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baby boomers

Pop Culture

Younger people are admitting baby boomers got these 17 things right

"Kids shouldn't be on phones or iPads all the time. It makes them weird."

via Christian Buehner/Unsplash

Baby boomers didn't get everything wrong.

In recent years, baby boomers have often been the target of criticism from younger generations. The most common accusations are that boomers are selfish and don’t care about leaving ample resources (whether financial or environmental) to subsequent generations.

They also come under fire for not being able to acknowledge that it was easier for people of their generation to come of age when things were more affordable and life was a lot less competitive.

However, we should also understand that many of today’s problems are not the boomers’ doing, especially when it comes to the issues that stem from entitled children and technology run amok. In hindsight, there’s something to be said about the importance that boomers placed on self-reliance, letting kids be kids and having a healthy skepticism towards technology.

In the end, each generation contributes to the tapestry of society in its unique way, whether good or bad, even baby boomers. This became evident after a Reddit user named Youssef4573 asked the AskReddit subforum: ‘What is something you can say ‘I'm with the boomers on this one’ about?” Over 4,700 people responded to the prompt, and the most prevalent problems mentioned by the younger generations were overreliance on technology, the modern world’s lack of human touch and how Gen Xers and millennials have raised their children.

Here are 17 things that younger people are “with the boomers” about.

1. Public filming

"Just because I’m in public doesn’t mean I want to be filmed. Yeah, I know legally you can, but common courtesy people." — Jayne_of_Canton

2. Customer service

"I want to talk to a person in customer service, not a machine." — lumpy_space_queenie

"And also a person that actually works at the company I bought the product from, not a teenager at an outsourced call center with a script to follow and who answers calls for 15 different companies on the same day." — Loive.

3. Turn up the dialog

"For the love of all that is holy, can we fix the audio in movies so that the music and sound FX aren’t drowning out the dialogue?" — Caloso

"And the action sequences don’t burst your eardrums or the dialogue is whispers." — Whynottry-again

4. Bring back buttons

"No, I don't need everything in my car to be electronic. Some stuff needs buttons." — LamborghiniHEAT

"This was the big thing for me in my last car - trying to adjust volume or change songs while driving is way more dangerous when it’s all touch screen. Thankfully my current car has physical knobs for everything." — GeekdomCentral

5. App overload

"Every store/service does not need an app." — BigDigger324

"I was standing at a car rental counter at an airport (boomer here) to rent a car. My daughter’s car broke down on the way to pick me up. While standing at the counter, with a customer service rep right there and not busy, I had to log in to their site, create an account, and reserve a car. It seemed ridiculous and it took a long time, filling in my license information and all that. This was last September." — Cleanslate

6. Bring back DIY

"Learning DIY skills is crucial. I had basically zero DIY skills when I bought my house because I had lived in apartments for so long and I've had to learn a lot. YouTube tutorials are absolutely clutch." — JingleJongleBongle

7. Turn off the speakerphone

"I hated this when I worked at Walmart. So many of my coworkers would talk on speaker or watch TikTok at full volume. It's just trashy imo, nobody wants to hear your media." — WhiteGuy1x

"I work at an emergency medical office and holy sh*t the amount of people that sit in a quiet, peaceful lobby and just have the LOUDEST conversations on their phone…. Speaker or otherwise. Not to mention the people that still watch sh*t without headphones. Like do you not see the plethora of other people around you that you’re disturbing?" — Cinderpuppins

8. Ban QR code menus

"I think menus should be tangible." — Limp-Management9684

"QR codes kill the vibe. We’re all on our phones constantly throughout the day and then when you go to spend some quality time with someone, it’s another excuse to whip out the phone and stare at it. There’s an intimacy to a physical menu. You’re looking at what the other person is reading, you’re each pointing to parts of the menu. You’re noticing the lighting of the restaurant. QR codes feel chintzy and kill the ambiance completely." — VapeDerp420

9. Stop subscriptions

"When I was your age, you only had to pay for a video game once to own it." — CattonCruthby

10. Free the children

"A kid in 2024 should have the same freedom to exist unsupervised and move about their community independently as a boomer did growing up." — PixelatedFish

"The world is safer than it's ever been and people are more scared than ever. I blame true crime and local news." ⲻ Unhappyhippo142

11. Kids need to touch grass

"Kids shouldn't be on phones or iPads all the time. It makes them weird." — Ubstantial_Part_952

"The same could be said about most adults." — DrunkOctopus

12. Stop being so sensitive

"People in our generation are far, far too sensitive. Don't get it twisted; empathy is, by and large, a good thing and it takes some serious doing for me to say it's gone too far. But collectively, we've become people willing to throw every last bit of energy fighting against every slight and making sure our pet cause gets top billing to the point of fighting amongst each other even if we're in almost complete agreement otherwise. Emotional energy - like any other kind of energy - is very much a finite resource. Whereas boomers could at least generally agree to disagree and get on with things (obvious cross-wielding exceptions doth apply). Culturally, we've lost sight of the adage of 'winning the battle, losing the war.'" — almighty_smiley

13. Stop delivery

"Food delivery services are a complete ripoff; if you use them regularly, you’re terrible with money. Get off my lawn." — VapeDerp420

14. Parking meters

"So rather than throwing a few coins in your meter, you have to now get your license plate #, get your meter number, go to the meter station, stand in line with everyone waiting to pay their meter, then you're set. It's an unnecessary amount of extra steps. I don't carry cash much anymore, but I can hide a small amount of coin in my car to quickly pay a meter." — Luke5119

15. Kids should know their place

"Not letting your children rule the roost. When did it become acceptable to let your kids back-talk to you, slap you, climb all over shi*t in public places? As we've raised ours, I've witnessed so many parents around us just let these behaviors slide. It's kind of sad when I'm the one saying things like, "Did I just hear you just say that to your mom?!?!?!?! That is not ok. You go and apologize right now!!". Then I get this stunned "deer in headlights" look back that tells me they aren't used to someone calling them out on their behavior." — Cobblestone-Villain

16. Pride in ownership

"Seems that a lot of boomers have pride of ownership and enjoy maintaining what they have." — Awkward_Bench123

17. Don't follow leaders

"My dad (a solid boomer) has been saying that ALL politicians are crooks since he became disenchanted with politics around the Nixon era. He was starry-eyed before that, trying to make social change, yada yada. He still votes, but holds his nose. Can’t say I disagree with him." — Thin_white_duchess

This article originally appeared on 1.23.24

From Your Site Articles

baby boomers

Family

Younger generations are torn over inheriting boomer heirlooms. Here are 4 helpful tips.

The generational divide on this front is a big one, but there are better and worse ways to navigate it.

Photo by Csongor Schmutc on Unsplash

There are kind and gentle ways to handle hand-me-downs.

As the baby boomer generation reaches their "golden years," many of them are starting to think about what to do with their earthly possessions, much to the chagrin of some of their Gen X, millennial and Gen Z descendants.

How many of us really want to take over our grandma's collection of dolls or plates when we have no interest in collecting ourselves? How many people have homes filled with furniture we actually like, only to be offered antiques and heirlooms that we have neither the desire nor room for? What about china sets, artwork and other things our elders have loved that they want to see passed down in the family that no one in the family really wants?

It's a delicate road to navigate, as a post on X illustrated. Jodi-Ann Quarrie shared a screenshot of a story a man shared about his wife fighting with his mother-in-law about the china sets she wanted her children to have. She had four adult children and four sets of china for them to divvy amongst themselves, but all four kids refused. An argument ensued about how none of the china had ever been used, even on special occasions, and culminated in the wife telling the mother-in-law that she was going to use the plates as frisbees after she dies.

People's reactions to the story were mixed. Some pointed out that there's no reason for someone to say something so cruel to a family member (or anyone, for that matter). Others felt that the mother-in-law was being unreasonable by not accepting no for an answer.

This is going to be a sad story for so many families. People are saving mahogany dining sets, breakfronts full of exquisite glasses and plates, and whole sets of silverware for their children who do not want, need, or have a place to put them.
— (@)

Extreme as the story may have been, there is a clear generational divide between the post-Depression era folks who think passing down heirlooms is generous and the generations that are accustomed to replacing things every few years because of planned obsolescence. There is also a divide between people who attach their life story to their belongings to the point that if their things aren't valued then neither are they, and people who don't tie memories or sentimentality to material things at all.

How do we bridge these divides? Each family dynamic and situation is different, of course, but here are four principles to keep in mind if you're on the receiving end of an heirloom offer you don't really want.

1) Don't diminish the value—either monetary or sentimental—of what an elder is offering.

These things may mean nothing to you, but they obviously mean something to the person who wants you to have. There's no need to hurt their feelings by being brazen about how their outdated furniture isn't really worth anything anymore or to point out that you have no emotional attachment to it. That all might be true, but is it necessary to share that with someone who is nearing the end of their life and feeling sentimental? No. It doesn't meant you have to take it, either, but a little empathy, even if it's not how you would feel about your own belongings, goes a long way.

2) If they're trying to give you something now and you really don't want it or have room for it, offer alternatives.

It's perfectly reasonable to tell a loved one that on a practical level you simply don't have the space for something. What the person usually wants is to know that a piece of them is going to be carried on as a physical memory and proof of their existence, so offer them a way to do that in a way that works for you.

Try something like this: "I would love to have something of yours that is meaningful that we can pass down, but we already have all the furniture we are able to manage—is there something like a piece of jewelry or a photo album or something else that we could pick out together as an heirloom for our side of the family?"

@notyourleader @yooneedmorejodi I'm really sorry you're having this problem. Do you think she could hear something like, "That's so kind of you, but I'd rather you kept it here for now, so I can see it with you. It just means so much more, seeing you and it together."\n\nIt's a tough problem.
— (@)

3) Be kind about their wishes while they're still here.

It's not easy getting older, and people's feelings about their life and death are worthy of consideration and compassion. If it brings an older person joy to see belongings they value being passed down while they're still alive, it might be worth letting them have that joy. Again, they might just want to know that their memory is going to live on.

It's difficult for us to imagine what it's like to be old when we're young, but it's not too hard to understand the desire to be remembered. That desire manifests differently for different people. Kindness can look like taking the items with gratitude and waiting until they pass away to give them away. It can also be gently refusing them for now, telling them it makes you happy to see them enjoying their things, and reassuring them that you'll make sure their items are taken care of when they're no longer here. (Taking care of doesn't mean keeping, but they don't necessarily need to know that detail. Honesty must be balanced with tact and thoughtfulness here.)

@baker_tricia @yooneedmorejodi That was the kind and loving thing to do.
— (@)

4) You are not obligated to hold onto something someone gave you, especially after they are gone. (But also, stay open to the idea that you might want to.)

No one is obligated to hold onto anything they don't really want. You also don't have to tell the person that you're not planning to keep their stuff—let them be at peace about it while they're here. It's perfectly okay to let go of their material things after they're gone. It's highly unlikely that they're going to care at that point.

However, it's also wise to stay open to the idea that you might actually want some of the things a loved one gives you after they pass. We never know how grief and loss are going to impact us, regardless of our relationship with someone, and sometimes people regret getting rid of all of their family members' belongings too quickly. It might be wise to just say yes to some things for now (if you are able to) and then decide what to do with them later.

Again, every situation is different, so these principles may or may not apply perfectly to your own circumstances, but the central message is to be kind and compassionate. We all have a limited amount of time here that shouldn't be wasted fighting over material things.

From Your Site Articles

aging

Health

People admit the one thing that Boomers really got right and some folks are uncomfortable

"You have to force yourself to do things that are difficult and uncomfortable."

via Yerling Villalobos/Unsplash

A Baby Boomer has some thoughts on emotional resilience.

An overarching Baby Boomer stereotype is that they have a problem with the younger generations, especially Millennials because they were coddled growing up and lack the determination to do hard things.

Many believe that when helicopter parents shelter kids from discomfort, they never develop the emotional resilience that it takes to succeed on their own.

Some may even attribute this to the increase in mental illness.

A writer on X, who goes by Katie, recently admitted that Boomers who believe facing discomfort has a significant benefit may be right. Her post has been seen over 4 million times.

— (@)

“My boomer-est opinion is that you have to force yourself to do things that are difficult and uncomfortable and you have to do it often, while you’re young and your brain is still flexible." Yes, even if you are (functionally) mentally ill,” Katie wrote. “Buying groceries can be uncomfortable. going to school/work can be uncomfortable. Socializing can be uncomfortable. The more you do it, the less uncomfortable it will be. If you can do these things (I know that there is a % of the population that isn’t), you have to do them often.”

“I’ve never come back to a piece of life advice more than this one,” she continued before quoting Virgil Thompson. “Try a thing you haven't done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time to figure out whether you like it or not.”

Many people agreed with Katie’s Boomer-adjacent thoughts on building emotional resilience.

literally how i forced myself to heal from my social anxiety
— Sunny (@Akpochimara1) March 20, 2024

This is actual science. You literally build pathways in the brain by doing hard things, pathways that make it easier to repeat doing hard things. By quitting, fleeing, avoiding hard stuff you make it less likely you’ll succeed next time. This is actual brain science.
— Tom (@mulltf) March 20, 2024

This is what’s been saving my life from depression, it’s very sound advice even if it doesn’t feel that way in the moment!
— Viktoria Katanov ☭ 🇵🇸 (@viktoriakatanov) March 21, 2024

my life only started improving when i forced myself to do the shit i had no desire to do. you either rot in that dark hole or claw your way out of it. having support and encouragement is wonderful, but at the end of the day you’re the only one who can change the outcome
— demon twink from hell (@medi4wh0re) March 20, 2024

Some folks are on the fence.

It is true in a sense, but this ability to "force" oneself may itself be governed by processes you don't have control over.
— Loads of Daffodils (@LODProduces) March 20, 2024

I agree, but the boomer take extends this to include everything: "it's normal to hate your job, your partner, and life itself, and you just have to push through it." Doing initially uncomfortable things to live a better life is good; ignoring your own needs and happiness isn't.
— Matty "Nails" Sheephard (@DeprivedSheep) March 20, 2024

Others disagreed with Katie’s point, saying that the idea that we can all “pull ourselves up by our bootstraps” is ableist and erases the struggles that people with anxiety, depression and other mental illnesses have.

I get what you’re saying, but that last part is pretty ableist tbh. Some of us with somatic anxiety disorders are physically unable to do certain things. Like I have issues with driving, and one of my anxiety symptoms is vertigo. Bad combo there. I’m otherwise fully functional.
— Lemur 🏳️‍🌈🇵🇷🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (@floatinglemur) March 20, 2024

Clearly you don't understand that people can have executive dysfunction where this is literally impossible, or PTSD where doing "uncomfortable" things is actually very triggering and can cause full blown panic attacks. You have to be comfortable and safe first.
— B (they/them) (@normalishvegan) March 20, 2024

I can’t exactly force myself to stop being autistic 💀
— Ayden Zabelle (@AydenZabelle) March 21, 2024

So, what does the research say?

Dr. Simon Sherry, a professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Dalhousie University, says that coddling has caused real problems for the younger generations. "There is nothing wrong with wanting to keep kids safe, but we must recognize there are unintended consequences in our current approach of excessive caution and vigilance. Instead, we must teach our youth to face anxiety, take risks, and overcome fears,” Dr. Sherry told CTV News. "We need to get control of this societal problem before it causes further damage for future generations.”

When it comes to confronting uncomfortable situations, Dr. Launa Marques, Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and Former President of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, says avoiding discomfort can make anxiety even worse.

“Psychological avoidance isn’t about the actions we take or don’t take, but the intentions behind them,” she told The Washington Post. “If our actions aim to squash discomfort hastily, then we’re probably avoiding. For each of my clients, avoidance became a crutch, initially tempering their anxiety but progressively amplifying it. Psychological avoidance, rather than alleviating anxiety disorders, can exacerbate them.

Obviously, everyone’s situation is different and people who are experiencing mental health issues should consult their therapists to determine the best course of action to overcome their challenges.

From Your Site Articles

baby boomers

Pop Culture

Folks are admitting that Boomers weren’t totally wrong. Here are 19 things they got right.

OK, Boomer, you're right about this one.

via Patrick Lannigan/Flickr

The gaze of the approving Boomer.

Over the past few years, Baby Boomers (1946 to 1964) have been getting a lot of grief from the generations that came after them, Gen X (1965 to 1980), Millenials (1981 to 1996), and now, Gen Z (1997 to 2012). Their grievances include environmental destruction, wealth hoarding, political polarization, and being judgemental when they don’t understand how hard it is for younger people to make it in America these days.

Every Baby Boomer is different, so it's wrong to paint them all with a broad brush. But it’s undeniable that each generation shares common values, and some are bound to come into conflict.

However, life in 2023 isn’t without its annoyances. Many that came about after the technological revolution put a phone in everyone’s hands and brought a whole new host of problems. Add the younger generations' hands-on approach to child rearing and penchant for outrage, and a lot of moden life has become insufferanble.

These problems weren’t created by Boomers but by their hyper-online children and grandchildren who can’t seem to get their faces out of their phones.

A Reddit user named AnitaVodkasoda took to the AskReddit forum and asked posters to admit there were some things that Boomers got right. “What is something you can say 'I'm with the boomers on this one' about?” they asked, and many responses came from people fed up with the modern-day frustrations caused by technology and social media.

Here are 19 things that people think that Boomers got right.

1. App exhaustion

"Any business which requires you to use an app. I don’t want to download an app, make an account, and remember said password for the account. Especially because the app doesn’t even work a lot of the time or is extremely convoluted with the frontend design." — Sammy_Henderschplitz

2. Let kids play

"Kids do great with totally unstructured outdoor play. They don’t need an organized game or activity. If you take a bunch of kids to a park and keep an eye on them they’ll figure out stuff to do together and often come up with creative and interesting things that adults wouldn’t have thought of. Just keep them physically safe and let them run around and do kid stuff. You don’t need to curate everything." — HeavyHebrewHammer

3. Pricey concerts

"Concert ticket pricing is too high. Once you get in a beer is $17!" — Whatabout-Dre

4. Tip creep

"Every business asking for tips at checkout. Digital menus. Not being able to own things anymore like software or having to pay monthly fees for car features." — mutualbuttsqueezin

5. Phones at concerts

"Phones at concerts. I take one pic when the artist comes on and then I just enjoy the show. You’re never gonna look back at your sh**** videos with you singing off-key in the background lol just enjoy the music." — Used_Eraser

6. Kids online

"Social media is unhealthy and children shouldn't have unrestricted access to the internet." — horrorflowers

7. Lazy tablet parents

"Parents who let their kids use tablets in public spaces with the volume all the way up, no headphones, and not doing it to stop an imminent tantrum (if they truly cannot get the kid out of that shared space for some reason) are trashy af. Fight me." — kishbish

8. Bring back knobs

"Touchscreens in cars suck." — sketchy_painting

9. Bad customer service

"Calling any business and getting an automated system that takes you 12 minutes to get through, doesn’t answer your question, and you can’t get a real person." — SexyJesus7

10. Raising entitled kids

"The 'my kid is never wrong' attitude every parent seems to have now. And we wonder why there’s a teacher shortage." — Cinderjacket

11. Emojis in work emails

"Learn to write a professional email. The number of Gen Z kids I’ve had who send me emails without salutations, with emojis and shorthand like lol omg etc, without proper spelling and punctuation, is crazy. That is fine for texting or exchanges with people you’re friends with, but it’s not for the workplace." — pistachiobees

12. Paper straws

"Paper straws suck." — JohnYCanuckEsq

13. Face tattoos

"Don't get tattoos on your face." — Disastrous-Aspect569

14. Gender reveals

"Just tell us if you are having a boy or girl. Or wait until the baby is born. We don’t need to assemble for some ridiculous reveal. I don’t want pink or blue dust all over the place." — Kevin Dean

15. People are too sensitive

"I think people tend to be too sensitive, personal outrage shouldn't be so important. It's disheartening to see so many people whine and cry and fight over inconsequential nonsense while pressing issues remain unaddressed." — Empathetic_Orch

16. TV sounds terrible

"Movies, and some TV shows for that matter, are mixed idiotically these days. I don't appreciate having to crank the volume way up to hear the whispered dialog, only to have a music swell or explosion or something blow my head clean off. No amount of tweaking my sound system has fixed this." — broberds

17. Affordable housing

"Being able to afford a house." — The-Black-Douglas

18. Blinded by the lights

"Headlights are too damned bright now." — 15all

19. The people on your lawn

"Get off my lawn." — Disastrous_Motor_189

This article originally appeared on 8.30.23

From Your Site Articles

baby boomers

Pop Culture

People born before 1990 are sharing their now-useless but 100 percent nostalgic skills

For instance, recording songs on tape from the radio while yelling at the DJ to shut up during the intro.

Canva, Veronica Lorine on Unsplash, Julentto Photography on Unsplash

From holding the phone on your shoulder to folding a map to knowing what "cornflower" and "goldenrod" are, here are pre-Y2K skills at their finest.

Hey there, millennials! Welcome to the "Holy crapoly, I have real-life memories from 20 years ago!" club. It's a strangely disorienting milestone to reach when you find yourself starting sentences with "When I was young…" or "Back in my day…" isn't it?

Your Gen X elders have been here for a while, but even we have moments of incredulously calculating how the heck we've arrived at this place. Time is a tricky little jokester, isn't he?

To highlight how much has changed for middle-aged folks since we were young, a user on Reddit asked people born before 1990 what useless skills they possess that nobody has a need for anymore. It's both a hilarious trip down memory lane and a time capsule of life pre-Y2K. (Do kids these days even know what Y2K was? Gracious.)

If you're down for some good-old-days nostalgia, check out people's responses:

Ask Reddit Question: People born before 1990, what trivial skill do you possess that no one uses anymore?

Making brown paper bag book covers

"I can cover a textbook with a brown paper bag." — sourwaterbug

Oh goodness yes. And there was always that one girl in class who had the art of the brown paper bag book cover perfected. (They're probably Pinterest influencers now.)

Folding a map—and knowing where to find a map

"I can re-fold a map correctly." —JungleZac

"Man remember actually using maps…I had an atlas with the road system in my car to navigate other states during road trips. Crazy." – jagua_haku

How did we ever figure out how to get anywhere before GPS and Google Maps? (Two-inch thick road atlases in our car and stopping at gas stations to buy local maps while traveling, that's how. Positively primitive.)

Memorizing phone numbers and answering the house phone

For real, though, kids these days don't even know.

"Remembering phone numbers." — greatmilliondog

"Not only that, having to speak to your friend's parents for a few minutes when you call their house." —Logical_Area_5552

"How to take a message when the person they want to talk to isn't there." — Amoori_A_Splooge

How about dialing on a rotary phone, using a pay phone and making (or taking) a collect call?

The skillful phone shoulder hold

"Using your shoulder to hold a telephone up to your ear while doing multiple other things at once. Now, the phones are so damned small I drop them." – Regular_Sample_5197

"100 ft phone cords 🤣" – mrch1ck3nn

"I got in sooooo much trouble for stretching the phone cord into the bathroom for some privacy. Accidentally clotheslined Grandma 😬 She laughed about it but Mom was pissed!" – AffectionateBite3827

Knowing the exact name of every Crayola color because we only had so many

"I know what the color “goldenrod” is." — ImAmazedBaybee

"That and burnt sienna were the crayolas of choice." — Signiference

"Cornflower would like a word." — cps12345

The art of the mixed tape—especially from the radio

I don't think kids these days fully grasp how revolutionary Spotify and the like are for those of us who spent hours in front of the radio with our cassette tape recorder queued up at just the right spot waiting for the song we wanted to record to come one. And they will never, ever know the frustration of the DJ yapping right up until the lyrics start.

"Record to tape from the radio. Trying to make sure to not get the DJ/presenter talking sh-t or an ad" – Gankstajam

"'Shut up, shut up, shut up!!! I'm trying to record my song!!!'" – tearsonurcheek

"Haha yeah and trying to tell others so they don't make random noise or knock on the door.

How about making cassette-based mix tapes, trying to figure out to the second, how many and which types of songs in which order, that would still fit perfectly on the length of tape per side.

People who make digital recordings do not have to worry about 'running out of tape.'

Having the first side be tempting enough that they'd flip the other side to continue listening. That's before continual playback machines existed. Had to flip the cassette." – CrunchyTeaTime

And there were many more, from rewinding a cassette tape with a pencil to writing in cursive to tearing the sides off of printer paper without tearing the paper itself. (Oh and of course the ability to count out change and understand what you're supposed to do if something costs $9.91 and someone hands you $10.01.)

Gotta love it when the things that used to be totally normal now sound like historic artifacts found in a museum. Kind of makes you wonder what normal things from today we'll be laughing about in another 20 or 30 years.

This article originally appeared on 6.22.23

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nostalgia

Prosperity

A cringey essay on 'easy breezy millennials' generated an avalanche of hilarious responses

Standsome Worklifestyle on Unsplash, @lenikacruz/Twitter, @appleciderwitch/Twitter, @eplerjc/Twitter

The battle between millennials and older generations isn't exactly a generational war—it's more a case of mistaken generational identity. A decade ago, whining about millennials being young adults unprepared to make their way in the world at least made sense mathematically. But when people bag on millennials now they end up looking rather foolish.

A marketing researcher with a doctorate in social psychology wrote an op-ed for the Chicago Tribune titled "Post-pandemic, some millennials finally decide to start #adulting." And when the Tribune shared it to Twitter, their since-deleted tweet read, "Writer Jennifer Rosner predicts COVID-10 lockdowns will force easy-breezy millennials to grow up."

Hoo boy.

Interestingly, the writer of the op-ed is a millennial herself, but she repeats generalizations about her entire generation that seem like they mainly apply to her own social circle. Read it yourself to decide, but regardless, the tweet of the op-ed itself set off a firestorm of responses from millennials who are tired of being painted as irresponsible young people who don't know how to "adult" instead of what they actually are.

@chitribopinions Seems like you called an entire generation "easy-breezy" and got ratioed. https://t.co/sYuVcenUKf
— Claude Walker (@Claude Walker) 1619056810.0

First of all, the oldest millennials are turning 40 this year The youngest are 25—either well out of college or well into grad school. And yet, they've been thought of as the youngest adults for the past 10-15 years, even as they've aged into full-on adulthood.

they call us millennials because we’ve been alive for a thousand years
— Matt Pearce 🦅 (@Matt Pearce 🦅) 1619044930.0

The struggle of millennials is not that they don't know how to be adults. It's that the financial reality of the world in which they came of age made it much harder to get established than previous generations, with two recessions, stagnant wages, rising costs of living, and crippling debt from skyrocketing tuition costs.

the oldest millennials are 40. the youngest millennials are 25. these op-ed columnists need to get a fucking grip a… https://t.co/2aQXbY364Q
— Jeanna Kadlec (@Jeanna Kadlec) 1619026617.0

easy breezy means, "everything I have will be blown away with a big enough medical bill"
— yeah but (@yeah but) 1619024172.0

Nonetheless, most millennials are 30-somethings who are in the midst of careers, paying mortgages, raising kids, and other extremely adult things. And they're doing it with less security and stability on a basic level than previous generations experienced. They are resilient because they have to be. They are resourceful because they have no choice.

What they, as a generation, are not? Easy breezy.

@chitribopinions The pandemic rolled in, and Boomers lost their collective minds, screaming at grocery store worker… https://t.co/YoukFrq6r4
— Cate Eland (@Cate Eland) 1619023974.0

A good chunk of the parents who have had to figure out childcare for their young kids during a pandemic or learn on the fly how to help their children with virtual school while also managing their own careers from home? Millennials.

@tindsaylurner This is also another great example of people not realizing that millennials are 35, and are the peop… https://t.co/CbYkZS7TGX
— Emily Galvin-Almanza (@Emily Galvin-Almanza) 1619018717.0

Seriously, the oldest millennials were early in their career years when the 2008 recession hit, and the youngest millennials are at that stage now, during this pandemic recession. Those lucky middle-millennials may have had an easier time finding a job—maybe—but they're still dealing with wages that haven't kept up with costs of living increases while trying to getting their families started.

"Easy breezy millennials" got hit with the worst job market since the Great Depression bc government let Wall Stree… https://t.co/7Yrh0oqh7N
— Walker Bragman (@Walker Bragman) 1619030587.0

Oh yeah, and they're inheriting a crescendoing global climate crisis to boot. Easy breezy!

The millennial curse is seeing that the tracks are out, having nobody listen, and being too late to stop the train anyway...
— Walker Bragman (@Walker Bragman) 1619030911.0

The responses were swift and fierce.

Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion. Excuse my millennial self while I go back to cramming a days' work b… https://t.co/SR2EylXe83
— Jonathan Wong (@Jonathan Wong) 1619047740.0

And some of them were simply, wryly hilarious.

@chitribopinions Once again, "millennial" is not a synonym for "cohort of young people I don't like." Millennials a… https://t.co/2tAVqig0Fe
— James Greene (@James Greene) 1618926015.0

@tylerevansokay @Learnonaut The year is 2045. A millennial, on the first day of retirement, opens the News app on h… https://t.co/s2ZcXRLKCm
— Steve Watts (@Steve Watts) 1619020896.0

@chitribopinions Seriously, the "Millennials are young and irresponsible" narrative is as old and tired as Millennials themselves
— John Stone (@John Stone) 1618983267.0

What I love about thinkpieces re: millennials is how they act like we're all still carefree and in our early 20s, m… https://t.co/8l4DnUTRYi
— John Epler (@John Epler) 1619026065.0

how millennials actually live https://t.co/JA0lWDYy05
— Allison Kilkenny (@Allison Kilkenny) 1618936208.0

Every generation has its share of struggles and every generation thinks the generation before and after it is somehow flawed, but it's those generalizations themselves that are the biggest problem. Sure, there are generational differences born of changes in the world, social pendulum swings, and reactions to our own upbringings, but to blame a generation for circumstances they can't control is pretty crappy and to lump them all together as lazy or entitled or "easy breezy" is as inaccurate as it is rude.

I'm not a millennial—solidly Gen X here—but the millennials I know are great people. Leave them alone unless you've got a solution to the challenges they're facing beyond "stop buying avocado toast" and "save up money from your underpaid job for a house you can't afford." And for the love of all that is good and holy, stop talking about them like they're doe-eyed college students. Time to give them the full respect we give all "real" adults. They've definitely earned it.

From Your Site Articles

Fox News asked Gen X to 'stop cancel culture' and the responses are simply hilarious

via Fox News and Todd Hoyer / Twitter

Fox News poked the sleeping tiger known as Gen X and got the generation known for slacking and sarcasm to muster, a collective "whatever."

The news network aired a segment on "cancel culture" where it urged "Generation X to lead the charge to save America from the social media mob. Can they do it?" Short answer: Who knows, but they aren't interested either way.

Fox News correspondent Gillian Turner: "Cancel culture is spreading like wildfire. There is a call for Generation X… https://t.co/Zc3ge1bEdZ
— Justin Baragona (@Justin Baragona) 1615820190.0

Right-wing media has been apoplectic recently over a rash of incidents where iconic pieces of pop culture from The Washington Redskins to "Gone with the Wind" to Dr. Seuss have been reevaluated by younger "woke" progressives.

While there is value in a movement that holds people accountable for propagating racist and sexist ideas, the Fox News crowd dismisses it simply as "cancel culture."

The Fox News target demographic is firmly in camp Baby Boomer, with the average viewer being around 65-years-old. According to Kasasa, "If you go by raw numbers, of the 3.3 million households taking in Sean Hannity's show on a nightly basis in 2018, just south of 2 million would have been senior citizens."

Baby Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964 and are currently between 57-75 years old.

So as Boomer authority over the nation's youth wanes by the day, Fox News made an appeal to Gen X to protect older, conservative people from the ravages of cancel culture. But according to reactions on Twitter, Gen X, aka "The Coolest Generation," couldn't care less.

The generation that's currently between the ages of 41 to 56 remembers a time when their Baby Boomer and Greatest Generation parents tried to cancel everything in their childhood.

But these calls weren't from liberals in the '80s, they were from pearl-clutching conservatives (and even some high-profile Democrats like Tipper Gore and Joe Lieberman), evangelical Christians, and paranoid suburbanites.

Whether it was the "Satanic Panic" surrounding heavy metal and "Dungeons and Dragons," the Parents Music Resource Center labeling hip-hop music, or the endless crusade against video games, the Boomer version of cancel culture was aimed squarely at Gen X.

In fact, Gen Xers lost one of their greatest childhood heroes in Pee-Wee Herman who got canceled for falling short of Bush 1-era moral norms.

Fox's appeal resulted in a slew of hilarious tweets from Gen Xers who could care less about the Boomer obsession with cancel culture. But, to be fair, it's not like Gen X was known for giving an F about much in the first place.

First of all, they just don't have the time.

We are too busy booking vax appointments for our parents and forcing them to come with us after you indoctrinated them into thinking that the vax was a liberal conspiracy.
— Doug Roberts (@robertspacli) March 15, 2021

They reminded Fox News of everything the Boomers tried to cancel back in the '80s.

You crack me up. One of my students who attends Christian School said she couldn't read Harry Potter books. And I loved the Teletubbies pic.twitter.com/LeO9r4zzZF
— GIVE ME BACK MY 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@bren2915) March 15, 2021

GenXers scarred by growing up with Bill Bennet, Tipper Gore, & Pat Robertson telling us what not to read, listen to, or think about would like to ask Fox why they suddenly think GenX should be seen & have a voice. GenX has been invisible because it's the generation never valued.
— Nellie Cubed (@NelNelNellie) March 15, 2021

@NelNelNellie @justinbaragona So true. Thanks for reminding me that Republicans were all up in our business growi… https://t.co/pQ1rU7ROAs
— kranmom (@kranmom) 1615828625.0

@truther_dare @justinbaragona Dee Snider would like to have a word. https://t.co/Nc2WCuTru1
— Michael Rennick 🇺🇸 End Racism (@Michael Rennick 🇺🇸 End Racism) 1615837547.0

Gen X only needs to Google the Dixie Chicks to see the hypocrisy.
— nancy cronvich (@FT1965) March 15, 2021

On behalf of every cassette tape and CD I owned with an explicit lyrics sticker courtesy of the PMRC I'm going to have to say I'll pass.
— Shea (@Shea_LC) March 15, 2021

Sorry, I'm too busy playing my heavy metal albums backwards to summon the devil.
— Never Ever Bloody Anything Ever. (@JustSomeGuy1970) March 15, 2021

@ShamuriJack @justinbaragona Me (one day in 1983): Mom? wheres my DnD books, they were on the shelf last weekend??… https://t.co/5cvlcrFfFx
— Dr. Christopher Gennari (@Dr. Christopher Gennari) 1615834394.0

Right wing: Let's fight back against cancel culture!
Also right wing: We need to boycott Starbucks because their Christmas cups make me think of satan.
— Mask it up. 🇺🇸 (@Disasterdude_VT) March 15, 2021

Another huge reason not to get involved: "Whatever."

@brad_stay @justinbaragona They will know us by our battlecry... "Whatever"
— MrFKNS (@MrFKNS) 1615825973.0

So sorry but we are collectively not feeling up to it today pic.twitter.com/GHjJHSI4Bc
— Lady Menopause, Dragon Queen & Slayer of Clownery (@LadyMenopause) March 15, 2021

As a duly authorized representative of Gen X let me respond in the language of my people: pic.twitter.com/CxgvbnZ4Xu
— Edward DeRuiter (@edwardderuiter) March 15, 2021

pic.twitter.com/elpvqDDQaZ
— Windmill Cancer Survivor (@NotBatspud) March 15, 2021

The whole point of being Gen X is feeling no obligation to answer a call to do anything.
— Todd Hoyer (@ToddHoyer) March 15, 2021

Gen X, the forgotten generation stuck beneath two of the most populous, was canceled long ago. It's almost like the parents of latchkey kids just realized they had children and now they want them to come to their rescue.

Y'all know we already got canceled ourselves right? pic.twitter.com/3odpcbSD7Y
— Catholic Space Slingshot (@mrschrislopez) March 15, 2021

@corianderstem @justinbaragona Yea when I saw GenX trending I was like: what fresh hell is this, and who told the@ we exist?
— Bubs 🇨🇦 (@Bubs 🇨🇦) 1615836604.0

Boomers want us to fix their problem? Lmao.
Gen X would like to give the requisite "Whatever" then slip back under the radar. With our microwave popcorn we taught ourselves to make after-school, unsupervised as always. We have no Fs to give about this.
— kc (@DetroitNomad) March 15, 2021

Boomers burned my childhood making me raise siblings cause they were too busy to care for any of us.

I watched them gloat & say “got what they deserved" as thousands died to HIV/AIDS.

They've profited off burning the world my kid will inherit cause Fox said science isn't real. pic.twitter.com/xTf5WqyxEb
— Trai-All (@trai_all) March 15, 2021

Like, we totally care. Seriously.

pic.twitter.com/4yScoNGx6p
— Hugo (@huginho82) March 15, 2021

Could it be that they're harping on cancel culture because they have nothing else to complain about?

This is a nontroversy. The real story is that Fox apparently has no legitimate anti-Biden issues to pursue.
— Grandma Muses™ ☘️🍕 (@GrandmaMuses) March 15, 2021

We have a winner.

Says the network that tried REALLY hard to cancel the votes of 81 million Americans.
— Jinx in TN (@grrenshaw) March 15, 2021

From Your Site Articles

baby boomers

"Kids shouldn't be on phones or iPads all the time. It makes them weird."

1. Public filming

2. Customer service

3. Turn up the dialog

4. Bring back buttons

5. App overload

6. Bring back DIY

7. Turn off the speakerphone

8. Ban QR code menus

9. Stop subscriptions

10. Free the children

11. Kids need to touch grass

12. Stop being so sensitive

13. Stop delivery

14. Parking meters

15. Kids should know their place

16. Pride in ownership

17. Don't follow leaders

The generational divide on this front is a big one, but there are better and worse ways to navigate it.

1) Don't diminish the value—either monetary or sentimental—of what an elder is offering.

2) If they're trying to give you something now and you really don't want it or have room for it, offer alternatives.

3) Be kind about their wishes while they're still here.

4) You are not obligated to hold onto something someone gave you, especially after they are gone. (But also, stay open to the idea that you might want to.)

"You have to force yourself to do things that are difficult and uncomfortable."

OK, Boomer, you're right about this one.

1. App exhaustion​

2. Let kids play

3. Pricey concerts

4. Tip creep

5. Phones at concerts

6. Kids online

7. Lazy tablet parents

8. Bring back knobs

9. Bad customer service

10. Raising entitled kids

11. Emojis in work emails

12. Paper straws

13. Face tattoos

14. Gender reveals

15. People are too sensitive

16. TV sounds terrible

17. Affordable housing

18. Blinded by the lights

19. The people on your lawn

For instance, recording songs on tape from the radio while yelling at the DJ to shut up during the intro.

Making brown paper bag book covers

Folding a map—and knowing where to find a map

Memorizing phone numbers and answering the house phone

The skillful phone shoulder hold

Knowing the exact name of every Crayola color because we only had so many

The art of the mixed tape—especially from the radio

1. App exhaustion