Instead of even trying to chase jobs that seem out of reach, Gen Z is embracing living like a rat—not showering or leaving the house for days at a time.
The millennial era of “work hard, play harder” and “girl bossing” has given way to a new trend. In China, at least, Gen Zers are proudly calling themselves “rat people”—they’re spending entire days procrastinating in bed, scrolling on their phones, snoozing and ordering take out.
I think it has something to do with “giving up” on the economy: if you have very low chances of landing a job anyways, why even try?
The article does not directly tell us how many people participate in this movement consciously. It does hint, however:
Today, over 4 million American Gen Zers remain jobless. In China, the government has said that as of February, 1 in 6 young people are unemployed.
Chinese culture has almost satirical levels of disrespect and misunderstanding of animals so it’s very much on character.
I used to have 3 rescue rats and they are incredibly clean, active and social animals. I’d used to take them outside and observe how they explore new areas and its was really incredible how coordinated and thought out their exploration plans would be and executed with utter most curiosity. Also very cute how they’d come back to me and ask to be taken home to their cage by basically hugging my foot.
Rats are the best. Little pocket puppies
/r/rats is the reason I’m still on Reddit
The pet rats community here is far too quiet
the only thing that stops me from getting rats is the short lifespans. I love dogs, and ~10 years is already too short. Dealing with that every two would just break me.
agreed. They really should live longer. the universe is not fair