Generation Z’s latest online fixation is the so-called “millennial optimism” era. The TikTok trend sees users posting early-2000s throwback snaps set to The Middle East’s 2009 song “Blood.” Think mustache tattoos, Apple Photo Booth selfies, and owl-print tops paired with galaxy leggings.
For those too young to have experienced it firsthand, the 2010s were a simpler, happier time. As one TikTok creator posted: “Millennial optimism era really had me thinking I could make a living as a part-time barista and live in a six-bedroom house with all my friends.” As one commenter confirmed: “Tbh, this was actually possible in 2012.”
In another clip, one Gen Zer wrote: “Every day I’m faced with the sad reality that performative millennial hipsters from 2005-2012 really did have it so much better.”
It was a time when Barack Obama was president. Instagram was still for uploading grainy images of nights out and snapshots of your coffee. One Direction was formed. Life was good.
Right?
In case you may not remember, in 2010, millennials were just starting out in the workforce . . . and unemployment was as high as 10% in the wake of the Great Recession. Many are still carrying the economic baggage well over a decade later, with research showing that those who graduate during a recession could see stagnation in financial growth for up to 15 years.
By the 2010s, college tuition had more than doubled since the 1980s, wages were suppressed, and many millennials struggled to get their careers off the ground. (Sound familiar, Gen Z?) In the U.S., student loans were staggering.
Those who lived through this period have stepped in to set the record straight online. One millennial suggests the TikTok trend is “missing the mark in only the way a TikTok trend can.” He explained: “I assure you that during the early 2010s-late 2000s, I was the most pessimistic that I’ve ever been in my life.”
Other millennials agreed in the comments, with one writing: “The music was great, the times were hard.”
Another added: “Only the millennials living in New York, in poverty, back in the 2010s, fresh out of college and post-financial crisis, would understand how far back my eyes rolled when I saw this trend.” They continued: “We hustled and had 4 different jobs for a decade and we’re dead inside.”
For millennials at the time, optimism was simply a survival strategy.
“So much music that has been deemed ‘millennial optimism’ is upbeat but has devastating lyrics,” a third commented. “Which mimics how I felt in my twenties—smiling or partying through severe hopelessness.”
Earlier this year, Chelsea Fagan, a millennial writer, dubbed the early 2010s “the last era of sweet delusion.”
Objectively, things were tough. And yet, despite these hardships, there was still an enduring belief among millennials that if you worked your way up the ladder, you would be rewarded with a house, a car, and a comfortable life, with an employer who would return your loyalty.
“The early 2010s were full of a general sense that everything would just work out,” Fagan wrote. “Was it a little delusional? Absolutely.”
Today? Recent graduates seem to have no such delusion.