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Doomsday is Close at Hand for Gen Z on The Viral List

Young people feeling nostalgic for their carefree days, joking about the BTS doomsday “close at hand,” and insulting robots by calling them “clanker” are going viral…

Written and Edited by the YPulse Editorial Team

Jul 25 2025
North America, Western Europe

KEY TAKEAWAYS

For Gen Z, “doomsday is close at hand,” or rather, they’re getting ready to go back to school (or have even bigger life changes)
On TikTok, young people are remembering “there once was a time” they were more carefree
Young people are using a mock-derogatory term from Star Wars, “clanker,” to make fun of AI, which is partly rooted in their real fear of a future dominated by robots

On TikTok, doomsday is approaching—a.k.a. Gen Z going back to school Students have always dreaded going back to school in the fall. But now, high school and college students are using a TikTok trend to mourn their summer break. (Because what else would Gen Z do?) Creators are posting TikToks with the caption “doomsday is close at hand,” set to Lizzy McAlpine’s song “doomsday,” and then revealing what their personal BTS doomsday looks like. It could be waking up before the sun for an 8 a.m. class, dealing with a dreaded professor, or facing the all-too-familiar anxiety of the first...