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'OK Boomer' Is the New Retort To Older Generations (nbcnews.com) 472

Teens are increasingly using the phrase "OK boomer" to fire back at older generations' criticisms. Slashdot reader ItsJustAPseudonym shares an excerpt from an NBC News article: In recent months, the phrase "OK boomer" has become a common retort in the parts of the internet inhabited by teenage and young adult users. On Instagram, the phrase appears as a hashtag alongside memes and artwork mocking the older generation. On Twitter, the phrase is hurled at someone for making an outdated statement. And on TikTok, where it is arguably the most prolific, it appears in artwork, audios and makeup tutorials as a way to mock an older generation, and the hashtag has been viewed on the platform 18 million times. [...] The phrase is a culmination of annoyance and frustration at a generation young people perceive to be worsening issues like climate change, political polarization and economic hardship. The 10 teens and young adults who spoke to NBC News about the phrase said "OK boomer" marked a boiling point for Gen Z and younger millennials, who feel pushed around or condescended to by older generations.
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'OK Boomer' Is the New Retort To Older Generations

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @07:06PM (#59363846)
    Hire a Zoomer while they still know everything!
    • OK Boomer
      • by raymorris ( 2726007 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @09:42PM (#59364354) Journal

        Perhaps the woke generation would get more respect if they stop eating Tide pods.

        I did like what Obama had to say to the woke crowd:
        https://www.cnn.com/videos/pol... [cnn.com]

        • it was a fad. Kinda like Car Surfing, which was an 80s thing [wikipedia.org]
      • Re:Shut up, Zoomers (Score:5, Informative)

        by saider ( 177166 ) on Thursday October 31, 2019 @11:53AM (#59366632)

        No news here.

        The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

        Socrates

        https://www.bartleby.com/73/195.html

        • Respect is earned, not freely given because your boomer a** waddled into the room. As one of the final members of gen X to be born I witness both sides, their character, their values. I have much more respect and appreciation for my successors than my Boomer predecessors. The newer generations may lack the temperance of wisdom, but at least they have empathy for others and a passion for the betterment of our world. If ever there was a generation that could be labeled narcissistic it would be the Boomers
    • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @09:30PM (#59364294)

      This is typical childish Dunning-Kruger effect where these kids believe that they have reached a pinnacle of knowledge, experience and enlightenment and "know" what's best for the world. In a decade or two, most of them will hopefully come to realise that they didn't actually know a thing and were in fact quite clueless. People from every generation goes through a phase like this (we were all young once). I'm a tail-end Gen Xer (born late 70s) and I remember many from my generation acting similarly when they were kids.

      Latter-day Millennials and Generation Z are simply not old enough to be able to have valid knowledge or experience of most things right now. Give them time to grow up and watch as subsequent generations treat them with the same naivete, jealousy and disdain.

      • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

        Latter-day Millennials and Generation Z are simply not old enough to be able to have valid knowledge or experience of most things right now.

        Age doesn't necessarily confer knowledge or experience. Baby boomers in particular lived through a rather unusual period of history for the west, and seem to have difficulty understanding that their experience is exceptional. They had high wages and low cost of living, and a high proportion made out like bandits during the absolutely bonkers real estate boom starting a

        • by skovnymfe ( 1671822 ) on Thursday October 31, 2019 @10:00AM (#59366030)
          The problem is when you people vote Trump into office, that kind of negates anything else you might have to say. It goes to show you don't know shit about anything no matter how old you are, and thinking you know more because you're older just makes you a retard. Even moreso retarded than the children trying to live with every one of your stupid decisions. The kids have one thing going for them in all this that you can't in any way shape or form dismiss. You got us here. Not them.
    • by flyingfsck ( 986395 ) on Thursday October 31, 2019 @01:07AM (#59364712)
      Ah, these young whipper snappers - doing things we used to do, they think are new...
  • LOLZ (Score:5, Insightful)

    by OzPeter ( 195038 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @07:10PM (#59363860)

    who feel pushed around or condescended to by older generations

    So their response is to act condescending to older generations?!?!

    worsening issues like climate change, political polarization and economic hardship

    I know quite a few older generation people who are actively working on these issues. So perhaps these kids are not casting their nets wide enough?

    ---

    Now git off my lawn, my robot overlords are telling me that I'm having Natalie Portman over for some hot grits. And yes Netcraft confirmed it! (But Cowboy Neal tells me it'd be different in Soviet Russia)

    • Re:LOLZ (Score:5, Funny)

      by Darinbob ( 1142669 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @07:12PM (#59363864)

      Get off my LAN!

      • by OzPeter ( 195038 )

        Get off my LAN!

        What sort of LAN are we talking about? Ethernet (baseband or twisted pair)? Arcnet? or maybe some new-fangled FO?

        • Token ring. Or it will be as soon as I can find the token from where it fell on the floor.

          • by OzPeter ( 195038 )

            Token ring. Or it will be as soon as I can find the token from where it fell on the floor.

            Ha! You obviously didn't use the correct terminator!

            • by ASDFnz ( 472824 )

              Ha! You obviously didn't use the correct terminator!

              Spoken like a true Millennial.

              Token rings don't have terminators.

              • by OzPeter ( 195038 )

                Ha! You obviously didn't use the correct terminator!

                Spoken like a true Millennial.

                Token rings don't have terminators.

                Never used Arcnet have you youngster?

                • by ASDFnz ( 472824 )

                  Never used Arcnet have you youngster?

                  What does token bus have to do with it kiddo? We are talking about token ring here.

                  • by OzPeter ( 195038 )

                    Never used Arcnet have you youngster?

                    What does token bus have to do with it kiddo? We are talking about token ring here.

                    You do know that the "ring" in Token Ring is logical and not necessarily physical don't you? And that Arcnet uses a Token Ring architecture?

                    • by ASDFnz ( 472824 )

                      You do know that the "ring" in Token Ring is logical and not necessarily physical don't you?

                      No, I don't know that... you know why? Because it is not true.

                      Token bus and token ring are two different networking topologies, want me to google it for you millennial? :P

                    • Re:LOLZ (Score:4, Interesting)

                      by OzPeter ( 195038 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @08:51PM (#59364206)

                      You do know that the "ring" in Token Ring is logical and not necessarily physical don't you?

                      No, I don't know that... you know why? Because it is not true.

                      Token bus and token ring are two different networking topologies, want me to google it for you millennial? :P

                      Let me help you out there https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

                      Stations on a Token Ring LAN are logically organized in a ring topology with data being transmitted sequentially from one ring station to the next with a control token circulating around the ring controlling access

                  • Re:LOLZ (Score:4, Informative)

                    by Ungrounded Lightning ( 62228 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @08:41PM (#59364176) Journal

                    Token rings don't have terminators.

                    Never used Arcnet have you youngster?

                    What does token bus have to do with it kiddo? We are talking about token ring here.

                    Arcnet is/was a token passing network (a token ring - but not the IBM trademarked one) with a broadcast physical interconnect. All the nodes could hear each other, but the rights to talk were passed around the "ring" of all the live nodes - from the current holder to the one with the next higher i.d. (or circularly to the one with the lowest if the one with the highest had it).

                    Interconnects might be coax to a passive hub (four co-ax jacks and four resistors to a joint), an active hub (a repeater), infrared blinkey-diodes with the light bouncing around a room, an inter-building "hop" (using an "arclight" infrared link between two rooftops), etc.
                      - Tie the hubs and nodes into a tree with no loops, the nodes get acquainted, figure out the logical ring, and start passing a token.
                      - Turn on another node and the nodes renegotiate the ring and get right back to work.
                      - Turn off a node (or walk between a node and the room's blinky LED), ditto.
                      - Disconnect a coax (or have a heavy rain cloud come between a pair of arclights), splitting the net into two, and the nodes on each half renegotiate. Result: Two working rings.
                      - Connect a coax between two nets (or the raincloud goes away), joining them into one, and the nodes renegotiate. Result: They fuse into one ring.

                    But you'd better use terminators on any empty jacks or dangling coax ends. Too many open connections and the echoes make the error rate climb - to slow-as-molasses or give-it-up.

    • Re:LOLZ (Score:5, Interesting)

      by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @07:23PM (#59363908)

      So their response is to act condescending to older generations?!?!

      That's every generation ever. Then they grow up and think the young generation are naive upstarts and the circle becomes complete.

      I know quite a few older generation people who are actively working on these issues. So perhaps these kids are not casting their nets wide enough?

      The new generation is much the same as the old. They want to talk a good game (now just on social media) so they can so everyone how awesome they are (so they can get laid) but don't give much of a damn about real action. They're every bit like their parents and their kids will be just like them as well and they've become the scapegoat for all of the world's problems and their own inaction in solving them.

      It turns out actual progress in any direction is hard work and most people aren't willing to fail or fall short the hundreds of times it takes to get it right. Most either give up or they convince themselves that their current flop is actually a success. And since a lot of people are perfectly willing to reward talking a good game just as much (if not more) than real genuine success it's hard to fault them.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        It's different this time around because the young really are screwed compared to their parents. Millennial are the first generation in a very long time to be worse off than their parents, and it's largely their parents' fault.

        The problem is compounded by the condescending way that the boomers talk to the younger generations and continue to screw them over even after it's been pointed out what they are doing.

    • Re:LOLZ (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Tempest_2084 ( 605915 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @07:29PM (#59363926)
      >>So their response is to act condescending to older generations?!?!

      Kind of ironic isn't it? I doubt they'll see it that way though, in their eyes they can do no wrong. They're woke and they know the REAL truth. Just like every generation before them (expect a lot more annoying for some reason).

      BTW is it just me or do Gen X'ers just get sort of swept aside in all of this? It's always the Boomers vs the Millennials or the Boomers vs Gen Z, but no one cares about Gen X. Not that I'm complaining mind you.
      • That's not what woke means. Woke means that your anus has become self aware and is gradually taking over your brain. The end result is that you end up always talking out of your ass.

      • Re:LOLZ (Score:5, Funny)

        by PolygamousRanchKid ( 1290638 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @07:43PM (#59363978)

        It's always the Boomers vs the Millennials or the Boomers vs Gen Z, but no one cares about Gen X.

        Yeah, but Gen X doesn't care about Gen X either, so the total system is consistent.

      • Re:LOLZ (Score:5, Insightful)

        by SvnLyrBrto ( 62138 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @09:56PM (#59364392)

        I think the thing with GenX is that while the boomers cut their teeth in fucking over future generations on us; they weren't so practiced at it yet as to screw us totally. So it was possible for GenX to put our heads down, work our asses off, and still come out with our heads above water. Most of my peers and I are doing just that; and really just don't have the free time to practice at being "woke" and all that.

        The Millennials and whatever Z is called don't have that luxury. The boomers took the lessens they learned in mildly fucking over X, perfected their techniques, and put the screws to Y&Z so hard that even the opportunities that were left left for X are closed off to Y and Z. So, what do they have left to do besides rage against the machine?

        • Dunno if I'm a "boomer" or not, being on the young end of the possible limit. Doesn't matter much, either: blaming the economy and other problems on an entire generation is just stupid. When, exactly, did those dastardly deeds happen? By all accounts, it must have been in the 80's, plus or minus? That puts the boomers mostly in their 30s - so that means that all the really senior positions were still occupied by previous generation.

          This is also mostly a US phenomenon. The US has been going downhill for a lo

          • Re: LOLZ (Score:4, Interesting)

            by BytePusher ( 209961 ) on Thursday October 31, 2019 @08:17AM (#59365590) Homepage
            It's trickle down and fiat currency. The issue is that since the mid 1970s Americans have been convinced what is good for them is bad for them. That wage growth means a shrinking job market. Well, who is gonna buy all the stuff we're making if 99% of us are poor? The truth is, Regan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Obama, have all pushed the neoliberal fallacies that there isn't any harm in the super rich getting super richer, while the rest of us stagnate. Currency is a social contract that works as long as we all agree to it. That contract states that a dollar is exchanged for a certain amount/value of labor. The very wealthy have implicitly broken that contract, as they do NOTHING except own things. Likewise, ownership of capital is a social contract. Before we had military and police that are obscenely powerful, if someone hoarded all the stuff people need to survive, they just took it back with pitchforks and torches. Now they lock their capital away in foreign banks and protect their physical assets with the state, which they have purchased. https://www.epi.org/publicatio... [epi.org]
      • You know, I see a lot of old man comments in this thread (Gen X here), who are clearly ignoring the positive effects in history that the young generation has brought to our society. It wasn't massive throngs of retirees marching on the capitol for civil rights. It wasn't octogenarians rallying for women's suffrage.

        As uncomfortable as it is to admit, you have to remind yourself as you age that you have only accumulated wisdom concerning the way the world IS, not the way it SHOULD BE. And if you are any st

    • Cowboy Neal? Yeah...you're older.

    • The boomers outnumber the younger generations and will for another 20 years or so. They also accumulated a massive amount of wealth while jobs were plentiful and housing cheap. Their numbers and their wealth mean they have an outsized say in the future of the country. They also tend to side with corporations and big business in matters of public policy (their main concern being keeping their retirement accounts and investments growing) often to the determine of workers since they themselves often have stabl
    • by dissy ( 172727 )

      This is why all my children I returned to the grocery store parking lot where I adopted them from.
      Spoiled brats :P

  • My kids were joking about their boomer dad months ago.... glad to see Slashdot has caught up. I joke about all the dumb boomer stuff I do and they have a good laugh.
  • by chispito ( 1870390 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @07:15PM (#59363876)
    Unless these teens are responding to wisdom like
    validate your backups
    comment your code
    the cloud is just someone else's computer

    I can't find the angle here.
  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @07:15PM (#59363880)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by msauve ( 701917 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @07:17PM (#59363882)
    They'll learn.
    • Re:#getoffmylawn (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @07:38PM (#59363960)

      They'll learn.

      Unfortunately, they were taught victimhood.

      Victimhood has been around forever, although we might have instilled it in too many.

      But now they are child adults. Perhaps it is our fault we raised them with self esteem without achievement. Perhaps we gave them too many participation trophies. Perhaps we told them they were the most important person in the whole wide world. Perhaps we told them that they could be whatever they wanted to be if only they tried hard enough and followed their passion. Yeah - I knew it was a horrible idea while it was happening.

      But at some point they will have to put on their adulting skills. Because just having a group to blame for your failure isn't going to create your success.

      I've seen victimhood all the way through my career. Always a reason, person or group for failure. And it never turns out well for the eternal victim.

      Okay Boomer? - Okay victims. Your call.

  • The same old story (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DNS-and-BIND ( 461968 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @07:18PM (#59363888) Homepage
    It's just our media pushing the "divide and conquer" narrative. Making us fight with one another, so we are kept busy and do not think to rebel against the powerful, the ones who are really harming us. And sadly, people are swallowing it hook, line, and sinker.
    • by skam240 ( 789197 )

      Right, kids aren't bothered that we'll be leaving them a world dealing with the very significant repercussions of global warming. I mean really, by the time shit gets truly bad I'll be dead so who gives a fuck, right?

      It's obviously media fed teenage angst because you say it is.

  • haha you lose. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by AndyKron ( 937105 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @07:30PM (#59363930)
    Us boomers will have the last laugh when we leave this planet all fucked up for the whippersnappers. They'll remember this time as the "golden years" while they hunt the few remaining rats for their last meal while freezing their asses off because we we burned all the fossil fuel in our boomermobiles. Don't forget: You'll get more clicks if you endorse #teamtrees!
    • by geek ( 5680 )

      Us boomers will have the last laugh when we leave this planet all fucked up for the whippersnappers. They'll remember this time as the "golden years" while they hunt the few remaining rats for their last meal while freezing their asses off because we we burned all the fossil fuel in our boomermobiles. Don't forget: You'll get more clicks if you endorse #teamtrees!

      "Golden Years" is that an upcoming series for 2040 starring the kids from "The Wonder Years" as a "Golden Girls" remake? How's Fred Savage these days?

  • It really *is* a bubblegum crisis...

  • by Immerman ( 2627577 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @07:34PM (#59363940)

    Of course you feel pushed around and condescended to. That's what's happening.

    Go deal with some 5 years old for a while, and try not to push them around or be condescending. It's incredibly difficult - they're relatively powerless, ignorant, and emotionally transparent, and lack your experience and perspective. Letting them make important decisions for you is a recipe for disaster.

    Now recognize that perspective never really goes away. The power gap fades, and there's a lot of variation in the speeds at which individuals learn and develop, but it'll always be rare that you encounter someone twice your age who credits you with with as much wisdom as themselves. And in a lot of ways it's justified.

    Of course, there's usually no less self deception and ego-defense as in teens, and idealism has been ground down into quiet practicality by hardships and rewards alike. So sometimes you're in the right.

    But that's not the way to bet.

  • by being polarized against a generation of people.

    The only difference between the zoomers and the boomers is that the boomers broke shit first and the zoomers don't get to burn things to the ground.
  • It is so lame that it took them this long to come up with such an original comeback.
    I'll bet they had to ask a Boomer for help or support while they were working on it.

  • by Ashthon ( 5513156 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @07:41PM (#59363968)

    On Instagram, the phrase appears as a hashtag alongside memes and artwork mocking the older generation. On Twitter, the phrase is hurled at someone for making an outdated statement. And on TikTok, where it is arguably the most prolific, it appears in artwork, audios and makeup tutorials as a way to mock an older generation

    I don't think users of Instagram, Twitter and TikTok are in any position to criticise anyone. In fact, I think these people need to take a good long look at themselves and consider what it is they're doing with their lives. Tip from an older person - posting TikToks of yourself behaving like an idiot isn't productive, fulfilling or useful, and it isn't going to forward your career or improve your life.

    who feel pushed around or condescended to by older generations.

    So people who spend their time posting pictures of their breakfast on Instagram and videos of themselves on TikTok are being condescended to by older generations. I can't possibly think why that would happen!

    It has always been the case that the current generation has thought the next generation is useless, but this is the generation when we're actually right. They can hashtag OK boomer all they want, but all they're achieving is to further demonstrate their uselessness and prove older generations right. Instead of wasting their time on Twitter, TikTok and Instagram blaming other people for their problems, why don't they try to work to improve their situation? Maybe they could do some studying, learn some new skills, and try to better themselves?

  • by LostMyAccount ( 5587552 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @07:42PM (#59363972)

    I don't know what it was like in the 1750s or something, but it sure seems like in the last century every generation gets somewhat caught up in its own identity, victimhood and the desire to blame older generations when young and then defend and promote them when older and attacked by their successors.

    It's almost a cliche anymore. Will I have to wait for another 20 years for Gen Z++ or whatever they will call it to be named and start griping? Who will they blame, Gen X or Millenials?

    Who will Gen Z being blaming in 20 years when most of the boomers are dead? Gen X for being "almost" boomers?

    I can't decide if this generational antagonism is some kind of evolutionary biology dynamic, perhaps some kind of Oedipal complex, or maybe some herd instinct for the perils of our continued existence.

  • Your social security check is late!
    Things cost more than they used to!
    Young people use curse words!

  • ... on the Battlestar Galactica.
  • I'm Generation Jones

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

  • Stun gun to the kidney.
  • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Um, right. Christ you Millenials are a bunch of self-important assholes. And I'm not even a boomer. As a GenXer I can confidently tell you that we are even more greedy than Boomers are and we have been living it up since the 1980s and aren't looking to stop the party. By the way, Millennials can't even keep their own budget. So good luck with that.

  • by nehumanuscrede ( 624750 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @08:19PM (#59364094)

    I don't think the Boomers lose much sleep over the opinions of the generation who coined the multi-use
    term " Yeet ", are connoisseurs of the various flavors of Tide Pods and / or sexually identify as a lamp post.

    " Got a 401k and/or $500k in net worth ? No SS for you. "

    Good luck getting that one off the ground. Folks who pay the SS Tax their entire life aren't going to simply
    throw it away, ( this includes Gen-X ) though anyone who has put any effort into their retirement accounts
    understand SS is a joke anyway. There is a very good reason politicians absolutely won't touch SS. It's the
    quickest path to a former career in politics you can find.

    Did you know:

    As of 2019, if you make more than $34k* / year in retirement, up to 85% of your Social Security benefits may be taxable.
    (*This is a laughable amount in 2019 )

    • by shess ( 31691 )

      I don't think the Boomers lose much sleep over the opinions of the generation who coined the multi-use
      term " Yeet ", are connoisseurs of the various flavors of Tide Pods and / or sexually identify as a lamp post.

      " Got a 401k and/or $500k in net worth ? No SS for you. "

      Good luck getting that one off the ground. Folks who pay the SS Tax their entire life aren't going to simply
      throw it away

      That money is gone, they already spent it on the boomers and their parents. Social Security isn't a 401k, and the fact that everyone is too stupid to understand what it is and instead wishes it was a 401k doesn't change anything.

  • by LordWabbit2 ( 2440804 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @09:29PM (#59364290)
    Whoopdeedoo, same stupid shit happens every generation.
    There is a saying I enjoy, not sure where it comes from...
    "Hire a teenager while they still know everything"
    Which brings me to one of my favourites.
    “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.”
    By none other than Albert Einstein.
    For the dimwitted people calling older people "Boomers", if you think you know how to fix everything in the world and no one is listening to you, you don't know shit.
    If you still don't understand, why not pack your bags and head to the middle east, maybe you will finally be able to bring peace there, with all your vaunted knowledge and everything.
  • by Smallpond ( 221300 ) on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @10:21PM (#59364418) Homepage Journal

    “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”

  • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday October 31, 2019 @04:49AM (#59365036)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

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