Lord’s “Man of the Year,” a song about gender identity, brings Tiktok to the vogue for unexpected reasons. GENZ Creators post videos sharing their negative experiences with their ex-boyfriends on the track.
The thousands of videos listed under the song are ironically teasing a man for making fun of what he’s wrong with the song on Lord’s upcoming album “virgin.”
“I got a fresh 20-year-old pregnancy. I promised everything. I left a month after finding it all. I blocked me and everything. I got it with a new girl.
Over 63,000 posts are listed under the hashtag #manoftheyear. Many features were the wrong photo slider for screenshot text messages from the relationship. The creators shared videos about pregnancy horror stories, affairs and threats of domestic violence, and opened conversations about how young people use humor as a coping mechanism to talk about traumatic events.
The popularity of this trend was eventually led to Lorde himself responding. “These messages…” She expanded to Tiktok’s video on June 11th in relation to the trend.
Gen Z is more open about mental health than previous generations
When asked to explain current mental health or happiness, only 15% of Gen Z Polled members said they excel in a 2023 study by Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation. General Zers reported experiencing negative emotions such as stress, anxiety and loneliness, the study said, with 47% of those voted to say they are thriving in life now.
This is a huge decrease compared to 10 years ago. The study states when 52% of millennials of the same age group say they have superior mental health. Also, in 2004, 55% of 18-26 year olds, including both millennial and Gen X respondents, reported excellent mental health.
Ryan Jenkins, the author of a bestseller who has extensively written for Gen Z and Millennials, previously told USA Today that social media “hears the platform for voices from day one and is honest.” He says technology is in many ways considering the “overstimulation” that other generations have had to deal with.
Gen Z uses humor to deal with it
This trend provides insight into how young people use social media and humor to deal with relationship trauma. The creators used this trend to share their experiences with inappropriate reactions from men about racism, unnecessary attention, aggressive voicemail and family death.
“Go through yourself. I’ve never loved you. Another featured a man screaming at his girlfriend for three years about her recent miscarriage.
The variations in the trend also touched on physical shame. One woman shared, “I was sleeping at my boyfriend’s house and it was getting hot so I took off my clothes and he told me to put them on my rough cus.”
In an interview with Rolling Stone Cover Story on May 15, Lord revealed that he recovered from an eating disorder, healed from a breakup, and inspired the song by looking back at his gender identity. Users quickly pointed out the straight women’s paradox to talk about their ex-boyfriend using songs about gender fluidity.
“It’s literally non-binary/GNC and when it’s directed towards self, I’m so tired of this year’s trends when a straight woman dunks to ex-scheet BFS and it’s directed towards self,” one user posted on Tiktok. “Songs are not about you sometimes!” But songs have all sorts of meanings to people, and obviously this hits a chord.
Platforms like YouTube and Tiktok have changed the way youth talk about their mental health. And while Instagram’s cultural norms are a more refined aesthetic, Tiktok’s trend-driven community is more informal, prioritizing user engagement, personal moments spreading through word of mouth, creating a fertile environment. If the user’s comments section about videos is full of support, build a sense of solidarity and peer connection.
According to licensed psychologist Marni Amsellem, humor is a very useful and common coping strategy and can help you handle such heavy and traumatic events. For others, the emotional severity of the trauma can also be milder.
According to Jean Twenghe, author of Igen: Why Are Solely Connected Children Today Are Rebellious, Tolerant, Not Happy, Not Completely Ready for Adulthood, Z is more pessimistic than millennials.
For Gen Z, this is another example of using online spaces to broaden conversations about mental health. And mental health experts agree that’s a good thing.
Terry Collins and Jenna Liu contributed In this report.
Rachel Hale’s role in covering youth mental health at USA Today is supported by a partnership with Pivotal Ventures and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editor input. Contact her at rhale@usatoday.com @RachelLeighhale x.
