Is 'OK Boomer' Offensive? Here's Why The Term Is Dividing Generations

People who spend too much time on social media tend to add something in everyone's vocabulary from time to time. Over the past few weeks, the phrase “Ok boomer” has been trending across social media, and you may be wondering what it is all about.

To put it straight, the simple objective of the phrase is to imply that the millennials and Generation Z care less about what the older generation has to say or advice.

The phrase has reportedly originated from a viral TikTok video. The video features an old man, who slams the young generation saying, “The millennials and Generation Z have the Peter Pan syndrome; they don’t ever want to grow up.” The teens, in turn, respond to him with “ok boomer.” Eventually, the phrase turned into memes and made way to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

To Generation Z, the term “boomer” no longer addresses the WWII baby boom-generation (1946-1964). At present, the term represents older people from a different generation, who don’t fit in or don’t align with their standard of beliefs. According to Luca Brennan, “A boomer is really more of a type of personality, someone who is intolerant to new ideas and who is ignorant of new ideas.”

Luca Brennan is a teenager, who teamed up with his friends to create a T-shirt captioned “OK boomer” with the image of their senior, reported NBC News. The t-shirt, which candidly represented the trend, instantly went viral on Instagram.

On the other hand, the older generation finds the term highly offensive. Dr. Jaime Friedman, 73, hailing from Seattle, says that he condemns all forms of stereotype. He suggests that the phrase comes from “the same root, the same evil that animates anti-Mormonism, antisemitism, racism, homophobia. It is exactly the same root.”

Yet, the term “OK, boomer” has gone way beyond the social media realm and is creeping up to real-life conversations. Sometimes, it flares up the disputes between the generations; and sometimes, even the generation doesn’t matter. However, Generation Z has already capitalized on the phrase, selling a bunch of merchandise associated with it.

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