A TikToker named Hannah (@inmyhearse_daily) uploaded a video recreating her experience being served by a “Gen Alpha” employee at a restaurant. She says the worker, who must have been born between the years 2010 and 2024, was affected by the “blue light stare,” a common joke used to describe children raised by iPads.
Gen Alpha children have been criticized as a “doomed generation” in viral posts in the past—Sephora customers have slammed kids who were brought up during this time period and their complete lack of situational awareness, care, or ability to socialize with others in a public environment.
Some viewers said that there was no way a “Gen Alpha” employee could’ve served Hannah, as they probably wouldn’t be old enough to work yet. But others agreed with her assessment of youngsters born during this period.
“I had a gen Alpha kid as my server the other day and this is how it went,” Hannah says before pantomiming how the Gen Alpha individual approached her table, behaving in a similar way to Anton Chigurh in No County for Old Men in their stride and thousand-mile stare.
“Hi, sit wherever you want,” the server says before walking away.
The server, repeating the same robotic and humanless approach, arrives with two cups of water and sets them down in front of the guest. They look Hannah in the eyes with a coldness that many commenters found unnerving.
When it came time for Hannah to place her order, the situation didn’t fare any better. The “Gen Alpha” server approached her table holding a tablet. They were still staring Hannah down the barrel, with an iPad in their hands. An uncomfortable silence hangs in the air, before Hannah asks the server, “Hey, how’s it going?”
“Are you ready to order?” the server asks coldly.
“Yeah, can I get the chicken pad thai, please?” Hannah asks as the server begins tapping away on their tablet.
She uses a voice filter to mimic someone else at the table. “And can I get the tofu and vegetable soup? And that’s all, thank you,” they say.
The server continues to tap away on the tablet, emitting no emotion whatsoever. In the next portion of the video, the “server” is recorded standing in the corner of the restaurant, interacting with their phone, before beelining it directly to the table and practically slamming down the food the diners ordered, not saying anything as she does so. Again, she walks away with the same callous and direct gait.
“Excuse me can we get some silverware please?” they ask the server, who is again, on their phone. The server’s shoulders hang down briefly to indicate she is highly inconvenienced by this request, before walking off-camera to satisfy the customer’s request. She obliges, tight-lipped as the customers each thank her for her efforts.
The server’s on her phone again as the restaurant guests attempt to get her attention, “Can we get the check?” they ask, but the server doesn’t immediately oblige their request as they swipe through their phone. They hold up a finger as if asking them to “wait” before looking back down at the device to continue what they’re doing.
In the next segment, the server approaches their table again. “I’m so sorry can we get the check please?” Hannah asks the server off-camera.
“Yeah one second,” the customer says coldly before walking away. “It’s $42.31,” she says, holding up the tablet to the diners. Three text boxes are comically hand drawn by Hannah which look extremely similar to the type of POS system checkout screen companies like Square and Toast implement on their widely used business software.
After holding up the screen for a few seconds, the server says, “Thank you, bye,” to the customers and then walks off.
“THE BLUE LIGHT STARE,” one TikTok user wrote in response to her video, agreeing with Hannah’s estimation of the server’s behavior.
However, some mentioned that the Gen Alpha employee, if they were indeed the worker in question, would be very, very young.
“The oldest gen alpha would be like 14,” one user wrote.
“Aren’t the oldest Gen alpha kids like 11?” another asked.
@inmyhearse_daily the blue light stare is so real. #foryou #genalpha #fyp #foryoupage #trending ♬ original sound – Hannah :)
Despite Hannah’s unsatisfactory experience, some commenters said they prefer these types of interactions with their servers.
“Amazing, i want a gen alpha server,” one said.
“Perfect actually. did what she needed, and didn’t make me feel awkward,” another echoed.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Hannah via TikTok comment for further information.
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