This means that in my immediate family we have a Millennial,
a Generation Zer, and two Baby Boomers (that's me and my wife, obviously, the
other two being our daughters).
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| The Baby Boomer graphic actually looks uncannily like me. |
The Baby Boomer generation (those born 1944-1964) is,
unlike the names for the other cohorts, a title that I've been familiar with
for many, many years. With a spectacular lack of interest, it never really
occurred to me that subsequent generations would be given titles too. And the Baby Boomer moniker is accurate
enough, describing the post-war prosperity that was particularly enjoyed in
America and which resulted in a growth in birth rates. I'm not entirely
convinced that in the UK any baby boom was driven by prosperity as many people
- my parents included - led a financially precarious existence (my Dad had many
different, often shortlived jobs when I was growing up).
After the Baby Boomers came the group dubbed Generation X
(born 1965-1979, and of whom little reference ever seems to be made as far as I
can tell), then Millennials, then Generation Z. None of this is of any great
importance to me, but to some - social scientists and marketing men especially
- the difference between generations is key.
Marketing products by appealing to key elements of a
particular generation's characteristics will help maximise sales of whatever
product we are talking about. Baby Boomers are unsurprisingly the biggest
consumers of traditional media such as the TV and newspapers; they are more
likely than any other generation to prefer to do their banking in branches
rather than online, and many have concerns about the security of their finances
as they pass into retirement. Generation Z, on the other hand rarely, if ever,
visit a bank branch, have grown up in a world where the internet is ubiquitous
and therefore have become entirely reliant on their smartphones and other
devices. Streaming services and online content have replaced traditional
methods of watching TV for them, and they have probably never even read, let
alone bought, a physical newspaper.
The application of specific titles for different generations
and the psychobabble that surrounds it is merely a more complex way of saying
that we are different from our parents and different from our children. Which
is the same as it ever was, way back to the generation that saw the sabre tooth
tiger become extinct and told their offspring that they didn't know how lucky
they were not to have to contend with such big cats.
New life has been breathed into the generational gap thing
this year with the entry into our language of the phrase, "Ok,
boomer," which allegedly came into being when - in a TikTok video[1]
- a grey-haired man (presumably a Baby
Boomer) says that “millennials and Generation Z ... don’t ever want to grow
up.” On a split-screen next to him, a young man silently holds up a notepad on
which is written “OK Boomer.”
Inevitably, 'Ok boomer' went viral and has even spawned a
range of clothing. The phrase itself is used by many who belong to Generation Z
to target those of particular political persuasions - think supporters of
Donald Trump, or Brexit - those who resist technological progress and hold
unreconstructed views on climate change and the like. I guess that if you
wanted to put a face to this generation it would look like Piers Morgan or
Jeremy Clarkson. This whole 'ok boomer' thing is of course, terribly ageist and
a sweeping generalisation; it's also true to a large extent.
I consider myself to be relatively enlightened - I've
embraced many of the new technologies, I rarely go into a bank branch, I'm
comfortable with streaming services, read online or downloads rather than buying
physical newspapers or books - and I
think that I have a relatively young outlook. In short, I don't think that I am
a typical boomer, however, I have to admit to exhibiting a few of the traits
that apparently define my generation.
For one, I am likely to launch conversations with the phrase, "In my day," for
example making comparisons with the three channel television coverage that I
had to endure when I was growing up with the multiple channels and
exponentially growing number of streaming services available today. I am also
likely to sit, stewing quietly and muttering complaints, in restaurants when I
see people who came in after us get their order taken and their food served
more quickly than my group.
Baby boomers hold their phones in one hand and text with
their pointer finger (I think they mean index finger): Yep, that's me. Boomer
culture is lining up to board a plane 30 minutes early: Again, yes,
although 30 minutes sounds like cutting it a bit fine if you ask me.
There are a lot of stereotypically boomer traits that I
don't have, however. I don't invoke the Second World War as a justification for
being right - or for anything else, come to that. WWII was over for more than
twelve years before I was born, how on earth is it relevant? I don't find it
necessary to mention the ethnicity of everyone when I relate an anecdote, I
don't double space after full-stops, and I don't assume that every screen is a
touch screen. Oh, and I am not offended by the whole 'Ok boomer' thing and I
don't think it is ageist, I actually think it's rather amusing (if a bit boring
now), and completely normal inter-generational banter.
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| Double spacing after a period (full stop)? Rees Mogg's your man, and having been born in 1969, he's not even a boomer, he's part of Generation X |
Just to prove that there is nothing new under the sun
however, I read this morning that today's teenagers have started accusing millennials of being
out of touch, as it seems that they are
making fun of the younger generation, by romanticising older TV programmes, and
beginning sentences with, "kids these day." Furthermore millennials
think that their music is better than modern music, that today's teenagers
"don't understand the 'pain' of rolling up a car window with a handle
instead of a button."
Perhaps most tellingly, millennials are slowly losing their
innate gift for understanding technology - my younger daughter has admitted as
much to me - and just like the baby boomers, they are finding the pace of
change and new technologies bewildering.
If all of this is true, then millennials and baby boomers
have much, much, more in common than either of them thought. The fact that we
have gone from 'ok boomer' to teenagers mocking millennials in the blink of an
eye is something I find really rather reassuring.
[1]
TikTok is a social media video app for creating and sharing short lip-sync,
comedy, and talent videos. The app was launched in 2017 by Chinese developer
ByteDance (Wikipedia). I offer this for the benefit of Baby Boomers who
probably think that TikTok is the sound a proper clock makes.
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