“Ok, Zoomer”: The Generation War Reaches New Heights. Or Is This Par for the Course?

By Viviana Freyer, Staff Editor

In February 2021, BuzzFeed released an article (if you can even call it that) called “Millennials Are Roasting The Crap Out Of Gen Z, And It’s An Absolute Pleasure To See.” It starts by summarizing how Generation Z (or “Zoomers”) has recently been trolling millennials on the internet for just about anything, from wearing skinny jeans to using emojis while texting. However, millennials are fighting back! The article includes a compilation of tweets that “put Gen Z in their place.” It features gems like, “Today, I learned that parting my hair to the side bugs my Gen Z students…so, naturally, I’m switching to a DEEP side part starting next week,” and, “just respond in cursive letters [and] confuse the hell out of them kids.”

Nothing screams “I’m comfortable with getting older” like targeting the younger generation on Twitter. In fact, certain millennials seem to believe that they get the brunt of this generational bullying because they receive it “from all sides,” meaning both from boomers and Gen Z. I wrote this article to contest this claim that millennials are the only generation that has ever been “bullied,” but also to chronicle the long-standing and bitter tradition of intergenerational resentment.

The Silent Generation (born 1925–1945)

The Silent Generation was first classified as such in a 1951 article for Time Magazine. According to critics, it was “silent” as in “boring” or “forgettable.” They were called conformists and were accused of not caring for “world affairs” (not to be confused with the Gen X apathy; more on that later). When the Class of 1957 graduated, Life Magazine published an editorial called “Arise ye Silent Class of ‘57!” that covered the speeches given to the graduates by older generations. The overall speaker consensus was that the Silent Generation was overly compliant and agreeable. One speaker claimed that the Class of ‘57 was “only too eager to claim faceless and voiceless roles,” another that they were “more concerned with security than integrity…with imitating than creating.” Essentially, rather than complaining about “these crazy  kids,” elders complained that the Silent Generation was not crazy enough.

For more modern critics, the Silent Generation’s biggest crime is raising the Baby Boomers. Consequently, the endless boomer discourse eclipsed any kind of trolling that was directed toward their parents.

Baby Boomers (1946–1964)

Baby Boomers got their name because of the large spike in the population after the Second World War, and they seek the spotlight much more than the Silent Generation. Because they were born after the Great Depression and both World Wars, their childhood and adolescence was marked by economic prosperity and a rapidly evolving youth culture. Baby Boomers have actually been the subject of scrutiny for decades. Popularly dubbed the “Me Generation,” the Boomers were called selfish in the ‘70s and materialistic in the ‘80s.

However, Gen-Xers and millennials have ushered in a new era of Boomer-hating. They accuse boomers of mindlessly soaking up economic growth without any kind of thought for future generations, leaving economic and climate crises that younger generations must clean up. Thus, “Ok, boomer” was born. As described by millennial journalist Jill Filipovic (who wrote a book called Ok Boomer: How My Generation Got Left Behind), ‘Ok boomer’ is “frustrated millennial shorthand for the ways the same people who created so many of our problems now pin the blame on us.” In fact, ‘boomer’ has now turned into a generalized term for an older person who waves their fist in the air but cannot themselves seem to take any kind of basic criticism. A young woman interviewed by NBC, Paige Hoveling, pointed out the double standard of how the same older people who throw “millennial” around like an insult now practically consider “boomer” to be a slur. “Pot meets kettle,” she said. Who knew the “Peace and Love” generation would grow up to drain the world of its resources and throw fits when the Starbucks barista with the piercings takes more than three minutes to make their coffee?

Generation X (Gen X) (1965–1980)

The term “Generation X” was coined by author Douglas Coupland, though he is not totally responsible for Gen X’s cynical, slacker reputation. In terms of the generational wars, Gen X has assumed the middle child position, since most of the attention goes to the boomers and millennials. When they were still the world’s youths, Gen X’s criticism somewhat mirrored that of the Silent Generation. A 1990 Time Magazine cover story titled “twentysomething” stated that Gen X have “no heroes, no anthems, no style to call their own.” Sure, grunge came later on, but those lyrics and attitudes certainly did not boost the youngsters’ morales or disprove older peoples’ perceptions of this pessimistic new generation.

While Gen X’s parents and grandparents reprimanded their misanthropic tendencies, in the modern day, younger people accuse Gen X of selling out on those very traits. Gen X may have sneered at the boomer Flower Children-turned-CEOs; yet, by the mid-2000s, Gen X had more spending power than either boomers or millennials and were actually spending 18% more on luxury goods than their boomer predecessors. Even Green Day, some of the defining punk rockers of the ‘90s, have their own musical now.

It also seems like the Gen-Xers are just as hard on themselves: they also don’t think they’re that special. In a 2014 study conducted by the Pew Research Center, 58% and 61% of the boomers and millennials polled respectively considered themselves to be part of a unique generation. Only 49% of Gen-Xers polled said the same.

Millennials (1981–1996)

A 2019 NPR tagline best sums up most criticisms against millennials: “lazy, coddled, afraid of adulthood.” Everyone loves to hate millennials. However, in fairness, they were not given an easy start. Millennials inherited the ruin of the 2008 Recession, and even though they are the most educated generation to date, their college debt is higher than ever. (An average private college tuition 2010 cost around $42,000; in 1970, the figure was barely $1,800, which is about $12,200 in today’s money). They attribute many of their problems to Boomers and Gen-Xers, who argue that millennials simply need to work harder to fix all of this. Older generations also accuse millennials of being hypersensitive, employing the insult “snowflakes.” Millennials are also accused of being obsessed with technology and social media, though these days, most people are anyway.

Gen Z basically perceives millennials as big babies. They complain about “#adulting” and still make their Hogwarts House a part of their personality. Gen Z thinks millennials are generally uncool now, because they refuse to accept that fashion and the internet have grown past the 2010s. And while older generations may classify millennials as lazy, Gen Z has a problem with how easily millennials assimilated into the corporate world despite complaining about boomers and Bush ruining the economy. Phenomena like “Girl Boss” culture even romanticize this idea of capitalist achievement.

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Of course, Gen Z has already gotten scrutiny from the grown-ups. According to the haters, we live for screens, are overly nihilistic, and we are disconnected from our elders. When it is our turn to take the heat from “Generation Alpha” and whatever generation comes next, we hopefully will understand that this comes with getting older, and we’ll take the jokes with more grace than some thirty-something on Twitter getting overly defensive over side parts or cursive.

Image credit: InsideHook