Baby boomers who rolled their eyes and mocked the younger generation as ‘snowflakes’ are now being collectively dissed with the term ‘OK Boomer’ whenever they open their mouth.
The phrase has been rampantly used on social media as a ‘catch all’ for anything that a baby boomer (aged 55-75) might say or do that is deemed out of touch, dated or ‘cringe’.
Ironically, after making its way to explainer pieces on the New York Times and NBC News, the older generation have already began to ‘ruin’ the meme – according to the teens who popularized it.
Viral: Virginia-based Luca Brennan, third from left, is one of the teenagers responsible for popularizing the clapback online as he posed with his classmates for senior picture day
Twitter: On Twitter, baby boomers are often ‘shut down’ with the catchphrase when they say something condescending
Merch: After the phrase took off online, enterprising teens began creating and selling tongue-in-cheek ‘OK Boomer’ merchandise
The phrase ‘OK Boomer’ was born from teenagers who used it to respond to anything they deemed ‘cringe’ such as views from Conservatives, Donald Trump tweets, and those who denounce any issues that matter to them.
NBC News writer Kalhan Rosenblatt said of the phrase that it ‘mirrors growing anger among young people at the older generation’s passivity for the issues facing the world, not only today, but for the issues that young people say will be left to them to figure out once they become adults.’
Taylor Lorenz, who wrote about the trend for the New York Times, described the phrase as a ‘default retort to old people on the internet and a rallying cry for millions of kids who are fed up with the status quo.’
On TikTok, there are countless satirical videos in which people fire back, ‘OK Boomer’ for everything from being asked why there are rips in their jeans to condescending statements about student debt or climate change.
One content creator, @idoitforlaughs, even created a ‘Steve Boomer’ caricature who represented the archetype out of touch boomer for whom the phrase is intended.
Popular: The phrase spread wildly on TikTok where videos relating to the term, left and right, have been viewed over 20 million times collectively
Offended: Baby boomers, who originally called millennials overly-sensitive, are stating that the term ‘OK Boomer’ is offensive and disrespectful
After the phrase made its way to the mainstream media, it also kicked off arguments on Twitter between baby boomers and millennials and lead to cries of ‘bullying’ from the older camp.
Caricature: A TikTok comedian created the ‘Steve Boomer’ archetype representing the kind of baby boomer likely to be mocked with the phrase, ‘OK Boomer’
‘Boomers protested the Vietnam War, died at Kent State and marched for civil rights. We’re not spending time on Snapchat and TikTok berating another generation. We’re still working for change,’ a retired female Twitter user said.
‘#okboomer is a lame response to #GenZ’s problems. Instead of blaming boomers, maybe they need to figure stuff out like working hard or paying bills instead of mooching of their parents and complaining,’ said another.
As people began to predict the ‘end of friendly generational relations’ between young and old, millennial and Gen Z-aged social media users joked that baby boomers shouldn’t have spent years ‘slandering’ them.
A tweet read: ‘Older people have spent years and years and years slandering millennials mercilessly, but when some young people talk back, that’s “the end of friendly generational relations.”‘
One user on the platform called the saying ‘offensive’, ‘disrespectful’ and a ‘new form of hate’.
But some youths who use the term online have rejected the notion that the phrase is either a response to being labeled snowflake or confined to those over 55.
‘Bullying’: Twitter users dismissed baby boomers stating that the term was unfair after calling millennials ‘snowflakes’ for years
‘Boomer can be applied more to personality than really what date you were born,’ Nick Carver, 17, told NBC.
‘I don’t think “OK Boomer” is a retort on the “snowflake” name-calling,’ Hannah Hill, 20, also told the outlet.
‘It isn’t intended in the malicious way that “snowflake” is aimed at younger generations. It’s a funny way the younger people can laugh off the entitlement of some baby boomers.
‘It is a humorous way to say “OK, whatever’ and move on with our lives.”
‘A boomer is really more of a type of personality, someone who is intolerant to new ideas and who is ignorant to new ideas,’ Luca Brennan, 17 agreed. ‘Stuff like that.’
On the subject, one person on Twitter added: ‘I got called a boomer and I’m 19. I feel like this is just gonna join the other phrases that get overused until they have no meaning anymore.’
Mainstream: After the term was picked up by the New York Times and NBC, TikTok users joked that now even their parents were asking about it
It’s over: Many social media users felt that now the term had been explained and entered the mainstream lexicon, it was already becoming trite and overused
And many more agreed that now that the phrase had wound its way into the mainstream media, it was officially overused, worn out and hackneyed.
‘Oh great the blue check marks are starting to figure out what memes are,’ one user said, referring to the journalists reporting on the term.
Still, that likely won’t stop people flocking to buy the tongue-in-cheek ‘merch’.
Shannon O’Connor, 19, told the New York Times that she had received more than $10,000 in orders after sharing her custom-created ‘OK Boomer, have a terrible day’ hoodie and T-shirt.
‘The older generations grew up with a certain mind-set, and we have a different perspective,’ she told the outlet.
‘A lot of them don’t believe in climate change or don’t believe people can get jobs with dyed hair, and a lot of them are stubborn in that view. Teenagers just respond, ‘Ok, boomer.’ It’s like, we’ll prove you wrong, we’re still going to be successful because the world is changing.’