Posted on 12/15/2023 3:45:18 PM PST by Drew68
Gen Z's struggles with anxiety are affecting their dining habits with most admitting to dealing with "menu anxiety" in restaurants, a new survey finds.
British restaurant chain Prezzo, which serves Italian cuisine, surveyed over 2,000 people in the UK about how at ease they felt when they ate out and it found that 86% of Gen Z had been impacted by "menu anxiety" when dining in restaurants compared to 67% of all respondents.
Menu anxiety was largely trigged by the cost of the meal, not being able to find something they like on the menu, and regretting what they ordered. Over a third of millennials said having too many options on a menu was also a trigger.
38% of Gen Z and millennials said they wouldn't go to a restaurant if they hadn't looked at the menu beforehand. A third of Gen Zers also said they ask other people to order at restaurants because of this anxiety.
Another source of anxiety for almost half of 25 to 34 year olds is not being able to pronounce the options on the menu when ordering.
Young people are also largely influenced by their social media use. A third of 25 to 34 year-olds would choose items on a menu that would look best on social media.
The younger generation tend to have more hang ups about how they appear in public, and a recent Gallup poll even found that they're more likely to report experiencing negative emotions such as stress, anxiety, and loneliness.
NYU business professor Jonathon Haidt told the Wall Street Journal that a "performative" social media culture is partly to blame for the high rates of anxiety and depression amongst Gen Z.
"We have a whole generation that's doing terribly," he said. "You're not creative, you're not future-thinking..."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
I travel a lot for my job. Just got done packing for a Christmas vacation. I probably eat 500 restaurant meals a year.
Occasionally I’ll sit down and nothing jumps out. I just order something and enjoy it anyway. I’ve choked at the prices a couple times but never had an anxiety attack.
Once I even told the waitress “surprise me.”
I need to do that again.
Love that movie!
These people don’t “dine.” They’ve never even seen a linen tablecloth, much less a knife and fork.
It's true, the cost of eating out can be stressful, particularly with McDonald's prices today equivalent to what nice, sit-down restaurants used to cost a few years ago.
And, yes, I'm guilty of having "entree envy" as well, wishing I had ordered something different. Who isn't?
I do think it's funny though, the Gen-Z requirement that restaurant meals be presentable for Instagram.
Yep, my Grandpa was there. He was 26.
I tried out all the local restaurant’s meatloaf. Big mistake. None of them tasted like meatloaf. The bad news is we’re getting a new restaurant, and I’m going to have to try out their meatloaf too.
Maybe I’ll feel better if I take pictures of the so-called meatloaf and post it on social media.
Enjoy the reality
If you have Android, that’s a new update.
Exactly what they need. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWTh8inHgpQ
What a bunch of Pussies.
Tell them “What You See, Is What You Get!”
sounds like yet another symptom of Snowflakeitis ...
I get menu anxiety when I go into Chinese Restaurants and they literally have 200 different things listed on their menus.
Social media and the rise of the influencer, has gen z all screwed up on how things they order would look on social media.
Chinese restaurants perplex me.
Every Chinese restaurant in America has the same 200 items on their menu. Each dish will taste the same no matter what restaurant you visit. None of the food on the menu is anything that Chinese people themselves actually eat.
Is there some kind of school they go to learn how to prepare Chinese food for Americans?
Sweetbreads are great!!!
The Whimp Generation. Sissified and pussified. And people make fun of baby boomers. LOL. They’d grow up a hell of a lot better people if they’d leave the nest a lot earlier. That 20s and 30s booschidt in mommy and daddy’s basement is a little silly.
LOL. You are exactly correct.
The reason is that most Chinese restaurants in the USA, especially the small, strip-mall kind - are not actually run by people who know anything about cooking. Its someone in the family, or some college student they've hired. They just want to make money, maybe watched a couple Youtube videos, and they figure Americans will have no clue anyway what its supposed to taste like.
No wonder they can’t recruit.
..
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