The New Middle Age
Methods+Mastery
A team of curious, tenacious, and candid experts who are committed to delivering work that works.
In today’s edition:
Millennials are aging differently?
Millennials are aging, and it’s time for them to face the music. The eldest in this cohort are already entering their forties , raising teens, and securing C-suite roles.
Some argue that “age is just a number;” others are setting new expectations for those next in line to experience middle age. Skim any news outlet and you’ll notice just how much attention this transition is attracting. One common denominator is apparent: Millennial aging feels different.
Historically, ageism and disregard for people as they age have been unfortunately acceptable in society, but we doubt Millennials will accept that same treatment. Why? Because these dial-up-dialing, AIM-chatroom-bonding, RAZR-flipping, MySpace-profile-designing pioneers grew up with a little something called the World Wide Web.
And while Gen Z and Gen Alpha are now taking up the mantle as the internet’s trendsetters, Millennials are still savvy enough to stay relevant. In fact, they’re using their platforms to redefine and demystify the aging process.
What we’re seeing #1: The internet of Millennials is vastly different from the internet of Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
Today, people are exposed to overwhelming amounts of information and content online. With it comes misinformation, unrealistic beauty standards, cyberattacks, and thousands of influencers vying for your mental real estate.
Before the age of TikTok, health advice came from licensed medical professionals, not self-proclaimed doctors with a selfie stick. Take SPF, for example. When Millennials were growing up, they were taught that sunscreen helps prevent skin cancer. Now it’s a method for glowy skin, and a staggering 52% of Gen Z adults aren’t even aware of sunburn risks.
Notably, Millennials also didn’t have to go through their teen years constantly worrying about what they looked like on camera — perhaps why they’re less fearful of aging than Gen Z. That isn’t to say problems like the 90s/00s’ obsession with thinness didn’t take its toll, but Millennials weren’t as intently aware of camera angles at all times.?
Gen Z is also spending a staggering amount of time online, so much so that it’s causing brainrot . They’re bringing their digital identities into the real world and using internet slang in daily conversation. Remember when it was frowned upon to say “LOL” IRL?
With all this in mind, it makes sense why Millennials aren’t as easily compelled to join every single social media trend or platform. They choose only the tried-and-true and know where to draw the line between IRL and URL.
What we’re seeing #2: Millennials are sharing their experiences, and proving to Gen Z that aging doesn’t have to be a drag.?
While Millennials may no longer be alone in the internet limelight, they’re still on stage and sharing their wisdom on social media. Scroll through your FYP and you’ll find several examples of people creating content that offers solace and advice to Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences.
One TikToker uploaded a video titled “30 things I learned before turning 30” and her Gen Z viewers wrote comments like:
Other trends include bare-face reveals and skits where people pretend to converse with their younger selves. People have also started asking Millennials to autograph teen photos of themselves, allowing them to playfully revisit the past , and the reactions are hilarious. Even people over the age of 50 are contributing to this support system and showing the positive side of aging. And guess who makes up a large chunk of their followers? 18 to 24-year-olds (we previously covered this in our Older Creators edition ).
And you don’t have to be a creator to join the conversation — people in the r/AskWomenOver30 subreddit trade life stories and experiences about dating, motherhood, and careers.
After years of people adding fuel to the Gen Z vs. Millennials fire, are we finally starting to see an end to this cross-generational feud?
What we’re seeing #3: Millennials’ approach to aging is reshaping brands' strategies.?
As Millennials continue to age, more and more are offering commentary about how 40 is the new 30 or why your 30s are better than being in your 20s . Many are even saying they’re the healthiest they’ve ever been physically and mentally.?
Millennials are challenging the notion that aging has to look a certain way, and savvy brands are noticing and adapting — whether through heartfelt sincerity or more playful, trend-led approaches.?
Spanish brand Ausonia tapped into the idea that for women who’ve beaten cancer, aging is a gift. In a powerful World Breast Cancer Day campaign , Ausonia showed the negative reactions several young women had when they used a filter that made them look older. At the end, they showed a young breast cancer survivor named Marta who instead expressed how, for them, every wrinkle is worth celebrating.
Remember Pantene’s Power of Grey and Dove’s #KeepTheGrey campaigns? The latter came at an extremely timely moment , right after a news anchor was ousted for having grey hair. Beyond the classics, retail brands like Lulu’s , GAP , and Shepherd’s are starting to curate collections for the “coastal grandma look .” Others like Keeps and Dollar Shave Club are also creating products designed for men who want to be mindful about growing older.
While these examples don’t reflect every Millennial experience, it’s still good to see some brands letting go of the strict beauty standards we’ve placed upon ourselves.
What It Means For You & Your Brand
Don’t rely solely on demographics as a way to understand your audience. Generations aren’t monoliths. Just because you’re 41 doesn’t mean you have two kids and own a home with a swimming pool. Think about the mindsets and motivations behind why people are making decisions or pursuing certain lifestyles.?
Brush up on who Millennials are today. Forget the stereotypes they’ve battled as they came of age (which were plenty) and instead remember that they’re now adults. Most have their identities, values, and opinions all figured out. When you’re speaking directly to Millennials, make sure it’s representative of who they are now, not 10 years ago.?
Yes, Gen Z is the internet darling, but it doesn’t mean other generations aren’t creating their own trends. It’s easy to assume every social trend comes from Gen Z, but each generation has its unique obsessions and inside jokes. Whether it’s Gen X summoning each other with just a song or Millennials’ odd obsession with Pig Latin, seek to understand which trends might be coming from your target audience and which ones they’re likely ignoring.
The Social Scoop
Get up to speed with the biggest stories on social.
Instagram converts to a universal Views metric and adds updates to the profile grid. In an effort to refocus on reach instead of likes and follows, the new Views count will serve as the primary metric across all Instagram formats (including carousels and photos). This measurement replaces Plays, Accounts engaged, Interactions, and Watch Time. Instagram also hinted at an upcoming profile grid change, switching from the current square images to vertical displays .?
Our take: The Views metric change will help unify different content formats, making it possible to compare your Reels to your image posts. Coupled with the previous change around share count , it’s time to make views and shares your standard performance metrics.
TikTok empowers viewers to customize their own feeds. This new slider tool will allow people to signal preferences across various topics, including creative arts, current affairs, humor, and more.?
Our take: TikTok’s FYP has become the gold standard for algorithms, but until recently, people didn’t have much say about the content that appeared in their feeds. Now that viewers have more say over the content they see, this could impact how trends scale. Take this as the sign to review and update your TikTok SEO, and make sure your content is properly tagged for the FYP.?
LinkedIn introduces a new “Share Quote” feature. TL;DR: people can now highlight text in an Article or Newsletter and create a feed post from that selected text .?
Our take: This will make it much easier for readers to share excerpts from long-form content on LinkedIn — and is all part of a wider push to help creators drive visibility of their work and reach new audiences. If links and blog posts are part of your content strategy, try posting on LinkedIn Articles, using this new “Share Quote” feature to highlight a section from the long-form content.
Rabbit Hole of the Month
We’re obsessed with internet rabbit holes. Here’s one we dug into this month:
Mama, a girl behind you
The year is 2018. You, like many, are obsessed with AR filters across Snapchat and Instagram, exploring how your Bitmoji twin interacts with the screen. You ask someone to take a picture, but they notice someone in the background. Queue the ominous music.
No, it's not an evil spirit. It's your bitmoji twin — and the origin of the latest meme obsession: Mama, a girl behind you.
It all started six years ago when a woman asked her son to take a photo of her on Snapchat. In between the poses, the now-viral video was born. She originally posted it to Facebook, where it soon racked up over 600K views, but the video and sound didn’t reach their full potential until they made their way to TikTok this year. Initial reshares of the video amassed 2.8M and 6.3M views–some people recreated the OG video while others created a new brainrot meme mashup with other trends and audio, sometimes called ??Core . The most unexpected place this meme has appeared? High School Homecoming proposals .?
Our take? We can't blame the son for warning his mama. Just look at the size of that bitmoji's head.
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Alt Text is brought to you by Methods+Mastery . Our insatiable curiosity and hunger to understand the world around us is what fuels our mission. We go down cultural rabbit holes to understand how trends form and how people think and behave — all so we can build work that works.
Disclosure: Methods+Mastery serves multiple clients . Those clients and/or their peers and competitors may be included in Alt Text, if we feel they’re relevant to what’s trending in social. We always disclose direct client relationships and affiliations.