Gen Zers are starting to feel old after watching Gen Alpha girls try and figure out how to operate a CD

• Three Gen Alpha tweens went viral on TikTok for struggling to remove a CD from its case.
• Some Gen Z commenters wrote that watching the clip made them feel old.

Gen Z viewers said they felt old after watching a group of Gen Alpha tweens struggling remove a CD from its case in a viral TikTok video.

On October 28, a TikTok user whose name is Shannon according to their TikTok bio shared a video with an on-screen caption that read "Baby Swifties learning what a CD is …"

The clip showed three tweens sitting around a CD case for "1989 (Taylor's Version)," the re-recorded version of Taylor Swift's 2014 album which was released on October 27.

The young fans could be seen struggling to remove the CD from its case, appearing to be unfamiliar with the packaging.

"It's not coming out," one of the girls said, shortly before another managed to remove the CD from the case by pressing down on the plastic circle in the center of the disc.

The TikTok received 2.4 million views, and many commenters appeared to be surprised that the girls were so unfamiliar with how CDs worked.

A number of commenters said that watching the clip made them feel old, including those who specified that they were within a Gen Z age bracket.

"I feel old and I'm only 17," a comment with over 27,000 likes read.

"I'm 18 and I feel 80," one user wrote, while another commented, "I know I'm only 14 but even I grew up with cd and cassettes."

The TikTok also appears to have caught the attention of Taylor Swift herself, as the 33-year-old singer's official TikTok account shared a comment on the post that read, "Wait this is amazing."

In another TikTok posted the following day, the three girls could be seen confused by trying to place the CD in a CD player, pressing buttons and discussing how to get the music to play.

In a follow-up TikTok video posted by the same user on October 31, the three girls said that they were between the ages of 11 and 12 which puts them in the Gen Alpha age group, according to dates from the Australian research firm McCrindle, founded by demographer Mark McCrindle, who popularized the term.

In response to questions they were being asked by a person behind the camera, the tweens shared in the video that they had previously known what CDs were but had very limited experience with using them. For example, one of the girls said that she did watch DVDs when she was younger, but her dad would operate them for her.

In another clip shared on TikTok later that same day, Shannon teased the beginning of another challenge she had set the Gen Alpha tweens… tackling a vinyl record.

"...more coming soon!" a caption on the post read.