😶 Why Everyone's Feeling “Meh” Lately — The Rise of Emotional Numbness in Gen Z

"It’s not depression. It’s not burnout. It’s something in between — and it’s everywhere."

Scroll through TikTok or Twitter (sorry, X), and you’ll find a new kind of mental state taking over Gen Z and younger Millennials: not sadness, not anxiety, not rage. Just... meh.

Emotionally flat. Spiritually unbothered. Functioning, but not really feeling.

Welcome to the age of emotional numbness — the quiet mental health trend no one’s really talking about, even though everyone’s kind of feeling it.

🧊 What Is Emotional Numbness, Really?

It’s the emotional version of airplane mode.

You're not in crisis, but you’re not thriving either. You get through the day, but everything feels like you're watching your life happen instead of living it.

It looks like:

• Watching your favorite show but feeling nothing.
• Hanging out with friends but zoning out the whole time.
• Getting a text and thinking, “I’ll respond later” (but never do).
• Hearing bad news and just... shrugging.

It’s not dramatic — and that’s the scary part. It's quiet, slow, and oddly easy to ignore.

📱 Why Gen Z Is Especially Vulnerable

This isn’t just random. Gen Z is the most online, overstimulated, and overexposed generation in modern history.

We’re constantly bombarded by:

• Bad news (hello, climate crisis, mass layoffs, political chaos)
• Perfect lives on Instagram
• Infinite content that never lets our brains rest
• A culture where vulnerability is aesthetic but not always safe

Our nervous systems were never meant to process this much everything all the time. So to cope, we disconnect — not on purpose, but out of necessity.

😶 It’s Not That We Don’t Care — We’re Just Numb From Caring Too Much

Gen Z cares deeply about the world. But when every issue feels urgent, and every day feels like a mini crisis, you run out of space to feel.

So what do we do?

We make memes about disassociation.

We joke about trauma.

We post TikToks saying “I'm emotionally unavailable but still hot.”

Because laughter? That’s how we bleed without making a mess.

💡 Okay, But How Do We Start Feeling Again?

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: There’s no quick fix.

But there are small ways to reconnect:

• Turn off auto-play. Let silence in.
• Text a friend just to say hi, not because you need something.
• Go for a walk with no phone, no podcast, no distractions.
• Let yourself cry — even if you don’t fully know why.

Healing doesn’t look like a transformation montage. Sometimes, it’s just doing one small thing differently every day.

✍️ Final Thoughts

Emotional numbness is a quiet kind of pain — one that doesn’t scream for help but slowly erodes joy, connection, and meaning.

But here’s the thing: Feeling meh doesn’t mean you’re broken.

It means your brain did what it had to do to protect you.

Now it’s time to gently ask it to come back online.

💬 What About You?

Have you felt emotionally checked out lately?

What do you do when you’re in a numb phase?

Drop a comment below. Let’s talk about the emotions we forgot we were allowed to feel 👇