The generation gap is widening everyday as new trends and technologies become increasingly popular. If you’re not on the cutting edge of all things new, it’s easy to fall behind and feel like you’re out of the loop. We’ve all had those moments when we roll our eyes at the previous generation’s ignorance when it comes to tech or the internet. If you’re like to avoid those eye rolls or just want to be able to converse with the young kids, here are four millennial trends that might seem strange to gen X and gen Y.
Charging their Cigarettes
Strange as it might sound, many young people are swapping their pack a day habit for e-cigarettes or vapes. Often referring to themselves as the Vaped mob, millennials are swapping the tar and nicotine-packed cigarettes for rechargeable electronic smoking devices that contain flavored or unflavored liquid. The liquid may or may not contain nicotine and is vaporized to produce thick white clouds of smoke called vapour. There is much controversy surrounding the safety of electronic pipes and also the resulting health risks. This hasn’t done much to perturb vapers, as there are even world championship competitions where the elite vape squad compete to see who has the best vape blowing abilities. As with most frequently-used battery-powered devices, the vapes may explode, while unused in storage or in use. There have been reports of vapes exploding in users pockets, sending shards of metal into the upper thigh. They have even exploded in peoples’ faces, causing serious damage to facial tissue.
All rainbow everything
Millennials seem preoccupied with nostalgia for all things nineties and putting rainbows on and in pretty much everything is no exception. From rainbow ice cream to rainbow grilled cheese sandwiches, even food is not safe from the multi-colored mania. Clubs, parties and festivals are teaming with youngster not only wearing rainbows on their clothing, but sporting rainbow lipsticks, eye shadow and even rainbow eyelashes and eyebrows.
Mermaid hair
In keeping with the colorful theme and need for nostalgia, kids are taking the rainbow trend a step further and making a mermaid themed life the new must have. Wearing a swirling combination of pink, purple and turquoise as one’s hair colour is at the pinnacle of this trend. If you can add in some glitter and weave in a few sea shells, even better. While this would make most baby boomers think your job options are limited to tattoo artist or circus performer, most young companies have no strict codes in terms of appearance and having someone with pink hair in your office is quite common place.
Not working that nine to Five
Most older folk would consider career success as having one, stable, office-bound nine-to-five job with a pension, medical plan and car allowance. Most millennials don’t think this way and have several different income streams or one main job and several alternative ventures that they call “side-hustles”. Diversifying their income streams not only allow millennials to have slightly more financial flexibility that comes with the freedom of not having all your eggs in one basket.
