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That's why Gen Z youth culture seems so sad

The world seems a terrible place right now: war in Ukraine, a never-ending pandemic, climate change and an ongoing economic crisis.

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That's why Gen Z youth culture seems so sad

The world seems a terrible place right now: war in Ukraine, a never-ending pandemic, climate change and an ongoing economic crisis. Is that a reason to bury your head in the sand and just mope around? If you look around on TikTok, you can easily get this impression.

There are even corresponding playlists with titles like “sad girl starter pac” on Spotify. In addition to make-up tutorials that show how anyone can conjure up the teary-eyed look in no time at all, the hashtag is trending on the Chinese social media platform TikTok

Apparently showing emotion on Instagram or TikTok is a way for many adolescents to channel their own thoughts during this uncertain time. This already played an important role in older youth cultures such as grunge in the 90s or the emo subculture in the noughties. And they are currently celebrating a comeback in terms of fashion and music, for example with the return of iconic bands such as My Chemical Romance or Paramore. Artists like The 1975 or the successful British alternative musician Yungblud also play with emo influences in their songs - and singer Billie Eilish is perhaps the sad-girl icon of Gen-Z par excellence.

The cover of her second record with the ironic title "Happier than Ever" adorns the singer as she looks longingly into an uncertain future. A tear rolls down her cheek from one eye. Her musical breakthrough, the song "Ocean Eyes" contains the lines: "No fair / You really know how to make me cry / When you gimme those ocean eyes". / When you look at me with those ocean eyes"). All pretty... sad.

To a certain extent, pop culture is always an expression of the zeitgeist – and this is also reflected in social media. The stylistic models of the Sadgirl aesthetics come mainly from South Korea – a country that is very popular with young people thanks to K-Pop á la BTS and series like “Squid Game”. The youth culture in the Southeast Asian country has always been characterized by a strong introversion.

Showing feelings is often interpreted there as a weakness. The only way to express the emotional insecurities of growing up is through fashion, makeup, and art. As a result, various make-up trends have developed. The most well-known is probably Ulzzang. The term actually means something like "show your best side" or "look good".

Initially, digital competitions developed under the keyword on the Internet, in which South Korean beauty influencers had their looks rated by the likes of followers.

Over time, a very specific aesthetic emerged that most internet users particularly liked, including the “sad girl look” that can now be found everywhere on the web. He's so popular on TikTok that he's also known as Douyin Makeup. Douyin is what TikTok is called in China.

The aim of this beauty trend is to create as perfect a complexion as possible - in this context, however, most users pose in an almost disinterested manner that could be associated with depressive states. A look at current surveys on the mood in Generation Z can perhaps clarify why this seems to be attractive to many young people.

This is the result of the current youth study by the TUi Foundation among 6,200 adolescents and young adults across Europe between the ages of 16 and 26. In Germany, many young adults do not expect a rosy future. Around 35 percent have predominantly pessimistic expectations for what is to come. Five years ago, that figure was 29 percent.

Young people in Europe cite concerns about climate change and the war in Ukraine as the main motives for this world view. However, this negative perspective does not only prevail on the European continent. The 2021 Harvard Youth Poll, one of the largest youth surveys in the US, paints a similar picture. According to this, around 51 percent of the young people surveyed stated that they had felt sad, depressed or hopeless at least once in the past week.

Fredrika Thelandersson is a postdoctoral researcher in Media and Communication Studies at Lund University, Sweden, researching women's cultures and communities online. Speaking to the British newspaper The Guardian, she suggests that the sad girl trend on TikTok is mainly due to the fact that the impression of authenticity on social media is the most important currency - no matter how much truth it really is in the end behind it.

"In the current landscape, celebrities and brands want authenticity to feel real," she told The Guardian. “One way of doing this is by disclosing a diagnosis or exposing trauma. It's literally profitable to show some kind of vulnerability.” In addition, social media is increasingly becoming a kind of self-help forum, especially in countries where the health system is not well set up to provide psychological help.

The almost uniformed sad look would become a kind of common code that awakens a feeling of belonging. The young people realize that they are not alone with their feelings, says Thelandersson: "You can make fun of it as you want, but somehow it's still hopeful."

Perhaps the sadness on Instagram, TikTok and Co. is ultimately more hopeful than it might appear at first glance. We have analyzed another trend on TikTok in more detail here:

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