Baby Boomers

About

Baby Boomers refers to the generation in between the Silent Generation and Generation X. They are generally understood to have been born shortly after World War II up through the late 1960s. They are coined "Baby Boomers" due to the high increase in birth rate, or "boom," following World War II. Online, they are well known for mocking and being mocked by Millennials, typically in regards to cultural differences, as well as their respective effects on society, media, and the environment.

History

The post-war baby boom was noticed as early as 1951^[1] by newspapers. Experts have narrowed the generation down to those born between 1946 and 1964. The generation is associated with privilege, having grown up in a booming post-war economy. They received peak levels of income and were able to spend much money on food, retirement programs, and "midlife crisis" products. Their attitude towards consumerism has been criticized as excessive by scholars. They also benefited from lower economic bars for entry to institutions such as college; since 1980, when most of the Boomer generation had graduated college, the price of college went up 600% (inflation adjusted). "Politically":**, Boomers tended to be radical in the 1960s during the Vietnam War era, but grew more conservative as they became the dominant voting block of the 1980s.

Online Presence

Since all Boomers were born and grew up without access to any sort of internet, there is not truly a coherent Boomer culture on the internet. However, Boomers have been very vocal in online op-eds in their disdain for Millennial culture; mainly describing them as lazy, entitled and narcissistic. In contrast, Millennials, and potentially members of Generation Z, openly ridicule and criticize Boomers for their supposed roles in the unsavory climate of the modern era.

Facebook Boomer Parody Group

On May 12th, 2019, a Facebook group named "A group where we all pretend to be boomers"^[3] was created. The rules involve posting in character only and limiting google search posts. The group gained over 63,700 members in a month and a half. On June 24th, @manhattanna^[2] tweeted, "joined that Facebook group where you can only talk like Boomers and I’m having the time of my life" attaching screenshots of their posts (shown below). The tweet garnered over 160,400 likes and 37,600 retweets in three days.

Related Memes

Shut the Fuck up, Boomer!

Shut the Fuck up, Boomer! refers to a series of deep fried image macros depicting members of the Boomer generation suffering some severe ailment, typically a heart attack, accompanied by the phrase, "shut the fuck up, boomer!"

Old Economy Steven

Old Economy Steven is an advice animal image macro series featuring a photograph of young man wearing a blue collared shirt with a 1970s haircut. The captions typically depict the man as being out-of-touch with the frustrations young people experience in the 21st century economic climate, including dealing with student loans, unemployment and rising housing costs. On May 10th, 2012, Redditor NewNormal submitted an image macro titled "Introducing Old Economy Steven… you know, your dad" to the /r/AdviceAnimals subreddit, which featured the photograph paired with the caption "Fails out of high school / Gets job, buys house, retires happy" (shown below, right). Prior to being archived, the post received over 10,600 up votes and 950 comments.

Millennials Are Killing…

Millennials Are Killing is a phrasal template used to mock various think-pieces and op-ed articles on the changing consumer habits of the Millennial generation and their allegedly negative impact on major industries and economic sectors that had once thrived during the latter half of the 20th century. A "Millennials are Killing X" trend piece generally involves a writer from the Boomer generation noting that millennials' financial situation (high student loans, lack of available, well-paying jobs) have made millennials unwilling or unable to spend as freely as their ancestors, and that this phenomenon is hurting either a specific industry or the American economy as a whole. Backlash to the trend began in 2013, notably with the response to Time Magazine's infamous Me Me Me Generation cover. Gothamist and The New York Times published articles compiling and criticizing Boomer pieces criticizing Millennials the same year.

SNAP! Yep, this one's Going in my Boomer Compilation

Yep, this one's Going in my Boomer Compilation refers to an image macro of Shrek holding a camera accompanied with the phrase, "SNAP! Yep, this one's Going in my Boomer Compilation." The image boomed in popularity after Your Voice^[1] host Bill Mitchell tweeted about how "#Sorosbots" were attacking his Twitter.^[2] Following this hundreds of other began posting the same image or variations of it.

Search interest

External References