In the ever-evolving world of social media, a new trend has emerged in South Korea, where the younger generation, known as Gen Z, is poking fun at their millennial counterparts for their fashion choices. Dubbed the “Young 40” meme, this phenomenon has become a source of both amusement and indignation among the middle-aged fashion enthusiasts.
The meme typically depicts a middle-aged man decked out in streetwear and clutching an iPhone, a sight that has become a target of ridicule for the younger generation. This shift in public perception has been driven by the release of the iPhone 17 last September, which has been recast as a “tacky trademark” of the “Young 40” demographic, people who are “trying too hard to look young” and “refuse to accept that time has passed.”
The rise of the “Young 40” meme represents a larger shift in South Korean society, where age differences, even by a year, form the basis of social hierarchy. However, the younger generation is growing increasingly sceptical of this “almost forced reverence for elders.” The term “kkondae,” which describes an annoying breed of rigid, condescending elders, has become a buzzword among young South Koreans.
This friction has been exacerbated by social media, where “multiple generations mix within the same space,” according to Lee Jae-in, a sociology professor at Korea University’s Sejong campus. The old pattern where different generations consumed separate cultural spaces has largely disappeared.
The “Young 40” term was originally coined in marketing circles in the 2010s, referring to consumers with youthful sensibilities. However, the term has since taken on a more sardonic tone, with over 100,000 online mentions in the past year, more than half of which were used in a negative context.
Some see the jokes about “Young 40s” as a form of “punching up,” targeting people at the peak of their careers who amassed wealth in a time of economic stability and a property boom. In the eyes of Gen Z and young millennials, who face soaring house prices and cut-throat competition in the job market, the “Young 40s” represent “the generation that made it through just before the door of opportunity closed.”
However, the “Young 40s” themselves, like 41-year-old fashion enthusiast Ji, tell a different story. They are a generation that “had very little to enjoy growing up, and only began to enjoy things later, as adults.” Now, they find themselves “caught in between” the strict, top-down system of the older generation and the more questioning mindset of the younger one.
As the “Young 40” meme continues to spread, it sheds light on the generational divide and the evolving social dynamics within South Korean society, where the pursuit of youthful aesthetics has become a point of contention and a source of both humour and introspection.