Gen Z Separates Fantasy from Truth for Cultural Influencer, “Euphoria”

Whether it was nudity, drama, pill-popping, or watching your favorite adversity-ridden character make bad decisions, the second season of “Euphoria” has garnered millions of eyeballs and curious viewers to the series. Controversy remains, however, over how “Euphoria” influences and depicts Gen Z culture.

In its second season, “Euphoria” has continued to amass a wide and loyal following, becoming a cultural phenomenon. In fact, the HBO series, in its Season 2 finale, hit a series high, outperforming “Game of Thrones”, in viewership, and averaging 16.3 million viewers across the sophomore season.

The Zendaya starrer has not only made headlines, but also has created powerful cultural commentary. Euphoria has impacted everything from fashion and beauty, particularly the glitter-eye trend, to trauma in youth to its visual representation of the male body and male nudity.

Exemplary of one of “Euphoria’s” trends, particularly in relation to beauty and fashion, is the viral “When you’re leaving for school but forgot you to go to Euphoria high school” video on Tik Tok seen here or here.

These videos often begin with the Tik Tokers dressed for school in a typical outfit. Then the voice of an angry Squidward from “Spongebob Squarepants,” chimes in “Why aren’t you in uniform?”. The Tik Toker leaves the video and quickly reappears in a “Euphoria” themed outfit.

For one Tik Tok creator, Paloma Correa, 20, a university student in Rio de Janeiro, who goes by the Instagram name @PalomaPereira, recently had her own “Euphoria” video go viral.

“I realized that a lot of people were doing this Euphoria trend and I really liked it”, said Correa. “My friends usually say I am overdressed, even for simple occasions, so I used this opportunity to show my fashion sense and look for this trend. I feel good about getting myself overdressed and so the show became an inspiration for me”, revealed Correa, a major in architecture and urbanism.

Largely, these videos are often metacognitive: they coyly make fun of “Euphoria’s” overall dress by contrasting over-the-top, outlandish, and usually revealing fashion choices with usual, normal adolescent or young adult wear. The wink-heavy videos suggest there is a large difference between what is acceptable for school wear in “Euphoria” versus clothing permitted by school dress codes.

The Tik Tok creator, moreover, expanded on the series’ influence saying it “addresses universal topics. It has many similarities with real life struggles like societal pressure, drug abuse, and relationships… but people don’t normally go so sharp to college or school”. Additionally, the university student noted, “I remember everyone wanting a party or something that resembles the show when it launched, with those lights, glitter, and colors”.

Kimberly Gallardo, 20, a junior at Hunter College and current streamer of the series, similarly expressed that “Euphoria is very influential”. Like “Euphoria”, “outfits have been bright and colorful… before The Pandemic, it wasn’t like that… Euphoria… it just dominates fashion now.

However, questions continue to surround the legitimacy of “Euphoria’s” depictions.

Gallardo remarked that while she is “personally a drama gal”, she felt some themes were exaggerated, saying she “didn’t like how they are portraying drugs.”

Additionally, she confessed that she was “rooting for” the character Rue, “until she began abusing heroin”. Gallardo further claimed “some high school students smoked weed or had alcohol, but not as much hard drugs”.

Emilia González, 20, a Freshman at Hunter, said she really likes the show and “identified with Lexi despite her drug use. In the first season, the writing “normalize[s] drugs and recovery,” but sometimes felt the drug use “was too much.”

Yet, of more serious impact, youth-oriented shows like “Euphoria” have implications in mental health depiction of youth as well. Risk behavior, peer influence, bullying, and sensation-seeking, or seeking out activities that are exhilarating or exciting, are all subtopics that have been heavily researched among social scientists for many decades.

Reflecting personally, Correa revealed that “Euphoria” has “had a great impact even in my own life. I’ve already been in an abusive relationship, so I can relate to Maddy and her relation to Nate”. “I identify with the character Maddy and feel the characters are deep… the show really makes you think about those subjects and especially Gen Z life”, Correa explained.

The depiction of drug use, like other societal norms and cultural topics brought up in “Euphoria”, have been up for debate, especially in regards to the success of whether or not “Euphoria’ chooses to take more artistic license with its youth-in-society representations or has imbibed realistic depictions of youth in real society, contemporaneously.

A guide published by the National Institute on Drug Abuse revealed that “70 percent of high school students will have tried alcohol, half will have taken an illegal drug… and more than 20 percent will have used a prescription drug for a nonmedical purpose.”

The guide went on to explain that “there are many reasons adolescents use these substances, including the desire for new experiences, an attempt to deal with problems or perform better in school, and simple peer pressure”.

Recent research has also looked at the effects of “Euphoria” on the young generation as well. An analysis of 735 Reddit comments made by young Internet users found a mixture of positive and negative reactions to the show, its main character Rue, and the theme of substance use, in a 2021 study.

While the show created a space for discussion of mental health topics, with some users finding the show “realistic” or “relatable”, others often felt the series was “glorifying substance use”, with some users finding the series “triggering”.

Likewise, in mainstream media, “Euphoria” has not been devoid of cultural commentary and discussion. Hazel Cills, a music editor, discussed in an interview at NPR, explained “Euphoria” is Gen Z has seen artists of their own time, “ like Lil Peep and Juice WRLD struggle with their own addictions” and watched them “lose their lives to addiction”.

“Euphoria” has depicted many of these behaviors and its young characters’ experiences with sensation seeking throughout both seasons so far in the show. Though, again, the degree to which “Euphoria’s” representation of youth psychosocial experiences is accurate compared to real-life youth, especially to researchers in social sciences, continues to be up for debate.

However, “Euphoria” is not the only youth-centric series to be questioned for its depictions and representations. “Euphoria”, though targeted to the current generation, Gen Z, proceeds a long line of teen and young adult dramas that have littered the television landscape. Across time, there have been discussions, research, arguments, think pieces, and articles surrounding the controversial depictions of adolescents and young adults including this one.

Popular titles of adolescent and young-adult shows have included the likes of Freeform’s “Pretty Little Liars”, The CW’s “Gossip Girl”, and even further back to the nostalgic nineties, “Beverly Hills, 90210”. And interestingly, moreover, to note, all of these shows previously mentioned have or will have spin-offs arriving soon, and debate remains over the depiction of youth in the coming-of-age genre but for the current generation, Gen Z.

Usual or over-the-top, “Euphoria’s” influence, while highly debated, remains a strong cultural impact. In the words of Gallardo, “Euphoria” is a “drama-type show in glitter” and “aesthetic” - a sentiment to Gen Z’s current culture and place in time.