Earlier this week, I wrote a post that rounded up the responses of teachers on Reddit sharing what the new social cliques in school are. Well, our very own commenters — who are teachers and students! — came through with some new info on these new cliques.
Times have changed and it's a lot, so I hope you're ready. Here's what they said:
1."I feel like in my school there are two types of popular: 'sporty boys' and 'TikTok girl,' who tend to be the meaner of the two types of popular and think they're better than everyone else."
2."Some cliques are: baddie girls and skater boys, the wannabe baddies, the cool soccer girls, the Trumpers, and basic girls who drive to lunch every day."
3."The basic white boys who moan constantly, the TikTok girls, the anime girls, the raging liberals, the raging conservatives, the misogynists, the gays, the theater kids, the furries, and lastly, the ones who just read in every class."
4."There are fewer cliques, but we have the TikTok-obsessed volleyball players with bleached blonde hair or highlights — who usually are pretty awful — and the nicer, popular people. Really anyone can be popular, but a lot revolves around your social media following."
5."I teach at a predominately Black high school, and the best clique I've seen develop over the years is what I like to call the 'Cool Black Anime Fanboys.' When I was in high school, boys used to get made fun of for watching anything other than Dragon Ball Z, especially in the Black community. Now it's so refreshing to see some of the 'toughest'-looking Black dudes in heated debate over the top 10 anime fights of all time or which series goes the hardest. I love to see their passion."
7."Current student here. There are lots of kids at my school who talk about stocks, taxes, and politics. Teens today are just really into real world-type stuff."
10."We have the vapers, the misogynists, the problematic Trump supporters, the nice popular girls, the constantly suspended students, the out LGBTQ+ people, and then there's everyone else."
11."As a middle school teacher, I see that so many of the kids are a mixture. We have cheerleaders, who play basketball and are in band. We have football players, who are lead actors in school plays or lead singers in choir. K-pop is super popular across the board, as is social media and YouTube. And they all want to do well at school. Plus, for most, they see the importance of being kind."
12."Jocks (super athletics), nerds (Harry Potter, anime and manga, video games, etc.), social media-obsessed kids (all want to be famous), the shy and withdrawn kids, and the daters (always in a relationship)."
13."According to my teenage son's school update last night, there are now only two groups: those who will pull down their masks to 'mack on each other' in the stairwell and those who won't."
14."There’s a little bit of a divide with the sporty kids and the non-sporty kids, but everyone still mingles together and gets along. Nobody’s really 'uncool' in my son's middle school."
15."There are the floaters, who jump around different groups but don't stay long. There are also the lone wolves, who are kinda just in their own world, who occasionally interact with other students, but just don't generally socialize like other kids. Cliques have evolved from being tight and harsh to being loose and accepting."
16."Yeah, I mean there are still cliques, but as a Gen Z high school senior myself, I find that our generation is more concerned with who they are, rather than who their friends are. We all have our own thing and just hang out with people who might fall into one or two of our interests. Your friends are just friends, rather than a total reflection of the things you identify with."
