Ah yes, the internet strikes again with a new meme/insult: “Ok Boomer”. As you would imagine this phrase is directed towards baby-boomers. It’s a condescending remark directed towards baby boomers as many millennials and Gen Z children haven’t always had the best experience when it comes to dealing with older people. Obviously, we (I’m apart of Gen Z) do love our parents and grandparents, but there are times when we get tired of them telling us what to do all the time.
Case in point, my friends and I were collecting old electronics in a gated neighborhood for charity, and an old lady threatened to call the security guards on us. This was scary for us, but our friend who lived in the neighborhood assured us that we were doing nothing wrong. It’s also worth noting that baby-boomers like to make fun of millennials for being soft, or lazy.
As harmless and shallow as this remark may seem, there actually is some depth to it. There is a consensus among younger generations such as millennials that baby-boomers are making life worse for millennials. An example of this would be job-seeking, although the national unemployment rate is at a low 4.9% , the unemployment rate among millennials is 12.9%. This is shocking considering that millennials are one of the most educated generations in American history, more than baby boomers, according to Pew Research. Steven Brill, a lawyer and author, wrote a detailed piece titled “How Baby Boomers Broke America”. In this piece, Brill notes how many baby boomers used Meritocracy for their own self-benefit. As I was reading it, it seemed obvious that greed and profit has led to many problems in our generations: creating risky financial instruments, fighting against protective regulation, and other profit driven actions hurt most Americans rather than helping them.
Chloe Swarbrick, a 25 year old New Zealand lawmaker that was advocating for a climate change bill that would reduce carbon emissions, even used the phrase in response to heckling from the opposing side. In her speech, she even said “My generation and the generation after me do not have that luxury”, where she was referring to later generations not being able to live out the same lifestyle that older generations did due to climate change instigated by those same older generations. She makes a great point about how these older generations making important political decisions, especially on climate change, won’t have to live with these consequences but younger generations have to live with them. It almost seems like that the older generation only cares for themselves and not other generations.
Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i7LQEsVhjA
Greta Thunberg, a 16 year old climate activist, gave a speech in front of world leaders where she called them out for “[stealing] her childhood dreams”. Similar to Swarbrick, Thunberg criticized the world leader’s leniency on carbon emissions and potentially ruining the earth for future generations to live on. This is just one of numerous examples of Generation Z children’s resentments towards baby-boomers.
At the end of the day, these baby boomers are our parents and grandparents, and it’s not like they hate us or anything. Most of these older generations have a lot kindness and warmth embedded in them. It is true that they have made some elements of our world worse for younger generations, and they love poking fun at millennials. However, it would be ignorant to presume that baby boomers are the sole reason for most millennials’ problems. We all need to take more accountability in our lives and improve ourselves for the better. We should not have to live with our parent’s mistakes but if we did we can fix them rather than point the finger and complain. As a member of Generation Z, we are the future, and we can impact the world just as much, maybe even more, than the baby boomers have but in a more positive way.
I may have over-analyzed the meaning of “Ok Boomer” and it’s significance but “Ok Boomer” is really just something that young people use to respond to or poke fun at older people. Sometimes it’s not even older people that are targeted with this phrase, people that are resistant to change or are strictly traditional may also here “Ok Boomer” from younger kids here and there. However, the fact that this phrase went viral and is used by a lot of young people shows how out of touch each generation is with each other.
Sources:
https://time.com/5280446/baby-boomer-generation-america-steve-brill/
How Millennials today compare with their grandparents 50 years ago
https://www.forbes.com/sites/larryalton/2016/12/22/millennials-are-struggling-to-get-jobs-heres-why-and-what-to-do-about-it/#22df10224bb0
https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/06/asia/new-zealand-ok-boomer-trnd/index.html
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/23/763452863/transcript-greta-thunbergs-speech-at-the-u-n-climate-action-summit
This simple phrase has definitely been blown up in the media. Originally, this phrase was created as a snapback to the insults commonly heard by Millenials and Gen Z about their progressive lifestyle and trends. The tweet you included blows the matter way out of proportion, this phrase is nowhere near as sensitive a subject or as harsh as the one in comparison. “Boomer” is not tied to any harsh events and is not of malicious intent. I do not believe the phrase was generally meant to be tied to the condition in which Boomers left America, but maybe it was a background thought in its creation. There may be a bit of bad blood between generations but I agree that blame does no good, although, I don’t think that “Boomer” is meant for assigning blame either. It does indicate a disconnect between generations though – but is that disconnect any different than any any others between generations?
Great choice of topic, the new meme is brilliant. I loved your approach to this topic, by picking apart the reason for it, rather than attempting to create a meaning for it. Each person has their own opinion on Ok, Boomer… Some people take it way too far, yet I enjoyed the way you analyzed it and overall gained a better grasp on the reason for this meme coming into fruition. Thank you for this knowledge that I didn’t even know that I needed!
I’ve heard many people say that the boomers of the “okay, boomer” meme are simply definied by and old mindset (not necessarily age), which seems to hold true to the original spirit of the phrase. It doesn’t appear to indiscrimitely attack those between the ages of 55 and 75 (what a weirdly specific insult that would be), rather, the air of righteousness, privlege, and know-it-all-ness that older people GENERALLY believe they’ve earned just for being alive for a long time. It’s a culmination of continually being told to “respect your elders” in the face of the consequential damages they caused. More on your specific point, boomers have done a lot of harm to the future generations which has allowed them to become of the entitlement joke, but I do not believe there was malicious intent behind every misstep, nor is it practical to hate an entire generation of people (~77 million in the US alone).
Overall, I love the analytical approach you took to such a silly meme and the importance you assigned to the topic within the ideas of climate change.
As a person who doesn’t fancy internet trends that much, I admit that this phrase piqued my interest. Us young people have gotten used to older generations disregarding our lifestyle; just think about the last time that you heard something similar to “millenials are ruining America.” It’s about time that we prepared a response. Justttt kidding; we shouldn’t discount someone just because of their age because we invite the same judgement for ourselves. It’s true that someone’s age is a good indicator for their political/religious leanings but we still should value their opinions. Unlike what some people may believe, they are still a vital part of our society and we also need them to fix the issues typically seen as facing our generation.