There’s an emerging trend among American Gen Zers and Millennials where they are moving away from responding with “You’re welcome” after receiving thanks. While older generations might interpret this shift as a sign of a decay in manners, many young people view responses like “OK” or “Mm-hmm” as more courteous than the traditional “You’re welcome.”
The change may signal that the younger generations are actually kinder than the older ones. Simply put, the difference suggests that older people think help is a gift you give, while younger people think help is an expectation required of them.
This change in manners has caused a debate in the States, and the cultural shift has also led to some discussions abroad. Recently, there has been a considerable debate on TikTok, where non-Americans, especially those in Europe, see the change as rude.
Earlier this year, Australian YouTuber and content creator Georgia McCudden shared a clip (which has since been removed) depicting an experience with a server during her visit to the U.S.
In the video, McCudden recounts that she thanked a restaurant employee who handed her ketchup, to which the server replied, “Mmhmm.” She was baffled by the response, saying, “I was like, ‘I beg your f**king pardon,’” she said in the clip. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know that was a big ask.”
An American responded to McCudden’s original post, reassuring her that the server wasn’t being rude at all. The exchange was just a cultural misunderstanding.
@clockforaheart #stitch with @Georgia also this is a good verison of nonamericans teasing americans besides the usual stuff they say
A TikTokker named Arjuna hopped into the discussion with a post that described the “You’re welcome” phenomenon in America, and he must have done an excellent job because it’s received nearly a million views.
He captioned the clip: “I promise you Americans are actually very polite!!!”
“Someone went viral earlier this week for saying that Americans don’t say ‘you’re welcome’ in customer service situations,” Arjuna said. “I’m not here to sh*t on them, but I do want to explain for non-Americans why we don’t really say ‘you’re welcome’ and why ‘you’re welcome’ feels a little outdated to a lot of Americans.”
@superdesidrinks i promise you americans are actually very polite !!! #usa #american #thankyou #yourewelcome #english
Then, he laid out the “American” logic for the change.
“Let’s say I’m a cashier at a fast-food restaurant, and they hand someone their food, and they say ‘thank you,’ to a lot of Americans, for us to say ‘you’re welcome’ has the mindset of like ‘Oh, yeah, we just did something big for you.’ Like, it has this implication of ‘I know, you should be thanking me,’” Arjuna said.
He adds that saying “you’re welcome” after completing a small task that’s part of their job “seems way too intense for that.” That’s why he says younger Americans prefer to respond with an “uh-huh,” ‘no problem,” or “don’t worry about it.”
Arjuna did add one caveat where “you’re welcome” would be an appropriate response to a “thank you.”
“But if I donated a kidney to someone, and then they came up to me and were like ‘thank you’ then I’d be like ‘yeah, you’re welcome,'” he said.