OK Boomer

[LDAHL]

I will admit I never heard that phrase until yesterday. My kid says it’s been around “forever”, which of course could be for anytime before last week.

Am I only viewing stodgy websites? It seems like an elegantly dismissive putdown/grievance shorthand phrase for the young against the less young.

[catherine]

Wow, I almost posted the same type of thing yesterday, when I came across Buzzfeed-type articles about "boomer culture" vs "millennial culture" and it clearly painted a picture of Boomers, not as the cool hippie/hip people we see ourselves as, but as out-of-touch geezers.

I do not feel like an out-of-touch geezer. I'm healthy, I'm working full time at a demanding job--which requires technology and, interestingly, a lot of these major differences I read about between boomers/millenials focus on technology aptitude.

But even my son who comes up a lot on weekends makes snide comments on our boomer tv-watching habits. Probably watching cable tv is by itself a Boomer/Geezer flag. I KNOW being on FB is a Boomer/Geezer flag.

You are exactly right. We entitled, free this-and-that, climate-crashing, war-protesting, civil-rights waging, post-war folk are being put out to pasture.

But I would like the few millennials on this site to weigh in.



https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/thes...uge-difference

[rosarugosa]

Do we even have any millennials on this site? I know we have some gen Xers, but not so sure about millennials.

[Alan]

I'd never seen this phrase before reading a Bloomberg article about it a few days ago. When I saw it here yesterday it made me think "Don't be jealous, you'll come into your own someday."

[Teacher Terry]

I knew it was a insult but wasn’t surprised from that poster. Like some of you here I am still working in a professional job part time.

[ApatheticNoMore]

But are Boomers even who people think they are, the unemployed 50 something who couldn't get a job to save their life due to age discrimination etc. and I know them. Yes they might very well be Boomers, but they might very well be Gen X at this point also.

Gen X never gets any love.

millennial culture is forcing yourself to take a sick day only when it’s clear that your body cannot function and then feeling guilty when you’re not working

uh, that's anyone who doesn't actually have sick days but it's not about guilt, take your guilt to your shrink because it's silly. But it's about FEAR, fear of getting in trouble for missing a day. Get back to me when you are a 50 something working gigs to survive how about? Because I know them too.

[JaneV2.0]

"Generation wars" remind me of "mommy wars"--both equally stupid and pointless.
If you don't like the way the country is headed (and I don't blame you), work to change it. We did.

[LDAHL]

Well, if it’s actually a generational war, my side is losing by attrition.

I suspect a lot of this stuff is just concocted by various belligerents within the confines of the chattering class. I’m not getting a sense of widespread resentment on either side, just grievance-mongering by people who feel it’s their job to report on trends even if they have to make them up. Mostly privileged people envious of somebody else’s privilege.

As my kid likes to say in a similar context: whatever.

[bae]

[ApatheticNoMore]

As my kid likes to say in a similar context: whatever.

Hmm, didn't know these kids were getting much of their language from their Gen X parents, whatever never mind.

Privileged seems to mean not homeless for the most part if suddenly now anyone and everyone is declared privileged. Because many people are probably BOTH privileged AND non-privileged, say they are the stereotypical struggling millennial, they may be privileged in having a degree say, and non-privileged in having a struggle finding any work making use of it.

The people who can't relate to non-privileged in ANY sense is who these things are meant to lampoon (only they don't get it's REALLY not an age thing, anyone who has an encounter with the job market since 2008 knows it's hard out there! If one was retired or had a steady job that might not be them but ...). And the people who are 100% non-privileged are just the poor who have always been with us, the U.S. has always had A LOT of poverty, it's really nothing new under the sun (there is more homelessness). But there are things you can't tell the young, like maybe they work precarious jobs and complain, and sure it sucks, but if they are young and healthy you can't tell them that they could be older, have health problems like say gout (real example), and still work precarious jobs and be going on and off health insurance ...

As for technology, I don't own a smart phone, I don't own a t.v., so I don't relate to either, guess I wouldn't.