Gen Z Culture is The Perfect Blend of Humor and Heart

Hurricane Milton hit the West Coast of Florida Oct. 10 bringing mass destruction with intense flood surges and tornados across the storm path. Just weeks before Milton, Hurricane Helene ravaged the big bend region of Florida and devastated numerous Appalachian communities.

While watching the storm develop on CNN, I also watched Florida locals dress up in founding father costumes and lip-sync to Lin Manuel Miranda’s Hurricane on TikTok. 

As I continued interacting with similar humorous hurricane TikToks — everything from Michael Jackson impersonations to dinosaur suits — I saw less hard news and more clever ways of coping, with countless users commenting how Gen Z is “unserious.” 

Our generation’s tendency to embrace the light within darkness gives me hope other generations will stop treating everything so black and white and learn to embrace — or at least understand — the numerous ways to approach tragedy. 

Although I also often cope with humor or find ways to look on the bright side when tragedy strikes — to outsiders belonging to an unserious generation is extremely misunderstood. 

Some assume Gen Z’s near-constant turn to the comedic is indicative of a lack of compassion or an inability to grasp emotional depth. However, Gen Z’s unserious nature displays this generation’s ability to simultaneously laugh and cry through the pain. 

Gen Z’s so-called unserious way of sharing news, advocating for what they believe in and connecting with one another conveys a sense of immense emotional intelligence and complexity. We’re able to sit at the intersection of silly and crass vs. genuine and grim. 

Singing in the rain while buildings are swept into the sea may seem insensitive, but it kept me interested and, based on engagement numbers, kept others interested as well. While the delivery may have been unique, outlandish hurricane TikToks were insights to the realities thousands of people faced during and after these tragedies. 

Gen Z has found a way to sneak the serious into the unserious and keep hundreds of thousands of social media users simultaneously amused and aware. 

Harris’ campaign strategies for the upcoming presidential election are another prime example of blending the serious and unserious as a way to increase youth voter engagement and propel her campaign forward.

@KamalaHQ has grown into a social media powerhouse, raking in millions of views. The number of views this account received for 65 posts in 20 days is more than double what @BidenHQ’s 335 posts received in roughly five months, according to CNN. 

This is because Harris’ campaign has used Gen Z’s love of blending humor and heart to garner interest in her campaign, while leaning into TikTok’s unserious rhetoric. 

KamalaHQ made “coconut tree” montages and let “brat” green take over her social media in July, spurring the account’s engagement boom. While it may seem silly to think of a presidential candidate as Charli XCX’s “brat,” it got Harris noticed and kept social media users engrossed.

With the algorithms used by Tiktok and Instagram, similar content to posts users engage with are recurrently shown on their feeds. Engaging with KamalaHQ may bring dance montages and memes, but it also brings policies and promises front and center. 

Facts about reproductive rights and vivacious rebuttals to opposing views all live on KamalaHQ’s page, which has been thrust into the spotlight following its unserious beginnings. 

The unserious has served as a gateway for social media users, bringing them deeper into current issues. Other generations can say what they will about Gen Z’s love of the lighthearted, but in my experience, the laughter and humor come from a place of immense care. 

The unserious, however unsettling, is an exciting way of raising our voices and engaging with the world in unconventional ways. I say embrace the unserious and let it continue to build an informed and resilient generation that relishes in the duality of finding ways to make progress through pain.