The Whimsy Trend is Actually Really Depressing

Comments · 291

• GE

  @GetOfflineGetGood · 2 weeks ago

  I'm 33, I have finally gotten access to whimsy, but that just so happened to coincide with me getting a job that pays a living wage... Purely coincidence, I'm sure

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• GH

  @ghosty22xx · 2 weeks ago

  I don’t think this is just a gen z issue it’s a cultural issue at large

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• SA

  @samanthapadgett2594 · 2 weeks ago

  Whimsy can be cheap or free. I made so many homemade whimsy crafts with nature and a glue gun.

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• PH

  @phoebesulistio6830 · 2 weeks ago

  GOBLINCORE being capitalism'd ABSOLUTELY SENDS ME like how do you make the "idc how ugly or dirty I look I am having fun" subculture expensive??

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• SA

  @SasukeUzumaki2026 · 2 weeks ago

  &quot;If you&apos;re not showering after the bar what are you doing&quot;<br>going tf to sleep, what the hell

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• WI

  @wintermoons1215 · 2 weeks ago

  Even in spaces that are MEANT to be whimsical and community based the younger gen just can’t help but carry their moral panopticon cage around with them. In fandom spaces these days anything ‘cringe’ is mocked, they’re constantly begging for censorship of anything that makes them personally uncomfortable because it’s clearly ‘evil’ and ‘harmful’, and yet they truly seem incapable of discerning fictional characters from real people in a functional way.

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• GI

  @girlsthey · 2 weeks ago

  I think, like with all generations, there&apos;s a ton of nuance that&apos;s hard to generalize. I&apos;m a middle-child Millennial and I love my generation, but the common wisdom about Millennials has always been kinda skewed by who&apos;s most visible, etc. Most Millennials aren&apos;t baby adults in Brooklyn who worked at Buzzfeed and had Harry Potter weddings, but that&apos;s how we&apos;re seen, so okay. I think we&apos;re doing the same thing to Gen Z, and I kinda wish we weren&apos;t. They&apos;re going through it like we (still) are, and I actually think the whimsy trend is a genuine attempt to confront this oppressive moment. Some of the most whimsical people I know are Millennial-Gen Z cusp kids who care very much about building community and creating spaces for leisure and play. Then again, I deleted basically all of my social media 2 years ago so what do I know. Just get off social media, everyone! You&apos;ll feel better, no matter what year you were born. People are so much nicer IRL!

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• BE

  @bethanythatsme · 2 weeks ago

  I&apos;m a middle aged critter who clubbed the young years away in weirdo Portland &amp; I had no idea what a fleeting freedom that would be. I&apos;m also neurodivergent, so awkward is my brand ☆ tragically cringe &amp; blissful when unmasked. <br>Sending all some salty sea hag love from Oregon. You count 💜

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• NO

  @nomisunrider6472 · 2 weeks ago

  God I love non-consumerist whimsy culture, it&apos;s a bit harder to find but it&apos;s so GOOD when you do. You don&apos;t need to pay for it. You don&apos;t need to buy &quot;whimsical accessories&quot; or redecorate your house. You can dance and read and go to the library and the dog park and walk and write and join a book club or a sewing circle or a cooking class.

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• ER

  @er6730 · 2 weeks ago (edited)

  Aw, this reminds me of the generation of my mom and aunts (boomers?) and how I used to be so confused about what they found charming and a little bit scandalous. I felt bad for them, because I could see that they were SO worn down by the work of housekeeping and the pressure to not stick out as peculiar, that any mildly whimsical thing struck them as SO wacky!<br><br>So then if they got, like, a sunflower broach, they&apos;d be laughing about it, they&apos;d comment on how it &quot;jumps out at you&quot;, they&apos;d need reassurance that it wasn&apos;t too &quot;loud&quot;, and probably it would end up defining their personalities for years because everyone would get them sunflower themed everything as gifts! <br><br>I didn&apos;t get it, I just thought &quot;just wear it, why are you making such a big deal out of nothing?&quot; And go on to put my umbrella hat on and embarrass my friends by hanging out with them during school assemblies. 😅<br><br>But I (elder millenial) didn&apos;t live in a surveillance state. I was very unsupervised and free. (Some of that was my ADHD that wasn&apos;t caught until I was 36 and my chip-off-the-old-block son was diagnosed, so I just accepted that I was weird and didn&apos;t worry about trying to fit in. But I don&apos;t think there was much peer pressure for anyone at that time.)<br><br>However, my parents were WATCHED and JUDGED by their peers, and I guess these poor kids are also suffering from that intense pressure.

  196

• SP

  @Spookiestjunior · 13 days ago

  If we can get rid of the overconsumption I actually think the embracing of whimsicality is a really good antidote to current anti-cringe culture. Kids seem EXTREMELY fearful of being a little silly, a little weird, a little cringe. And it’s very sad because those are the years to find who you are, and being embarrassed sometimes and making a decision about that is part of it. I think there’s potential here, if people could understand that whimsicality is embodied and lived through daily experience, not a sticker you put on your Stanley, I think it’s a good thing to embrace a strange or mystical side of yourself. At least it’s a way people are putting some judgment aside. AGAIN- if you’re not just doing it because one of the Jenners did, and actually understand what whimsy is

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• AN

  @anthapersephone7311 · 2 weeks ago

  Trendification of basic mental health

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