by Lauryn Chavez | staff writer
As the internet craze “ok boomer” erupts into twitter arguments and news articles discrediting the meme, sophomore Nysha Makani expresses that the term is so popularized because of the many different viewpoints generation z and the baby boomers have, which are highlighted by the media.
“I think this term is so popular because baby boomers and Gen Z don’t see the same, we all have very different visions, what I would want to be today is a lot different than what they wanted to be at my age,” Makani said.
Although the phrase “okay boomer” is used in many different scenarios, U.S. History teacher Timothy Green feels as if this term is used to discredit the baby boomers.
“The boomers have created a lot of the issues that we’re dealing with, but they also solved a lot of the problems,” Green said.
As someone that uses the phrase occasionally, Nysha Makani expresses that she only says it to her friends and never someone older than her.
“If I say it, I usually say it to someone my age. I say it as a joke to my friends because they know what I’m talking about and they have the same viewpoint as me. I’d never say it to someone older than me because I know they might take it wrong, and it might be disrespectful and that’s not where I’m coming from,” Makani said.
Like Makani, junior Justin Garcia also identifies the phrase “okay boomer” as a joking term used with people his age.
“It’s more of a quick comeback against anyone older than you. Like I have friends that are freshmen and they say that to me all the time,” Garcia said.
The meaning of the phrase and why people say it has two very different connotations.
“To me the phrase is a reflection of the treatment of young people. Typically, many of the older people don’t take millennials seriously. Take for instance Greta Thunberg (the young environmentalist), many people didn’t take her seriously and even made fun of her efforts, or the New Zealand parliament heckling a young speaker over her environmental speech. No matter how much evidence or how many attempts to try to prove that we as young people aren’t incapable of bringing change, the treatment remains the same. So the phrase, ‘okay boomer’ is our way of saying, ‘I don’t have the energy to explain anything anymore and why bother when you won’t listen,’” Garcia said.
Students agree that the true meaning of “okay boomer” is just a way to snap back at older people when we don’t want to give them the time of day. Green believes the phrase singles out the generation of baby boomers.
“Well it’s an oversimplification and an overgeneralization and also inaccurate in a number of cases. It’s essentially and splitting up all of our society into us and them and so if you’re not part of this one little group then you’re part of this other group. The baby boomers are a generation but there have been other generations before and after baby boomers so to lock them in to one age group is unfair,” Green said.
