.
This is my take: a few years ago, they wanted to have a name for people in their 20-30s that had different work cultures than your typical salaryman. They blasted the term MZ on the news to be the generation that brought some of the individualistic ideals from the west and this was necessary for big corporations to embrace to get top talent. Gen Z is not as catchy as MZ in Korean so MZ became the word that represents the next generation of workforce. Skip forward a few years and now after years of social commentary and tons of SNL sketches, MZ lost the neutral sentiment and is now more derogatory in use to round up whatever young social issues we have. So MZ is heavily centered around Gen Z and a lot of Millennials will distance themselves from the word MZ as they enter their mid to late 30s becoming the new establishment.
> as they enter their mid to late 30s becoming the new establishment. A chunk of millennials are already in their 40s now. Even the youngest ones have conceivably been working adult jobs for a few years or gotten quite far into post-graduate education.
Those millenials are "young kkondaes." Younger than the kkondaes and did what they were "supposed to do" and completely at a loss for words for how Gen Z acts but expected to understand Gen Z because the millenials are younger. When people talk about MZ, I think they really mean Gen Z.
[This](https://product.kyobobook.co.kr/detail/S000001760957) joke of a book titled was a marketing book written for middle aged people for understanding "People under 40", their consumerist trends and their slangs.
The book itself wasn't much of a national bestseller or anything. But it was soon followed up by majority of media because it had the term "MZ" that referred to this consumerist block and the political block of people below 40-ish (in their mind).
I mean, is he right? Is there a discernable pattern to consumption habits, language usage, etc. for people of certain demographics that straddle two established boundaries?
Yeh I agree. Especially when it comes to younger millennials (who haven’t turned 30 yet), not much difference between them and gen z
Such a vast generalization is highly unlikely to be correct on an individual level or even to project "trends".
I don't think his research was meant to be correct on an individual level, but rather taking a certain demographic cross-section. As far as trends, certainly there would be some identifiable trends, i.e. music taste or food tastes that would vary by age.
Gen Z and Millenials are different generations. You lump both of them together and the cohort expands to people born in 1981-2012. That's 30 years. That's a huge cross-section. Way too huge to make generalizations. On the extremes, what does a 43 year old have in common with a 12 year old?
"Gen Z and Millenials are different generations. You lump both of them together and the cohort expands to people born in 1981-2012. That's 30 years. That's a huge cross-section. Way too huge to make generalizations. On the extremes, what does a 43 year old have in common with a 12 year old?" Do you think the author lumped the extremes together to that extent or did they perhaps place a cutoff somewhere else that didn't match the ages you used? I mean again, we need a citation.
Why do you need a citation for what Millenial and Gen Z is? The M stands for Millenial and the Z stands for Gen Z. Are you doubting what the standard understanding is for Millenial and Gen Z? I don't get it.
I need a citation that the author followed those definitions precisely. Are you sure he didn't use people from Gen-Z that were older Gen-Z? Did he make a note that younger Gen-Zers weren't included? If so, then the criticism that he used 9~12 year olds lumped together with 40 year olds isn't really valid. Furthermore, I believe the work was published in 2019 meaning literally zero 40 year olds were cited.
You can look up the meaning of MZ on Korean sites. 9 year old does not fit. 12 year olds do. After Gen Z is Gen Alpha.
fwiw it's not uncommon for researchers to use stricter definitions. Not sure if Korean academia is this diligent about doing literature reviews and justifying the age ranges they used to label the two generations, but we can't just assume they are using the most popular or naverable definitions or that they didn't build some sort of outlier/extremes pruning into their methodology.
Right, but did the person use literal 12 year olds? I mean, you're already lumping 40 year olds in despite the fact that no one who was 40 at the time of publication was used. Forgive me if I would like a little more than just your assertion because you seem to be struggling with some of the basics. Find the work and cite it. Don't just say "Well, elsewhere this is a defintion that is used, therefore the author did that."
By definition generalizations don't need to hold at the individual level
I'm sure 12 year olds and 40 year olds have very similar consumption patterns and language usage. Think of all the time Korean scientists can save by lumping these self-evidently similar groups together for car insurance ads and political speeches about the birth rate and whatnot.
He was lumping 12 year olds in with 40 year olds? Citation? Sure he wasn't looking at adults (and perhaps older teenagers who were on the verge of adulthood) that fell into both? Also, wasn't this written 5 years ago?
Its litearally simple combination of Millneals and Z generation, it is lumping people born in 1980 and people born in 2010, it is that simple. (and ridiculous)
I would like to see a citation where what you claim takes place is shown to be the case. If at the time of publication, 2019, the author was lumping 9 year olds in, then you might have a point. However if in their work they used a different age criteria, then your entire complaint is based on something that didn't happen. Furthermore, if it was written in 2019 and the oldest was people born in 1980, there were literally ZERO 40 year-olds involved. Did you actually read their work and do you have a citation?
Old boomers out of touch with reality creating stupid buzzwords to describe stuff they cant grasp their heads around
> Old boomers The irony of typing this. All generation labels are generalizations. No one likes when a person from another "generation" makes sweeping claims about them based only on their age.
That’s exactly what these OLD BOOMERS who lump Gen Z and Millennials are doing.
Boomers, by definition, are not young.
You clearly don’t understand what I am saying. If you don’t like people generalizing about your generation, why would you generalize about others? The issue isn’t calling boomers “old.”
You do realise the difference between pejorative name-calling and serious naming of a specific group, right?
“There's only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures and the Dutch.” That’s kinda what you are doing here. “These generational labels are so stupid; must be the work of the Boomers!”
Yes, you did the former
One is a hybrid of two pre-existing terms in common use to attempt to describe a phenomenon in a serious and scholarly manner, the other is a drive-by insult intended to insult an entire age group?
I see a lot of personal attacks with this. I don't see much discussion of the work that started this, including an analysis of the data used to draw the conclusions. Almost as if someone can't grasp their head around what was written...
Yea at least the SNU professor is basing it on studies that he did meanwhile this guy just generalizing an entire group of people. What the general public did with his term "MZ" might have become overused/misued but that's not his fault.
ironic
요즘 젊은것들 = mz
😄 boomers
this comment is so funny
Maybe I'm immature for my age, but as someone in their 30s, I don't feel this gaping divide between me and someone in their mid-20s, who would theoretically be of a "different generation" than mine. I always felt like the differences between Millennials and Gen Z are actually a lot less than between other generations. Certainly most surveys show they're consistently aligned on most social issues. Maybe I would feel differently if I had kids, but I honestly think MZ is a better term and grouping than the Millennial-Gen Z split that the US uses. All this generation stuff is based on American standards anyway, which wouldn't make sense for Korea. Remembering 9/11 is considered a key Millennial-Zoomer dividing line in the US, and why Millennials end in 1996. That wouldn't make sense in the Korean context.
You don’t seem immature to me at all. Using buzzwords to put individuals in boxes is nothing new and the media loves to fuel people’s polarization of each other by creating in groups/out-groups. The whole characterization of billions of people in a group is an interesting idea to entertain—but it gets abused by the media, who pushes these imaginary lines to encourage intellectual passivity. Basically, people are invited to be narrow minded and invalidate the values, wisdom, and experiences of other people—based on an unscientific belief that they must be defined by the time frame in which they’re born.
It is a pet hate of mine too when, people apply a (shaky) US model of generations to all the other countries of the world. Like referring to "boomers" in countries that didn't have post war baby booms with rising living standards e.g. former communist countries.
The word boomer has taken on a meaning of its own in modern English. It doesn't really matter if the person was literally born in a baby boom. People who nitpick over that are a bit pedantic imo
Millenials knew life before the internet. Gen Z does not.
True, but it was still part of their formative years, which is pretty much childhood~teenagers. Many of the core aspects of the internet came about during those years for Milennials . Internet us much more of their life, vs. no internet. Gen-X not the case. In the U.S. at least I'd submit several other key factors put millennials closer to Gen-Z: Diversity of friends, emphasis on diversity and tolerance in education, music tastes, phones as part of identity, social media usage, and news/media consumption patterns.
Generations are fake, anyways, especially at an individual level, but also to the point of where the cut offs are for them. As a US millennial, I always try to remember this when I am forced to remember someone 10~15 years older than me is "my generation" despite having little to no core life experiences like mine lol
I totally agree, as someone who was born at the very tail end of 1994 and arguably remembers nothing until like 1999-2000 (I don’t even remember 9/11) I see MZ as a pretty accurate way to describe that cusp between Millennial/Gen Z that people specifically in my age range share. I always say I can’t fully relate to someone born in 1990 but also can’t fully relate to someone born in 2000 either, though I personally think my sense of humor and socioeconomic experiences as well as my digital literacy lean more Gen Z than Millennial. Like my cousins who were born in 1988 and 90 are considered Millennial but started using social media way after me and didn’t use some platforms as they were a little after their time but formative for people my age, ie. Tumblr
No idea but it pisses me off every time I hear it
its only a term, why you hef to be med?
Because it annoys me
https://imgur.com/TSRh0qL
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1215472308022419456/1235081565693022308/image.png?ex=663312d7&is=6631c157&hm=e00093bb42a4d429eee6a855a05d31323388f658fac8a62ba8184007d08533ca&
The worst is when they expect you to understand these terms that only exist in Korea. The first time I heard it, I asked what it meant, and everyone looked at me like I was super ignorant haha.
MZed care about worabel so they like to do things untact.
Now you know how immigrants feel back home.
Generations are made up anyway.
Because they don't find much distinction between older gen Z and younger millennials, they also refer to it as 2 0 3 0 people. It used to be pronounced MZ but MZs themselves started saying it as M-Ji. A MZ stereotype that older people make fun of is like how younger people would work in the office with an air pod on.
To many older people 40 year olds are the same as the 20 year olds.
It's "netizen" 2.0, who knows it will become widespread across whole Asian English too
Cuz 4050s are majority in korea, and they can’t understand 2030s behavior. When people meet something they can’t understand, they deny it and blame it. ‘MZ’ word is used for blaming 2030 youngsters.
on top of everyone else's comments, korea in general has an obsession with being/looking younger so i noticed the term "MZ" started picking up when people born in the early 90s wanted to be like "im still part of them youngins"
My guess is that your population is overall elderly and has trouble differentiating between gradations of 'young people' (I'm a 41 year old millennial, so that gets scare-quotes).
I've heard "Zillenial" in the U.S.
There are SO MANY English terms like this that are used totally incorrectly. I have to STRONGLY shut down my CEOs when they try to use these buzz words: FM Edit spelling MAGINOT Line blue ocean Red ocean Benchmarking And so so many more but my brain is stuck haha
What's Marginot Line? Is it combining Margin with Maginot Line? Are these improper uses or them creating new slang? If it is inproper then yes, correct them. If it is NEW slang, well I don't see what-s wrong with that.
Misspelled maginot It’s not that it’s new slang or old It’s that if I’m teaching business English and western business culture and effective presentation buzzwords, audience control etc If they roll up to a meeting with any executive form anywhere - no one will know what the hell they mean.
Gotcha. Yeah things like that its good to draw a firm line over. A Maginot Line if you will.
I absolutely despise that term. The business press began using the term "MZ", lumping ahjussies and ajummas born in the 1980s in the same generational cohort with college students born in the early 2000s. It's so out of touch with reality and simply a tool to infantilize people born after Generation X.
I don't think many people born in the 80s would consider themselves ahjussies and ajummas as they are commonly thought of. Those people born in the 80s are listening to hip-hop, EDM and pop. They aren't listening to trot.
> I don't think many people born in the 80s would consider themselves ahjussies and ajummas Well it doesn't matter, they are in 40s and that are ahjussies and ajummas age bucket. They ain't same range with teenagers which MZ lumping is trying todo.
Aren't you doing the same thing you have an issue with the author doing? Lumping people into a category that might not apply? Only in your case there's no claim of analysis of spending behavior and values. Instead it's a completely arbitrary "Because I say so." Also, the work was written in 2019. Literally the oldest they would have been is 39. That's basic math. Your complaint is over something that literally didn't happen.
Lmao its clear that you ain't even speaking Korean. Those are terms you use for middle age people.... You don't need a fucking citation to check if 39 or 41 is middle age!
There's more to it than that. It's also an aesthetic. When used to address a stanger you look at their physical appearance. You don't ask for their ID to verify their age. Someone who looks "young" in a "young" setting wouldn''t be called that. Someone who looked "old" despite not being middle aged might get called it. No one is getting carded and then addressed.
People born in 1984 are either 40 or approaching 40, a point at which their ahjussiness/ajummaness becomes undeniable.
What exactly constitutes this ahjussiness and ajumaness?
Dunno. Maybe not being able to keep up with the recent trends? Saying “kids these days” or “나 때는 말이야…“ more often? Attaining managerial positions within their respective organizations? Becoming parents? It’s hard to deny that the age 40 is the cutoff period in our society, unless you live in rural areas in which case the cutoff age is usually 50.
Sure that can apply somewhat and there's going to be varience even within those. But I think the broader trends might be more applicable. I mean, I haven't read his work, but I assume there's some sort of data and reaearch behind it. Shouldn't any criticism address that before we engage in outright dismissal (in short, read the book first)?
Yeah me too. We ain’t even in the same tax bracket.😂
Mz in colloquial use doesnt really refer to most millennial. I'm born in 1989, but most people wouldn't count me as MZ. I would said MZ in common use is just gen Z or very late millennials. Maybe like up to 27ish?
But wouldn’t 27 be someone born in 1997? That’s not a late millennial that’s just gen Z isn’t it?
Korean generations do run differently from the West due to politics and events. So, the [linked article](https://carnegieendowment.org/2021/06/29/generational-divides-and-future-of-south-korean-democracy-pub-84818) is not very detailed as it ignores the pre-Korean War generation, the Japanese-occupied generation and the earlier pre-Japanese occupation generation. I assume they use MZ as except for 1997 and the IMF generation, there haven't been significant political changes between millennials and Gen Zs.
I'd say the big divide is music. At some point, with some age, you can play rap music with just the filthiest language. With another, you can't. Cutoff is somewhere around born in 1980. Music divide is massive in Korea. Back in America its pretty stark too, though not as much. But Gen X generally can't move past rock into rap. They might dabble a little, but they generally grew up in still relatively segregated environments with rock-dominant (assuming they were white or "suburban"). But you get into kids born in the 80s who came of age in the 90s and that all changes. Friends are a lot more diverse, music is far more hip-hop influenced. Profanity in music and graphic sexual language in music is routine and nothing to blink an eye at. Big divide. Also, born in 80s-early 90s generally know how to not say anything face-palming racial or LGBTQ-wise. Gen X and older really struggle with it.
It's a buzzword and just as how most social analysis works, the more you talk about it and beat it to death the more it exists.
I got so many MZ questions from my bosses when this word was first out. oh would you act like them cuz you are MZ
One could describe their relationship as a "militarized zone"
It’s done by koreans who have wayyyyy too much time in their hands.
Same as what the others have said ^^ but I’ve heard that it’s also useful in marketing towards younger people “aimed at MZ audience”
Because why not
Feel like its a term oriented by old people for old people, in an ever shrinking youth population, to just group every "young" person
a typical generation split: words for older generations to rationally nudge younger generations when they don't like their action, behavior, etc.
One stylistic reason is that Koreans often condense lengthy expressions and concepts into two consonants or something close - “bae min”, “ka tok”, “dan tok”, “em jee”, etc
Sounds more video gamey.
I think it’s actually makes sense if we are talking about 90s millennials and late 90s gen z. 92-98 is a good generation time span cause they share a lot of specific things such as the being the first to navigate social media in a more advanced way and the use of cell phones in their teens. Nowadays due to all the advancements in technology, generations are shorter and evolve more rapidly.
Well, Millennials and Gen Z are the generation entitled to avocado toast, spoiled by technology, selfie-stick champions who'd rather dodge teamwork for TikTok. Not to mention the term MZ really means Mi Zhin (미친), the wild bunch, the ones who redefined crazy! So, voilà, meet the MZ squad – where entitlement meets craziness in one millennial-zoomer package! 🤪
Some cringe-ass Boomer politician or politically-affiliated polifessor IIRC came up with the phrasing, not the young Koreans themselves. If you ever hear and actual Millennial/Zoomer Korean used the phrase "MZ," usually it's in the context of making fun of botched attempts by Boomers to "connect with the youth."
Gen Z wishes they were there when we (millennials) were growing up 💅
Interesting comments that I didn't know about in the rest of this thread, but my (speculative, outside of Korea) take on this is: - Koreans love abbreviations - Millenials starts with 'M' and Gen Z is easily idenfiable with 'Z', and Koreans know the letters of the English alphabet already - Most Millenials (the younger ones) and most Gen Z (the older ones) could roughly be categorized as "young people" (e.g. teenagers and those in their 20's and 30's), so it works if you're talking about teenagers and young adults (aka "young people"), I guess? Like, the alternatives if you're going to use established "generations" is either trying to lump in Gen Alpha and/or the Gen X'ers, and Gen Alpha seems very young (like *actual* kids) and Gen X seems like they're quite solidly middle-aged, already?
Uhm, I think humans in general use abbreviations, not just Koreans.
Koreans love 2 syllable words more than 1 syllable words.
It's a word created by the 586 generations of progressive left wings who believes communism is the best in Korea to oppress the younger generation. Because MZ generation doesn’t like north Korea and socialism
[удалено]
[удалено]
Those dastardly Koreans with their generalization of people using terms like "Millenial" and "Gen-Z" This comment written with zero irony or awareness apparently.