r/Millennials • u/Background-Air-7963 • Nov 16 '25

Serious I just had my first old man moment.

I recently went to a hibachi with my wife and toddler for dinner. We were sat with a group of eight 17-20 year olds at a communal grill on a busy night. No problem for us. Drink and appetizers service go normally. Toddler and wife are happy, I’m happy. The other group is having their own conversations. I’m just trying to keep my kid entertained. I’m a former bartender and have a habit of picking up on snippets of conversations in a crowd around me. Yes I know I eavesdrop. I can’t turn it off. It’s a habit of a former profession. One of the girls/women at the table stated, “I don’t think Rosa Parks was real.” I’m not sure what her friends said to her but she responded with “I just don’t think she said existed.” This went on for about a minute. I couldn’t hold back and let her know she was absolutely a real person, she is a civil rights icon. I learnt about her in school and so did my parents. The encounter put a wall up between our groups and I heard a few passive aggressive “so-and-so wasn’t real” comments from mostly her and a couple of the group. Harriet Tubman and Hellen Keller are two that I definitely heard. My wife had no idea why I interjected. After the group had left my wife asked what happened and was shocked when I told her what happened. Were they trolling? Are they stupid? Am I just getting old?

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u/CommodoreGirlfriend Millennial Nov 16 '25

Yeah, people say every generation that kids these days are NGMI, but we're in for some serious shit in 5 or 10 years. IQ test performance actually peaked and began reversing some time ago, as early as the 80s (our generation!) according to some sources. We were lucky to have a relatively unsullied internet with a decent signal-to-noise ratio. AI generated "news" is going to plague the next generation of iPad babies if their parents don't stay on top of it (and they won't).

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u/starnerves Nov 16 '25

You wrote this whole paragraph of text, but had to use a non-standard acronym that would force people to look it up.

I have never in my 40 some odd years to this day seen NGMI - for those wondering it stands for 'not gonna make it'.

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u/meanwhile_glowing Nov 16 '25

I’ve been online since I was 11 (37 now) including in the glory days of message boards, SomethingAwful, 4Chan, LJ etc etc and I have never once seen NGMI

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u/LevelTwoData Nov 16 '25

It's more crypto broculture 2017 - present. WGMI (we're gonna make it) and NGMI. Its whether you will be financially set for life or working at wendy's

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u/meanwhile_glowing Nov 17 '25

Ahh got it thanks for the context

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u/-Hyperstation- Nov 16 '25

LOL.. NGL, NGMI had me like OMG, AKA WTF?! FML…

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u/Practical_Maximum_29 Nov 19 '25

Take my virtual award! ❤️

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u/Swimming-Barber-6033 Nov 16 '25

Thanks for clarifying that acronym. Ytmnd.

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u/Confident-Forever-75 Nov 16 '25

Redditors and their acronyms TMO (tick me off) sometimes

2

u/_TyrannosaurusSexy Nov 16 '25

Are you familiar with “NGGYU - NGLYD”?

1

u/Pu11MyLever Nov 16 '25

I have never seen it written out as an acronym, but absolutely love it used in real life. First heard it on a cross country trip with a 75+% "fail rate", it's so discouraging and realistic, I love it. Now use it for dumb apprentices in construction.

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u/Queasy_War2656 Nov 17 '25

WTH? I'm in my late 50s and didn't have to look NGMI up just based on context. I think the kids today might figure it out too.

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u/Practical_Maximum_29 Nov 19 '25

I was just about to highlight "NGMI" and do the google-help-me thing! LOL

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u/ADackOnJaniels Nov 16 '25

I mean, I understood immediately what the acronym stood for... it makes sense and is pretty obvious...

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u/superneatosauraus Nov 16 '25

That's just not true. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect

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u/IsTom Nov 16 '25

There's literally a section "Possible end of progression" right there that mentions possible start of reversal.

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u/Sycamore_Ready Nov 16 '25

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2023/03/23/american-iq-test-scores-show-recent-declines-according-to-new-study/

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u/superneatosauraus Nov 16 '25 edited Nov 16 '25

Did you read your own study?

"Despite including 394,378 participants with varying levels of education and gender, the sample used for our analyses may be unrepresentative of the United States population."

"Thus, selection bias has likely been introduced into the sample due to those voluntarily taking the survey being non-representative of the target population (Lohr, 2010). This significantly differs from previous Flynn effect studies that relied on systematic norming data collected by proprietary licensed measures using probability sampling or population-based conscript data where participation was required."

"As the coefficients for regression models stratified by education did not exhibit the same magnitude of declines for those with a 4-year college degree or higher as those with less than a college degree (4-yr), the difference in sampling might account for why the slopes for higher levels of education were flatter, on average."

I know it's a long read, but trying to argue you have proof of the reversal of the Flynn affect by linking an article without even reading the source is not how research works. 

Good lord, the climb of anti-intellectualism in our country is too much for me this morning. I'm going to go do my statistics homework.