Father highlights generational divide in eye-opening clip: ‘This is how you know you’re getting old’

If you were asked to mimic answering a phone call, what exactly would you do with your hand?

That’s the question one father has presented to social media — and the mixed responses are highlighting a clear generational divide.

Daniel Alvarado, a New York City-based aircraft engineer and father of two, shared a clip of himself on TikTok asking both his wife and their two children, Daniella and Kamilo, to “pretend they’re talking on the phone” using a hand gesture.

While Alvarado’s wife holds up her hand in the classic thumb-and-pinky-out, three-center-fingers-down phone to mimic the silhouette of a landline telephone, both of the couple’s kids hold their palms flat to their faces, mimicking the shape of a smartphone.

“This is how you know you’re getting old,” Alvarado says in his video, which has since been viewed over 2 million times. “This is for my ’70s, ’80s and ’90s babies.”

@guesswho_718

Even the hand gesture game has changed @kamilo.ny @guesswhos_wifey @itz_daniella12 #LaughPause #dadsoftiktok #momsoftiktok #over30 #kids #fyp

♬ original sound – guesswho_718

TikTokers across multiple generations were quick to comment on the video to express exactly where they stood on the phone-miming spectrum.

“I’m born in 1998 which is that awkward year where I do these old hand gestures but never actually used the object itself,” wrote one user. “We’re the middle child.”

“I never thought of it that way. My kids asked me why I made a circle to get the car next to me to put down their window,” said another, presenting a similar comparison between automatic and manual car windows.

“I realized my son doesn’t know why I say ‘hang up the phone,'” shared a third.

“I don’t like this, nope not one bit,” simply put another user.

Last month, two teenagers sparked a similar generational debate online after admitting to their lack of 2000s pop music knowledge in a now-viral TikTok video.

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