As we age, certain life events can trigger a sudden, unwanted awareness of our own mortality. For some, it's an increasing dislike for modern music, the development of head scratching technology or the perceived impracticality of new fashion trends.

For me, my place on the march through time became apparent when I heard one word: "cheugy."

I was scrolling on TikTok when a video popped up discussing "cheugy" fashion. I almost flipped past it until I felt a twinge of confusion – I had no idea what the word meant.

We need your consent to load this Instagram contentWe use Instagram to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

I frantically Googled the word, as the chorus of Out of Touch by Hall and Oates rang in my ears (the fact that an 80s anthem sprang to mind in the moment did nothing to dissipate my feelings of encroaching irrelevance).

I no longer had my finger on the button when it came to what was cool and what wasn't, and – even worse – my millennial generation was no longer the one which defined and engineered these moments. To put it plainly, I felt old.

According to the New York Times, the term "cheugy" was first developed in 2013 to describe out of date clothing trends. The word went viral in 2021, and maintained the original meaning, as well as describing people who try a little bit too hard to be cool.

Video sharing app TikTok is the amphitheatre for the phrase, with clips about the term racking up hundreds of thousands of views. Like most internet terms, it is highly subjective, and its meaning expands as more people discover the term.

We need your consent to load this Instagram contentWe use Instagram to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

As a millennial, I’m used to news articles poking fun at our place in a crippling housing market and mocking a generational fondness for avocados. However, I wasn’t prepared for a slew of internet trends enforcing age-based animosity between millennials and Gen Z.

While internet slang comes and goes, the "cheug life" concept has left many millennials shaking in their UGG boots, and has fanned the flames of a generational culture war that was brewing online for years.

My hypothesis on the Gen Z vs Millennials phenomenon is this: for the first time ever, numerous generations are sharing the same social spaces via the internet, making different interests and trends between age groups apparent. It started with the "okay Boomer" comeback, a phrase coined in 2019 to dismiss the Facebook antics and conservative socio-political views traditionally held by the Baby Boomer generation.

Now, "cheugyness" is being utilised by those born after 1995 to ridicule the cheesy aesthetics that 80s and early 90s babies are stereotypically fond of. It’s the online equivalent of an eye roll towards millennials' earnest insistence on remaining hip, cool, and down with the kids.

"Cheugy" often describes things that were popular in the early 2010s - girlboss culture, adults enjoying Disney, writing "but first, coffee" as an Instagram caption, Gucci’s eponymous double G belt and the phrase "Live, Laugh, Love."

Most noticeably, the mockery focuses on belittling specifically female interests. The majority of the content explaining the "cheugy" aesthetic uses stereotypically feminine examples, such as bedazzled rosé wine glasses and enjoying reruns of Friends. The term, while having lighthearted beginnings, reminds me of the eternal dismissal of young women’s tastes.

Historically, anything that teenage girls enjoyed – from The Beatles to One Direction – were dismissed as vapid and hysterical, as a society steeped in sexism decreed the interests of young women to be invalid. That energy still radiates today, but the development of "cheugy" allowed Gen Z to flip that disregard and project it upwards and onto their neighbouring age group.

The "cheugy" diss is the perfect weapon, exploiting the insecurities of both millennials and Gen Z. On the millennials side, the phrase preys upon the fear of aging, something that is indoctrinated into women from the day they reach adulthood.

It also exposes a generational desire to avoid being eclipsed by the emerging cultural pertinence of Gen Z. Frankly, I’m ready to pass the baton, closing the chapter on the self-obsessed, oat-milk latte drinking hipster caricature of the millennial and gracefully watching on from the sidelines as Gen Z’s still unknown influence is unleashed on the world.

On the Gen Z side, the use of the mocking term paints an unflattering picture, undermining the younger generation’s reputation for being the most open and progressive age cohort. Gen Z also prides themselves on being the most environmentally aware age group, with a recent UNiDAYS survey finding that 93% of Gen Z-ers believe brands have an obligation to take a stand on environmental and sustainability issues.

However, mocking people for having outdated fashion tastes is counterintuitive to this belief, as fast fashion and clothing production waste are repeatedly identified as environmental and human rights issues.

With the element of sustainability in mind, don’t ditch your entire wardrobe in favour of TikTok approved trends. Brands such as Juicy Couture and Ed Hardy emblemized a tacky nostalgia for millennials. Worn by LA socialites and early 2000s teens alike, the aesthetics of these brands were considered a social faux pas by the year 2010.

In 2021, both brands have made a massive comeback thanks to the resurgence of Y2K style, and so what was once "cheugy" is now en vogue.

We need your consent to load this Instagram contentWe use Instagram to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

Examining my own cheugyness, I've found that formerly popular fashion styles are my vice. I fantasise about the day that statement earrings will come back into style. I miss fashion blogs and don’t see Instagram as an appropriate alternative, and possibly my "cheugy-ist" habit yet, still engage in unironic, illicit UGG boot wearing. Fashion is and always will be cyclical – you just have to be around to witness a few cycles to truly understand that.

Ultimately, every generation thinks to some degree that the one above it is "cheugy," and the things that Gen Z enjoys right now will one day be "cheugy" in the future. While I have some criticisms of the term, the majority of the discourse sparked joy in me (the KonMari method is definitely "cheugy," I’m calling it here) as I revisited the questionable trends of my early 20s and laughed at TikTok’s interpretation of millennial culture.

There is no permanence in internet pertinence, and while the word "cheugy" is enjoying its prime spot in the online vernacular, it has already been dubbed as "cheugy" itself, proving that the only consistent trend – online or off – is that younger people will always find older people embarrassing.