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► TIME STAMPS:
0:00 – intro
1:56 – defining Boomers and Gen Z
4:14 – Accusations of Boomerosity
5:47 – thanks, Nurx!
6:48 – the divide: Gen Z 1.0 and 2.0
7:37 – how the pandemic affected gen z
9:34 – social skills & the Gen Z Stare
13:14 – generational differences in social etiquette, small talk
15:58 – does gen z lack social skills, or are they just creating new norms?
19:20 – the split between Elder and Younger Boomers
22:53 – are gen z really becoming more conservative?
23:45 – the political gender gap in gen z
25:00 – the political divide between elder & younger gen z
30:01- so… is the boomerfication of gen z real ??
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‘OK Boomer’ Marks the End of Friendly Generational Relations –
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1968: The Year that Broke the Democratic Party –
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How younger voters will impact elections –
How Birth Year Influences Political Views –
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The New Partisan Divide Is Old Gen Z vs. Young Gen Z –
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For the almighty algorithm… in today’s video essay, we explore whether the “boomerfication of gen z” is real — is gen z really acting like boomers?? is the Gen Z stare real? are millennials actually the new boomers? are we just stoking the generational divide? what is happening! ok boomer meme. millennial pause.
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let's dig into the alleged boomerfication!! // Thanks to Nurx for sponsoring this video! Head to https://nurx.com/tiffanyferg to get started. Not offered in every state. Medications prescribed only if clinically appropriate, consultation required. Costs apply, see nurx.com for details. Not all insurance plans are accepted. Images for illustration purposes only.
If small talk with strangers, or even basic polite pleasantries when making a purchase, were to disappear completely, it would represent a major cultural and civilizational regression
I’m a Zillenial (95). I’m curious if there’s a difference here between USA and European culture here. I’m from USA, and small talk is very customary here, especially here in the south where I live. But when I’ve gone to Europe, people did not engage in small talk with me. Perhaps that was cultural, perhaps it was because I’m American. It wasn’t even the language barrier because I speak other languages and most of them can speak English anyway. People DID talk to me about all kinds of things like politics and religion and travel. But not “hi how are you” small talk. And it was a little jarring as a southern USA girl but I actually ended up quite liking it, skipping small talk and getting into interesting stuff. But, having an employee be nice to me makes my day a little better, and having one be silent to me doesn’t change my day but certainly doesn’t improve it.
These points-of-view are so divisive and toxic to community relations. They stalk the extremes of each group, just like Trump does in politics. The tone is nasty. Most people offline are better than this. Treat people the way you want to be treated, young or old, black or white, male or female. Most people are kind if you give them a chance.
Also, everyday people of older generations didn’t shape the world, the top 1% did. Most people are – and always have been – at the mercy of decisions made by the top 1%. Seeing the best in people is a much more peaceful way to be, for yourselves and for the world. Focus on what you can do in the world, rather than blaming normal older people for what you can’t. It really doesn’t do anyone any good to go through life seeing every other generation through such a bitter lens.
I thought it was normal to look at the other person during a conversation. Is it not? Lol
one time i told my sister im a zelennial (1998) and she said thats the most millenial thing to say 😂 she was born in 06
Whether it's old people hating on the young or young people hating on the old, ageism isn't acceptable. Just more reasons to hate people. What insult are we going to come up with for all the other supposed generations? Shouldn't we have insults for stereotypical behavior of every age group?
14:00 If I was hiring, my first question would be "how would you greet the customer." It is not just BS, it is the first step of customer service, emphasis on the last word actually being in the job title and something to take pride in. And when I was doordashing the fact that workers would not acknowledge you for an extended period of time caused problems in my pay check when there was an issue with an order and no one had communicated about it for 20 minutes. The funniest part is the social anxiety op out–That is what manners are amazing for, it is a script of how to be able to politely get through interactions with someone you don't know well
14:36 I am quite anxious and every time I talk to any server or I am serving I am just awkwardly smiling😭 It’s also surprising that the division of gen z is 2002-2003 and 90% of my friends (also myself) are from these two years
I'm 17 and pregnant, just graduated highschool, and both of my grandmas on either side of my family got pregnant when they were 17. I have a really good relationship with my grandma on my mom's side because of this. Boomers, when they were in their teens and 20s, were facing an incredibly divided and changing political landscape. Just like Gen Z today. We both want freedom and we make stupid choices.
I’m younger gen z and I’m more conservative, but I don’t like trump, I don’t think he’s a good president. We need candidates that aren’t on deaths door, it’s ridiculous. I really just want a more limited government, and I want them to stop sending money to foreign countries when we are in major debt and I actually got pissed off when trump said he wanted a ballroom, like hell no you aren’t using my tax dollars for that and he’s rich if he wants one so bad then he can pay for it. Anyways that’s my rant lol 29:15
11:51 for me, it’s as if they’re waiting for anyone (even AI) to tell them what to do 🙈
I think people need to remember that the generational divides are literally just an arbitrary system created to be used by statisticians for measuring changes in culture and accessibility. They're functionally meaningless, and the difference between a younger millennial and older gen z is entirely determined by things such as class, race and similar socio-economic factors since they're really only one year apart.
Something else that I feel like people forget is that if you just go outside, you won't actually meet many gen z people who act like this in real life. I'm a middle/late gen z, my little brother is gen alpha, I can assure you I've never met any gen z or alpha who act like the caricatures you'll find online. It's almost like the actual average isn't worth filming, so you don't have access to it.
Also, this video is very USA-centric, and this larger cultural context does not necessarily apply to other countries. I know that Trump definitely is enough of a figure in the dominant culture to impact other countries views, but I know people that would be considered the equivalent of republican in my country who hate Trump, simply because we obviously don't get fed the same propaganda USAmericans get.
Things that I find boomerish are things like: not understanding where to find files on their computer without using a search bar, not realizing they need anti-virus cause it's always just been there, not understanding why it's rude to just hang up without letting the other person know the conversation has ended, the speaker phones, being on calls with complete strangers and not understanding why they shouldn't just believe that the person on the other end is who they say they are,…there's lots of examples on how they are very similar to boomers. Like that tech are just magic boxes that do stuff, but they don't know how.
The amount of times I have to ask them if they tried restarted something if it doesn't work, the amount of times I've had to replace headphones because they just assumed they were broken…
I recently had to take apart and clean an Xbox because they had put it in the closet claiming it was broken because it kept overheating, it works perfectly now.
For me it's not the politics per say that make them boomerish, it's the lack of understanding on how things function. I spent hours as a kid learning the ends and outs of computers, learning where everything was and learning to fix things on my own without help. This generation seems unable to fix things without assistance, and they don't remember how to do it again if they do fix it.
Theyre like boomers but poor like the rest of us.
Would've been nice for you to have mentioned cancel culture, which was something real that gen z noticed and got influenced by as well.
Older GenZ are called Zillenials. And many of our millennial traits com from the fact we had older siblings, watched mtv, were cognizant during the mustache, bushwick coffee shop, indie sleeze era alongside our older siblings.
I've been saying for years that Gen Z are basically mini boomers super narcissistic very concerned with their own ego obviously not read Gen Z or Boomer falls into this category but I call Gen Z the zoomers because I think of them as many boomers and this is coming from an elder millennial
As gen Z imho, gen Z will be the most unfortunate and the 2nd most worse generation while boomer is most fortunate and most worse generation 😬. I hate gen Z who are so entitled like "if I have college degree I should be able to afford to live" while their degree is either trash or easy to get 🤪😒. Seen a lot of freshgraduate with barely minimum thesis because college grading qualifications is "adjusted" for the weaker gen just to keep the grade. Does this HAPPEN TO YOUR COUNTRY too 😂?
27:02 – so funny that people are trying "not to be weird", while being insanely weird in the process. When I see a younger kid not wanting to do simple things like asking for help to someone they don't know, all I can think is "what a weirdo"
I think what we can see is, generational differences aside, the younger side of Gen Z sounds, at the same time, conscious and concerned about the exploitation of workers, especially service workers (which is a great thing), and kind of socially stunted. Valuing "efficiency" over just being kind to the human being in front of you, and getting kindness in return, sound reeeeeally weird to me. (I'm an older millennial, born in 1985)
GenZ attitude in social circumstances is like a postmodern painting in art; meanings of the meaningless things and disapproval of the ordinary things.
Actually the new boomers are the millennials LOL. All the other generations basically can't stand you because of your narcissism and self-centeredness and victimology. Can't wait for generation alpha to start speaking you think you're the masters of no contact just you wait. You reap what you sow you nasty creatures.
This is one of the best videos I’ve seen in the genre of young adult YouTube social commentary (for lack of a better term, I’m sure everyone here has similar algorithms and knows what I mean). A lot of the commentary on this stuff has gotten really trite, and either presents itself with dull neutrality or highly motivated reasoning and beliefs presented as if they’re facts. This was much better researched, neutrality without pretending you don’t personally have opinions, and more interesting takes on stuff I’ve already seen many videos about. Quality content like this is really appreciated these days!
I’m a younger millennial and I remember defending Gen Z constantly when people mocked them because we knew what it felt like to be talked down to by boomers. Lazy, entitled, dramatic. That was the narrative. A lot of us genuinely tried not to repeat that pattern. We tried to be welcoming instead of gatekeeping.
When generational labels first became popular, they were more linear because people had kids younger. The generation before you was usually the one that raised you, so each generation reacted directly against its parents. Millennials were largely raised by boomers and became their opposite in tone. Less authoritarian, less absolute, more self-aware, more likely to question ourselves than declare ourselves right. Gen X carried a similar skeptical, detached energy.
Gen Z, reacting to Gen X and millennials, often feels closer in tone to boomers. More declarative. More morally certain. More confident their perspective is the correct one. That doesn’t make them villains. It’s just the pattern. When you grow up around generations that process internally and question themselves, the pushback can look bold and absolute.
The cycle didn’t disappear. It just evolved. And sometimes the irony is that the loud certainty millennials pushed back against is the same tone showing up again, just from a different age group. All young people think they’ve got it figured out regardless of the generation.
“I’m not going to do <xyz>. I shouldn’t have to. It’s not my job. I shouldn’t have to remind you.” PRECISELY like my Boomer parents. Both generations dumping it on me, the Xer, and sauntering off to Starbucks while I have panic attacks sorting it out. No wonder we Xers are so done with everyone else.
I have a feeling it has to do with millennial/younger parenting tbh.
My parents are Gen X and had me later in life, (so I’m later Gen Z) which means some of my friends have parents who are a decade + younger than my parents. I think there was a lot of absent parenting, where parents were raising kids but not actually getting to know them. My bestie has younger parents and they are the most immature and childish people I’ve ever met, and Im sure I was much more mature than them since I was 12.
Anyway, because nobody really asked them about how they’re doing or made no effort to have chats about their day, my friends rarely ask me about anything going on in my life/silence and it’s so crazy.
My mom would always ask me about my friends and it kinda reminded/taught me to ask about other people, but it’s astonishing that most of my friends don’t know much about my life.
I always thought it was just the friends I keep but it makes more sense that it’s not just a me thing lmfao
I disagree that the Gen Z stare comes from a lack of socializing. If that was the cause it would be something that was normal way before Gen Z was around and would be called the introvert stare. This is something entirely new and different.
The Gen Z gender divide is wild (and very sad, if true), esp. wrt to a lot of Gen-Z men/males supposedly being very "pro-manosphere" and "alpha male-esque" (ugh)