Not only do the older generations feel the sting of the generation gap, but Gen Zs get dragged in as well. A young soldier in California could not help but express her utter confusion when she encountered a gas pump that looked like it had time-traveled straight out of a museum.
“Please tell me I’m not stupid,” the officer whose uniform displayed the name tag Lopez said in a video posted on TikTok. “I’m trying to pump gas, but the gas… like this is not a button,” she explained, turning the camera to the gas pump she was referring to. As she tried to tap on everything on the pump in case that was her potential solution, she got more confused. The officer read every instruction she could see out loud in a bid to understand it better. After a few moments, clearly frustrated, Officer Lopez decided to go in to ask for help.
Soon she returned with a station personnel member who walked her through the steps. “Because these things were built like when Reagan was in office,” they explained. “Oh!” the soldier exclaimed, experiencing a eureka moment. The staff admitted that they had seen many people get confused with the pump as well. “Wow, so I’m just an idiot,” the soldier said as she recounted the steps to the camera. After she was done pumping the gas, she muttered to herself while getting into her car, “We did it, guys! Hope that doesn’t signal I’m Gen Z too much.”
The clip quickly went viral and sparked several comments on the internet. “Mind you, she’s supposed to protect us 😂😂😂😂😂😂,” someone joked. A few more echoed the same sentiment, writing, “And she’s supposed to protect this country, y’all,” and another added. “And THIS is who we have to look forward to defending our country??????” A TikToker pointed out the irony, “When she said ‘an old gas pump,’ but the numbers are digital.” The jokes kept rolling. “If it were only written somewhere, like next to the handle? Clearly marked 😂,” a netizen teased, and another chimed in, “I am going to quote Kennedy on this one. ‘She is the reason there are instructions on the shampoo bottle😂.’”
Others, however, stood up for the officer. “Some people may never understand how drastically things have changed in the last 40 years,” one user noted. While another echoed, “That’s not on you, it’s not from your generation. Every pump you’ve ever seen, those didn’t move, so it makes sense not to try that as an option,” before adding, “I’m proud of you for asking instead of driving to a different gas station though!” Another TikToker defending the soldier wrote, “I don’t care that she can’t pump gas. I DO care that she CAN do her job…”
It’s hard not to agree that being a good soldier has almost nothing to do with pumping gas!
