A somewhat one-sided debate has taken TikTok by storm in the last week, as Gen X seems to be “declaring war” on Gen Z, going viral with silly posts about what they believe to be Gen Z overreactions to Eminem’s new album, The Death of Slim Shady. While it can be hard to tell which members of the “emerging” Gen X on the social media platform are being sarcastic and which are serious, the whole furore has made for some confusing yet hilarious content.
Online tensions between Gen X and Gen Z have been rising for months. It’s hard to pinpoint an exact tipping point, but many signs point to a since-deleted video in which a young TikTok user says, “Generally speaking, we can all agree that Gen X is the worst generation.” The video sparked a variety of reactions, many of which made their way to FYPs across the platform. In an early May video, user @robhomecook warned users not to “make fun of Gen X under any circumstances,” and it has been viewed nearly 5.5 million times.
“Generational tensions are being exaggerated on TikTok. We’re talking about tensions between the parent generation and the kids’ generation,” said Sonia Livingstone, a professor of communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science, who added that what’s happening on the platform is a symptom, rather than a cause, of the tensions.
All of this was catalyzed by Eminem’s release of “The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grace)” earlier this month, eliciting a range of reactions from Gen Z and several viral videos that have escalated into what Gen Xers are calling a full-blown online “war.”
One of the most controversial lyrics from Death comes on the track “Houdini,” where Eminem raps, “My trans cat’s a Siamese cat/Identifies as black but acts like I’m Chinese.” After the lyric went viral, some Gen Zers “cancelled” the rapper in TikTok’s comments section. But beyond that, Gen Zers seem less interested in the rapper’s lyrics and more interested in poking fun at Gen Xers’ dramatic digital reactions.
In one example, TikTok user @moustacheman23 garnered more than a million views after making a fake apology to Gen Z. His follow-up video, which garnered more than four million views before being taken down, borrowed the lyric “Are you gonna cancel me? Me from Gen Z” from Eminem’s “Trouble.” One user wrote, “Nobody [is] They’re trying to cancel Eminem,” he said, adding that all of Gen Z “grew up” with the rapper.
“We’re used to seeing younger people attacking older generations,” Livingstone said. “This is the opposite. It’s very unusual for an older generation to attack a younger generation.”
The amount of engagement on these videos — views, likes, comments — has multiplied in recent weeks, drawing attention through TikTok’s algorithms. “It’s because it’s attractive to us,” says Anjana Susala, a professor at Michigan State University who specializes in social media analytics. “This is the same reason why the cancel culture filter bubble exists. It’s the same thing we’re seeing with this generational war.”
