Ok boomer and the 'generation war'

By now, everyone has heard of it. The expression 'ok boomer' went viral all over the world. The term comes from 'Baby Boomer', which was first introduced in 1964 as a name for the generation of people born between 1946 and 1964. During that time, which were the first decades after World War II, the number of births were enormous, hence the ‘boom’. But right now, the term is used to refer to people seen as charcterized by the same dominant values and concerns. It became a catch phrase for someone who is old, very conservative and narrow-minded. The trend actually started in 2015 on 4Chan and in 2017 on Reddit, but after trending on Twitter in 2018, the term actually started to live its own life.

This resulted in memes, discussion and mostly frustration between boomers, millennials and generation Z. The ongoing conflict or 'war' between these generations thus continues once more. Older generations are calling it ‘ageist’ and are comparing it to racial slurs and calling someone a boomer or saying ‘ok boomer’ is considered forbidden or punishable in some working places. Boomers also started to introduce the term ‘zoomer’ as a comeback to ‘ok boomer’. What do these changes in discourse bring to the both on- and offline linguistic landscape?

The Origins of ok boomer

So where did this phrase come from? According to the web-site “Know your memes”: The exact origin of the phrase is currently unknown. “On 4chan, the retort was first used by an anonymous /r9k/ user on September 3rd, 2015 (Picture1). On Reddit, the phrase was first used as a retort on October 26th, 2017. On Twitter, the phrase was first used on April 12th, 2018.”

“The phrase and the whole concept of a generation war, did not see such a peak in 2018, but since January 2019 it has spread significantly. On January 14th, 2019, a Meme-creator user created an Ironic Doge meme captioned with the phrase, referencing the influential Ok Retard Doge image (picture2). It's currently unconfirmed whether this upload is the first instance of the image.”

Then in early November 2019, the phrase “ok boomer”,  because of a video of an unidentified man on a TikTok video. He can be categorized as “to be a Baby Boomer" (born 1946 to 1964). He was stating that: “Millennials and generation Z have the Peter Pan syndrome” And “They don’t ever want to grow up”

The man says that millenials and generation Z'ers are thinking that the “Utopia” from their childhood, will continue into adulthood as well. “This video inspired the phrase “ok boomer”, as retaliation and dismissal of the ideals of past generations that have shaped politics, economics and the environment strongly.”

According to Vogue Australia, since November 14, the hashtag #OKBoomer has been used more than 732 million times, while more than 2,000 official hoodies have been sold for $34.99 apiece, emblazoned with the slogan: “OK Boomer, have a terrible day.”

The ok boomer trend

After the arising of ‘ok boomer’ on 4Chan, Reddit, Twitter and TikTok, the term was quickly used in all sorts of posts and memes. It is used to shut people up, and today it doesn’t even really matter whether they actually are boomers or not. Millennials and gen z use it to reply to cringey tweets, posts and pictures. Some gen Z’ers have turned into a business. For instance, Shannon O’Connor designed merch with the text ‘ok boomer’, and after some TikTok promo, she received orders for in total more than $10.000. New Zealand politician Chloe Swarbirck used the term in a debate after getting heckled by an older politician, the video also went viral.

‘Ok boomer’ has also been the subject of many memes so far. The main concept and thought of these memes are someone saying something that is considered stupid, close-minded or conservative by younger generations, with a reaction picture beneath it that says ‘ok boomer’. Another meme is someone elderly looking saying basically anything, boomer or not, and the other person saying ‘ok boomer’. An example is Darth Vader saying ‘I’m your father’, and Luke responding with ‘ok boomer’. What’s interesting about the current situation is that ‘ok boomer’ is becoming a 'core' meme, where hundreds of new, extended and deviant memes are 

 young people use it to anyone that they consider old or annoying.

This is very frustrating to some boomers. They feel very attacked and violated by all of this and call the term an ageist slur. Bob Lonsberry, an American radio talk show host and boomer, tweeted that ‘boomer’ is the n-word of ageism. Some boomers complained about co-workers using ‘ok boomer’, and some employers even e-mailed everyone to make clear that the use of the term would not be tolerated. Rachel Premack, for instance, a transportation reporter, got an e-mail saying ‘many do not appreciate the potential ageist interpretation of the term’ and that ‘’ok boomer’ is not OK in the workplace’. Boomers even introduced the term 'ok zoomer' as a defence.

underwaterlookingupatyou on Tumblr and Jules_su on Twitter

The response of the boomers

Many of the "boomers" think that the milenials and generation Z is too harh on them. Others say that it is offensive and they should have respect for elderly people.

Other groups of "too sensitive boomers, have decided to try to turn the roles over with: "OK zoomer". According to Urban Dictionary :

"The term Zoomer is also in reference to the fast-paced upbringings members of generation Z are characterized to have due to the fast advances in technology and culture that has been happening around them as a result of the interconnectivity of the American and Global populations because of the ubiquity of internet-connected smart phones and social media."

I can't stand those Zoomers, all they do is use their phones all day to play Fortnite and watch TikTok videos!

Are millennials next?

The current trend as described in this article, is not only of generation Z’s making. There is a big overlap with millennials also using ok boomer and thus being incorporated in the memes. However there are already memes being created about the inevitability that millennials (generation Y) will be the next targets. The question remains if this is accurate. Not only because of the sustainability of these memes, but also of the changing social landscape. Over time the weight of the ok boomer meme is already slipping. Like with most memes it moves into a limbo state of it either having a resurgence or being overused and slowly dying. This resurgence can be aimed at a new target, or simply be a reinventing of the meme. Which could very well be millennials.

Right now, the younger generations are dismissing the older generation, but when these now young generations age, the same will happen to them.

The interesting aspect however is the big gap between baby boomers and generation Y/Z. This gap is less significant and less apparent between millennials and zoomers. For instance, generation Y is largely a generation of tolerance, which continues to be true for generation Z. They also have the same troubles with previous generations. Some signs of disdain towards millennials jumping on the bandwagon and even claiming ‘OK, boomer’ as their own, might actually point towards millennials being next.

reddit user /u/no-name-man-guy

Some memes go even further and actually are starting to go after millennials. However the amount of upvotes and trending threads of this kind, are not nearly as big as boomer memes. Also the effects of the memes aren’t on the same level. Same goes for the uptake of millennial memes, or “Ok, Moomer?” or whatever will be the inevitable meme. The reason for this is that millennials are still the biggest represented group on platforms like Reddit.com, /r/dankmemes in particular,  and also on 4chan. Certain sub-forums do see an increasing amount of generation Z users, so the inevitability of them taking over and the threads against millennials becoming more popular will become more realistic.

It is also hard to differentiate between boomers making threads, like the one below, or if its actually zoomers that are opening the offensive. However this thread strongly implies that it is in fact a boomer trying to save face, and thus is greeted with a certain comment in the comment sections. That comment of course is “Ok Boomer”. Threads like these imply that if the shift comes towards millennials it will have to come from a younger generation. Since the boomers will just be greeted with the same reaction again and again by both generation Y and Z.

To what effect?

The effectiveness or at least how widespread this meme has become shows that it affects people on both sides. The posters feel like it is a way to express their issues with the baby boomers and tell them they are done with their “shit”. Like mentioned before. But there is also one other group that is being affected by this trend and that is the target itself.

The “OK, Boomer” phenom created some interesting responses from the self-proclaimed “victim group”. For some columnists it has actually sparked some outrage or confusion to the point of writing about it in Dutch newspapers.

Sander Donkers wonders why a generation that is extremely strict about i.e. sexuality and tolerance, can be so quick to label anyone above 65 as a conservative jackass. Especially when a part of that generation, according to Mr. Donkers, are just sweet old hippies wondering what they did wrong? His column represents a sound heard a lot from boomers, nameley that they wonder if it couldn’t be done any other way. A more tolerant way? This though refers back to the origins of it all. The fact that apparently the other way didn’t work. Generation Z and Millennials didn’t feel like they were listened to or respected and thus created this meme.

It has even come as far as forbes.com publishing articles for boomers that teach them how to respond to “Generation Z’s new meme”. They do however take a great position in this. Mark. C. Pena argues that outrage is not the way! Instead listen, show respect and converse with the other party to get your point across or to see if there is any common ground or understanding to be found.

Something that is really interesting and noteworthy about his response is that he talks about what sparked the meme into existen. That is the worries the younger generations have and the pressure they feel that makes them be critical of past generations and the future. This is the way to eventually work together and grow as a species and not be completely locked in and blind to what we can learn from one another.

Ok boomer as a phenomenon

The phenomenon tells us that the current generations uses meme as a way to express themselves and as a way of activism. In this case the boomer meme is a gross generalization or form of stereotyping the boomer generation with the intent to “fight back”. The reason for the memes creation thus origins in feeling unheard and unfairly judged. The producers of the memes, generation Y and Z, feel this is one of the last resorts when countering the baby boom generation. The platforms they primarily use and percentage wise dominate are the best mediators for their content. Since there they are amongst peers and thus, through sharing, the “ok boomer” meme has a bigger chan of being spread and of surviving. The memes are also starting to be created purely to satisfy their peers with content they can relate to, whilst shining a spotlight on the boomers. Thus producer and receiver becoming the same group of people. It is also interesting that the subject, the boomer, is less represented on the platforms and so a counter movement is hard to facilitate. They can’t compete because of the sheer numbers of generation Y/Z out there on the platforms.

The popularity of the meme becomes bigger and it almost transforms memeing into a political device, where the large reach and the fast and easy spreading of the content can create new discourse in the generation war.

References

Spector, Nicole (November 6, 2019) ‘'OK boomer' is dividing generations. What does it mean?’ NBC News.

Burghout, W. (2019, August 24). Generatie Y in beeld: de kenmerken van de Millennials. Generation Journey.

Collett, Michael (November 7, 2019) ‘How the phrase ‘OK boomer’ suddenly went all over the internet’ ABC News.

Lorenz, Taylor (November 20, 2019) ‘’OK boomer’ Marks the End of Friendly Generational Relations’ The New York Times

Perna, M. (2019, November 27). OK, Boomer: This Is How To Respond To Gen Z’s New Meme. Forbes.

Premack, Rachel (November 8, 2019) ‘inbox’ Twitter.

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ok-boomer

Graham, J. (November 15, 2019). 'The origins of the 'Ok boomer' meme explained' Vogue. 

Leigh, K. (November 9, 2019) 'If you're mad about 'ok boomer', you're probably part of the problem' Medium. 

Unknown. (October 30, 2018) 'Urban dictionary’: zoomer'