Boomers and their video calling obsession?

[Finlesswonder]

Anyone else noticed this? Work and family members, if they're a boomer then 9 times out of 10 they try to video call you. I think they discovered this during lockdown and have now become obsessed
I'm a millennial btw

Well given the term refers to an enormous and massively diverse group of people, with the only commonality being they are somewhere between the age of 60 and 78, I'm not sure I particularly feel the need for a collective term at all. But if I did need to place my 77 year old retired father in law, (who spends his days gardening and fishing) in the same group as my 60 year old CEO (who spends hers running our national organisation) in some sort of group, I suppose 'people over 60' would work.

Yes. It's generally used on here as a negative slur.

Why wouldn't she be serious? As far as I'm concerned, there are children and adults, that's it, and neither are an homogeneous mass. I wouldn't dream of referring to myself as "Generation Z" which I apparently am, it all sounds ridiculous.

Incidentally, literacy problems or not, voice notes in group chats like the class WhatsApp should be a hanging offence.

@Finlesswonder Surely, seeing as those you're referring to are in their mid to late 60's, there's not many 'boomers' at work video calling you. Why would anyone, no matter their age, video call during working hours unless it was company policy.

I am 68, so one of your target age, and I have never video called anyone. We are older than you, that's all, we don't form a homogenous mass once we reach our 60's.

This comment says it all really. It's sounds as though you barely think of "them" as human. I suggest you use the word colleagues and stop trying to "other" people. You sound quite unpleasant, prejudiced and unprofessional to say nothing of immature. Glad I don't work with you.

Gen X here. And no, none of the boomers in my life have ever video called me, for any reason.

Indeed. As a 65 year old, I want neither video nor phone calls, thanks. Messages and texts do me fine.

I agree and VoiceNotes are intensely irritating for reasons mentioned by pp above.

Lots of people like voice notes so they’re not inconvenient for ‘everyone’. 🙄 I have 2 voice notes from a friend that died and I’m very happy I can listen to them. She always sent her adult kids silly voice notes and they cherish them now.

I don’t think people’s methods of communication has to be so controversial. I’m generally happy if someone wants to contact me in any way, it means I’m important enough to them to think about and want to chat to or share something with, whether that’s a call, video calls, text, voice note.

I was born in 1970 (so Labelled as Gen Z). I can't stand video calls, SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter (or whatever it is called now).

With few exceptions, none of my friends video call. Many of them use some weird combination of messaging, but they all abide by the rules that the urgency of the thing they want to say to me dictates the medium they use. If it's urgent, they phone. If they don't need an immediate reply, they message or email for me to reply as and when.

My mother, oddly, has decided to only communicate via text message. We tried video calls during covid, but not very successfully.

I echo the whole 'voice note' thing. Whoever thought they were a good idea? For anyone interested, there is an app you can get that removes all the space in the message where the transmitter is not speaking. This is very useful as you can cut out all the pauses and speed up the message to get to the point.

double down, why don't you, OP?

"them"? how about something like "does it annoy you when someone video calls you instead of sending a text?" would have done very nicely.

You're talking nonsense OP.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1254856/mobile-video-calling-age-gender-distribution/

Well my boomer mum will be gone in a few months so she can face time me all she likes.

It also suggests the OP thinks everyone she is addressing on MN (we) is the same generation as her.

Which is hilarious given how many fellow over 60 year olds (them) I encounter here!

So sorry Sourisblanche x
I hope you get the best possible time with her in the time you have left.

DD loves a voice note too.

@Sourisblanche 💐I’m so sorry xx

i suppose to a lot of younger people us olds (over 60s) are just ancient old crones waiting to die or something.

The reality is of course very diverse and very different. And not forgetting that some of us (I claim very early Gen X as i have much more in common with them than the whole generation before me - it would put me in the same category as my mum who is 80) were the original punks, used the original desktop computers etc etc. We literally grew up with the changing technology. Most of us aren't sitting, slack jawed in nursing homes pining for Vera Lynn. Even though that is how a lot of people imagine us.

I’m a millennial and the only people over 60 (apart from work colleagues) who call me are my parents or in-laws. How many people over 60 are calling you in order for you to extrapolate that judgement across the whole of the over 60 population?!

I’m Gen X. Prefer video call at work because I can record it, and I like to see who I’m talking to. Despise voice notes. Prefer video call with friends if there’s a group, prefer phone (landline if possible) otherwise.
No baby boomer I know likes to video call.

My boomer mother can barely answer the phone. She uses an old iPhone 10 that my (silent gen) Dad bought before he died. If I tried FaceTiming her all I’d get is a good view up her nostrils whilst she peered over her glasses at the screen!

as an aside, apparently I’m a millennial (I’m 40) and I’d just rather people didn’t contact me at all if I’m quite honest.

I don’t deny boomer I’d being used as a negative slur by some, but I wasn’t aware it was. I knew ‘ok boomer’ was negative, but I didn’t realise boomer or baby boomer were negative if used to describe people. I’m not from the U.K. though so I appreciate I may have missed this.

Are other terms like gen x used offensively too? Or is it just boomer with people being ageist? When I was at university, lecturers used the term baby boomers, would that not be ok now? Is ‘boomer’ ever ok?

Well based on the OP doubling down and argumentative and very goady replies she knew exactly what she was posting.

Bored?

I'm a boomer, and the only person I Facetime is my elderly mum! And she started it.

@HappiestSleeping I had to look this up, but born in 1970 is Gen X.

I'm 48 and last year I dated a guy 20+ years younger (Gen Z). I don't think much about age and certainly never in terms of generations but I guess started paying attention because of the age gap. The stereotypes do seem to be a pile of nonsense.

We both found them irritating but interestingly, he adopted my habit of ignoring media as much as possible. Says it's done him a lot of good.

Tbh I forget about ageism apart from MN. I don't do video calls btw.