It’s laundry day and my sock drawer is empty. Sort of. I do have one pair: my emergency trainer socks. I begrudgingly pull them on and leave the house, skulking behind the bushes in case a fellow Gen Z catches me with a naked ankle.
I’m overly self-conscious about my hosiery for one reason: according to a new theory espoused by TikTokkers, a person’s socks might say everything you need to know about them. It goes like this: if you wear no-show trainer socks, you are an avocado-eating millennial, and wearing them is basically a death knell for coolness. Those who wouldn’t be caught dead exposing their ankles in broad daylight are likely a cooler, long-sock-wearing member of Generation Z. Various videos on the internet have gone viral over this petty generational battle: Gen Z-ers, in their late teens and twenties, prey on strangers and mockingly guess their age by looking at their socks. In other clips, millennials, over the age of 30, record themselves donning calf-high, bright white socks, and joke that they’re trying to keep up with the young.
