If you want to know what generation someone belongs to, just watch how they act on TikTok. In late April 2025, videos showcasing generational social media tells “tells”—small, almost subconscious behaviors tied to Gen X, millennials, Gen Z, and now Gen Alpha—started trending. The latest addition is the “Gen Alpha cough”: a raspy, open-mouth cough directly into the camera. It joins the now-canonical “millennial pause” and “Gen Z shake” as a generational signature that TikTok users are mocking and celebrating in equal parts.
What is the Gen Alpha cough?
According to the trend, the Gen Alpha cough is open-mouthed and is as raspy and harsh as the cough of a six-pack-a-day smoker. These kids hack with their mouths exposed and pointed at the camera so we can see down to their tonsils.
This behavior was associated with young children long before TikTok or Gen Alpha came along. Little kids need to be taught the courtesy of covering their mouths when they cough, as most of us do. Before they’re able to grasp this concept, they’re liable to cough their germs directly into your face.
As the generation in question reached the age to be allowed on TikTok, it seems that at least some of them never ended up learning to cover their coughs.
As the youngest generation to get shade from others online (aside from a brief assault on Gen Beta), most of the flak they get is about their age and immaturity. At the same time, Gen Alpha bore the worst of growing up through the COVID-19 pandemic. Their time attending virtual classes or wearing masks to school may have interrupted their mouth-covering education.
‘Millennial pause + Gen Z shake + Boomer confusion + Gen Alpha cough’
@travass_ Revised version #GenAlpha #GenZ #millennial #boomer ♬ original sound – Trav 🤪
Starting in late April, TikTok videos showing each generation’s TikTok quirk in succession started going viral. On April 24, 2025, user @travass_ demonstrated four of these in a post that gained over 2.7 million views.
The next day, user @mcl0vinprime grabbed 2.4 million views with a similar video that added a fifth identifier, completing the generational line between Alpha and Boomer. These five markers can be defined as follows:
@mcl0vinprime peace out at the end too #fyp #genzshake #millenialpause #boomerconfusion #genxgrease #genalphacough ♬ original sound – 爱
- Gen Alpha cough: An uncovered, open-mouth cough into the camera.
- Gen Z shake: Starting the video before you settle the camera, causing the screen to shake in the beginning.
- Millennial pause: A telltale second or two of dead air before the TikToker starts talking.
- Gen X grease: A greasy camera lens resulting in blurring and light tracers.
- Boomer confusion: A moment of uncertainty as the user makes sure they’re using the tech correctly.
“Gen X grease” is the most obscure, but TikTok commenters seem to agree that failure to clean off the camera lens is their flaw. Most videos in this genre, however, leave off that one and stick with the four most well-known identifiers. The trend is already expanding to reference other memes.
For example, on April 27, user @katrinquinn took the four of them (changing Boomer confusion to the Boomer angle) and did an Avatar: The Last Airbender bit.
Origins of the Gen Alpha cough
The origins of the Gen Alpha cough go back to the days when they were called iPad kids. In 2021, TikTok videos mocking children who spend all day staring at their portable screens were a common sight. Adults would imitate small children hanging out in awkward positions, eating snacks, and coughing on the iPad while watching children’s programming.
This trend endured until the open-mouth cough became strongly associated with Gen Alpha. TikToker @thejarrodbenson went viral multiple times in 2024 with his videos about these kids, with many of them featuring the cough. One entry from Dec. 30, 2024, racked up 2.5 million views in just under four months.
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