Ok, Boomer

[chomalungma]

I have had to repeatedly tell DS that I am not a boomer. His Grandad is though.

I am with him though. He went through a whole litany of the issues facing his generation and what the older generation have benefited from.

He seems to have got some of the memes from 'Insta'.

Anyone else got a child who uses this phrase?

It's glib and unfunny. Especially considering that the users are often kids who've contributed very little to the world around them .

Boomers are anyone a generation older than these Gen Z kids. They don’t recognise the whole post war baby boom, they’ve just hijacked the term.

I just say it back to mine when they bitch about the ‘unbearable Yr 7s’

Ok Boomer the meme isn't used to only mean baby boomers, it's used as an umbrella term to anyone saying stuff like "in my day....". Or "when I was a kid...."

It's used as a lighthearted joke to all ages, I've seen as many 20 year olds have "ok boomer" said/posted in response as I have actual baby boomers.

Boomer isn't the first and wont be the last word to be used differently by the younger generations. There's a lot of youtubers jokingly calling themselves boomers when they've hit 30.

Exactly. We used to wind our parents up by saying cars still needed a man walking in front with a red flag.

you lot are awful sensitive susies, it’s the exact same as calling them millennials or zoomers

“ Boomers are anyone a generation older than these Gen Z kids”

Hence calling a millennial a boomer

Madness!

And I can't help but laugh a little bit when I people complain about how the young use word boomer in a meme because "boomer meant people born in the 50s when I was growing up" type way as the very "in my day" comments are what the "ok boomer" is in response to.

My dd is 14 and she's just told me she was called a boomer by a y7 when she was comparing about the lunchtime question being much worse now she's in y10

@SwedishEdith. “ Exactly. We used to wind our parents up by saying cars still needed a man walking in front with a red flag.”

Ooh what’s that about?

It’s now being stretched to include much much younger people?

I don't think many of the people who use this phrase actually know where the word 'boomer' comes from. They just use it indiscriminately towards anyone they perceive as old and out of touch.

It really wouldn't bother me, because I have no idea what a baby boomer, millennial, generation XYZ is. I'm guessing it means that someone is old and out of touch.

I can see it sticking. If you don’t know what the term originally meant, it kind of implies someone with a big voice but nothing of substance to say, which is how kids always see older people. Boom boom boom.

Cross posted not David

Red flag man.

@SwedishEdith. Thanks

I can’t believe I’ve never seen that in a film or anything

I also can’t believe I’m still lurking on MN at midnight trying to get my head round 14 year olds being called boomers while also wondering if I’ve got Charli XCX on too loud....I think it’s time for this “no idea which gen I am” to have a vodka and go to bed 😂

I honestly think its weird divisive language though.

It's being used and referenced in Ireland even though we didn't actually HAVE a post WW2 baby boom; our birth rate and population plummeted through emigration. Our history is quite different as a result. So I can't get past the ignorance of the fundamentals. It's just ageism though, glib and stupid.

I actually think there's less generational antagonism between gen X and gen z than there is between boomers and millennials, although that might be because they're not making as much noise as millennials yet. The flippant dismissive phrase used by people who don't actually give a fuck whether it's accurate or not but they just say it because they think it's funny - come on, that's learned behaviour from children of the nihilist generation.

@Berwick. Which is the “nihilist” generation?!!

It was funny for a couple of days. Anyone using it now just displays a real lack of originality.

Anyone saying it to me will get a swift kick up the arse and an invitation to move out, get their own place and pay their own bills

I wish I was a fucking boomer, I might have a decent pension then.

@AutumnRose1 gen X were referred to as nihilistic when younger - born into the cold war with the constant threat of nuclear destruction, became sexually active at the height of the AIDS epidemic, entered the workforce at a time of global economic downturn and casualisation of labour. I think there's more understanding of the challenges facing young people though as a result, compared to those in the immediate post war generation.

It’s the latest bitter little meme being pushed by the left to divide people. Unsurprisingly, it’s designed to act as a substitute for an argument, since that might require some actual thought...

I hate the boomer thing as according to the rules I fall into that category. However, I have no private pension or investments , have to work til I am 67, never have holidays and still have a mortgage. V irritating

@Blibbyblobby that's not what it originally meant. In much of the world there was a post war baby boom (ie more babies being born). For decades, people born in the years following the end of the 2nd World War were referred to as being part of the baby boom generation.

I'm autistic so very literal and pedantic. I've wasted far too much time over the last few weeks insisting to my teenage dd that I'm too young to be a boomer.

I like the line about Obama being a boomer. Might nick that one.

Although baby boomers are blamed by kids for screwing up the world, if my maths is right, they would have been the ones to protest against the Vietnam War, fight for civil rights in the US, been at Stonewall, campaign for Women's Liberation etc etc.

Seems a bit silly to over generalise and lump a load of people together on the basis of their age.

"Maybe ‘boomers’ behave in certain ways because of the time/circumstances/political landscape/etc they grew up in, y’know like every generation ever." quoted from another post discussing the term.
it just exudes a lack of awareness to the politics of the time (or any time other than their own).
if any of mine should choose to spew that drivel maybe a few documentaries would help them "understand" along with some non biased research.