Is It OK To Say "OK, Boomer?"
It sounds like a cheeky way to blow off the opinion of someone older than you—but does this phrase cross the line when it comes to snark?
The New York Times published a piece that has had far-ranging effects and stoked inter-generational ire just by focusing on what could be viewed as an innocuous phrase: “OK, boomer.” The article explains the rising popularity of responding to older people’s opinions by saying “OK, boomer,” referring to their belonging to the Baby Boomer generation. The phrase began among Zoomers and is meant to encapsulate the angst of Gen Z when it comes to the world they’ve inherited—and there may be some legitimacy. Millennials were the first generation worse off than the generation before them. To quote the article:
The phrase has gained so much attention that one entrepreneurial Zoomer put a design of the words on clothing and sold more than $10,000 worth of merchandise.
Following the article, “OK, boomer” seems to have captured the cultural moment. A 25 year-old politician in New Zealand used it to silence older hecklers, The Times’ own opinion column weighed in on it, and the Internet is still abuzz with the echo of “OK, boomer” fallout weeks after the article was published.
But is it OK to say “OK, boomer?” Detractors say that at best it’s stereotypical, at worst it’s ageism. Baby Boomer proponents say that it’s a flippant phrase and shouldn’t be given more weight than it deserves.
Where do you fall in the debate? Is it OK for teens and young adults to say “OK, boomer” or are they crossing a line? Let us know in the comments.
1 like
The term is pure ageism. If it was used with a race, a gender, a religion, you would be oh so horrified... but it is okay to be abusive using age as a weapon.
I felt dismissed when a young friend said it to me when I defended something about my generation.
-It's fine to say "OK Boomer" if the Boomer can slap the speaker. Perhaps we should start saying the B-word.
Of course it's OK. We deserve much worse. We allowed our "leaders" to be totally corrupted and left them an uninhabitable planet to deal with. It's lucky for us they haven't turned us into food. Yet.
No, it's not OK.
Why should the adults in the room think it's a flippant phrase and shouldn't be given so much weight ? Rudeness is meant to be rude. There is no one there who's in on the joke except the joker.
The equivalent would be, "OK, a$$h*le".
When THAT gets acceptable, then we'll talk.