Millennials and Zoomers blame the “COVID pause” for feeling younger than they are

The “COVID pause” is the latest generational conversation to take over TikTok, with millennials and zoomers claiming the pandemic froze their sense of time. Many say they feel stuck at the same age they were in early 2020, as if COVID-19 either stole those years or disrupted the usual milestones of adulthood.

What is the COVID pause?

Folks on social media define the COVID pause as an odd phenomenon in which they still feel the same age as they did when the pandemic began. One video from Tuesday uses footage of people over the age of 30 doing TikTok dances for the camera as evidence.

@himmothychalamet OP: @burrbrii #CovidPause #LostYears #SocialMediaEra #PandemicLife #FeelingYounger ♬ original sound – Himmothy chalamet

“Because COVID stole so many years from us, a lot of people still feel like they’re closer to the age that they were when COVID first started,” @himmothychalamet explained. “A lot of the people who were in their late 20s when COVID first started kind of feel like—me included—that we didn’t get five to six years older.”

TikToker @justdoowop, who was 32 when the pandemic hit, feels the same way.

@justdoowop What in the time loop is going on here?!? #millennial #millennialsoftiktok ♬ original sound – justdoowop

“I still feel like I felt when COVID started,” she said. “I don’t feel like I aged.”

“I don’t feel like I’m pushing 40 years old, y’all.”

Another on TikTok, theorized that this had less to do with the virus “stealing” our years and more to do with how it disrupted society’s perceptions of what aging is supposed to look like.

@springmoonchxld I think Covid exposed just how much vibrancy there is in us all if we were truly allowed to thrive. There’s so much evolution of self to be experienced that get stagnated by giving your life away to working…. #springmoonchxld ♬ original sound – Julie Jewelz✨

“I think capitalism has artificialized so much of the passage of time that we might actually be returning to a much more natural youthfulness,” she said. “Not to mention the economic difficulties that are going on that late millennials, early Gen Z … are facing right now that is making what should be ‘milestones’ not happening.”

“Fun doesn’t have an age limit”

Over on X, these ideas sparked a round of discourse that included theories on why people are feeling this way, some more dismissive than others. A crop of folks took the discussion as an argument that people over 30 shouldn’t dance or be on TikTok at all, and got mad about that.

User @drunkestgiraffe railed against “gen z’ers take issue with 30 year olds.. dancing? jesus christ??? I hope we’re all dancing at 60 years old!”

She added that “fun doesn’t have an age limit you absolute too-serious weirdos???”

“In America, once you turn 30 you’re not allowed to catch a vibe with your friends anymore,” meme’d @_154831.

Others took the opposite approach, blaming COVID for why people of certain age groups are doing things they disapprove of.

“The Covid pause needs to be studied,” wrote @nikcouture12. “Why do we have 30yr olds acting and doing sh*t you do as a teenager. Knew sh*t was not ok when you had grown ass adults giddy about going to ‘university.’”

Some had straightforward theories.

“The pandemic was traumatic,” asserted @_VelvetBlade. “Sometimes trauma causes you to be stuck at the age that it occurred.”

One thing that did stagnate for some of the youngest to live during COVID is their education. In 2024, a report by the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) warned that the average U.S. student is “less than halfway to a full academic recovery” after the height of the pandemic.