"Okay, Boomer." If you haven’t heard the catch-all put-down millennials and Gen Z use to condescendingly burn baby boomers who made their lives much worse - we don't know where you've been. It got so out of hand at one point that many employers were afraid that it might disrupt the work environment.
Never mind, then, because in a natural course of events, with the youngest millennial being in their late 20s, Gen Z is already plotting how the meme will be passed on to the avocado toast generation. "It’s the year 2050 and the term 'ok, millennial' is trending. What are the reasons the young generation is using it?" one user pondered in the Ask Reddit community. From vintage cartoon jokes to early Internet days, it's pretty clear that millennials should start warming up to the idea that redemption day is coming.
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The kids of 2050 think grandpa is crazy.. talking about fantastical things like "winter", "fast food" & "electricity".
What is all that talk about grandkids? Don't you mean grandcats and granddogs ? Having kids seems to be getting unpopular these days....Cats and dogs, however....
According to Know Your Meme, the Encyclopedia Britannica of memes, "OK Boomer" is a "dismissive retort often used to disregard or mock Baby Boomers and those who are perceived as old-fashioned and being out-of-touch."
The most prominent example of this comes from Chlöe Swarbrick, a New Zealand parliamentarian. After making a statement asserting that the average age of parliamentarians stood at 49 years old, her Gen X counterpart Todd Muller interrupted her, prompting Swarbrick to fire back with a well-timed "OK Boomer" retort.
*Some big catastrophic event happens*
Millennials: Meh, The Simpsons predicted it 40 years ago.
Younger Gen: Okay, Millennial.
With a significant presence, Generation Z encompasses approximately 26% of the global population, which translates to a staggering 2 billion individuals. Notably, Generation Z stands out as one of the most racially and ethnically diverse generations within the United States, with figures such as Greta Thunberg and Earthling Ed, reflecting a rich tapestry of backgrounds and cultures.
At its core, the "OK Boomer" meme originated as a concise way for Generation Z to resist claims of being an overly sensitive or incapable generation in the face of adversity. However, it has since evolved into a versatile response directed primarily at older generations, particularly Boomers, when they express opinions that are deemed presumptuous, patronizing, or politically incorrect. It serves as a retort to counter such viewpoints and challenge the perceived condescension inherent in them. As the New York Times called it: "It’s the digital equivalent of an eye roll."
I feel like my generation is going to be very against AI rights and AI civil rights will be the issue of the future. I could easily see older versions of my generation being like "No, you can't marry that AI, marriage is between two people, robots are not people, an if else if statement can't love you!"
"ok millennial"
The problem is very real. If we submit control more and more to AI, we need a whole new subset of ethics. How does an AI solve an ethical dilemma? And, more important: is is actually responsible for its actions? If we decide to answer the last question with "yes", then we would have to recognize them as a - very limited - form of being, so the question of AI rights is very much on.
When whatever smart phones become are implanted in our eyes our generation will be like “I just like the feel of a real phone, you know?”
As expected, Generation Z has turned their attention towards Millennials, or Generation Y, who were previously believed to share common grievances. However, according to social researcher Claire Madden, Millennials find themselves in an interesting position. “Millennials still feel young and feel a sense of relevance, but they’re also a bridging generation. What might be surprising to Gen Y is how quickly [they] are being superseded by the more tech-savvy generation who are emerging and entering the workforce and redefining the way we socialize, work, play and build relationships. That suddenly makes Millennials feel older than [they] perhaps realized,” she explained to The Sydney Morning Herald.
"I remember the good old days when we used keyboard and mouse or a controller. Kids these days can't live a day without using brainwave controls"
I don't want to get rid of keyboards. I like the clackity clack noise.
Post apocalyptic earth 2050:
Group huddling in an abandoned Wal-Mart Housing Complex in San Fernando Valley.
JayZeeth, group leader, Generation Xx5 Man 20: “We must smash as many cockroaches as possible, gather them, everyone put them into this straining mechanism and we can all have a table spoon of protein to get through the day..
Tomorrow, we set out by foot to meet the others at the beach to sift through the sludge in a refurbished boat, there’s 6 miles of sludge before we reach actual ocean water. some will die, but the voyage may take us somewhere with cleaner water, and less flesh eating google +++++ users.”
Paul, Millennial Man, 75: “When I was your age, I would press a button on my iPhone and get condoms, weed, whiskey and a pizza delivered to me in 20 minutes! Those days were lit af fam.”
JayZeeth, group leader, Generation Xx5 Man 20: “Okay, Millennial.”
Paul dies from dysentery the next day 1 mile into the voyage.
But is the bashing of millennials justified? Has the generational torch been dropped? It is the boomers, however, who have been accused of engaging in "generational plunder" by exploiting the nation's housing economy, consistently reducing their own tax burdens, funding wars through deficits, neglecting the urgency of climate change, overseeing the demise of America's manufacturing industry, and ultimately leaving future generations to grapple with the consequences of their actions.
"We did everything we could to stop the Climate Collapse"
"OK Millennial"
“Back in my day a townhouse cost $600k and a college degree only earned you $12/hour. And everyone made fun of us saying that we were lazy and emotionally fragile but it was the boomers’ fault!!”
“Ok, millenial...”
As Bruce Gibney, author of 'A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America', argues: "This is a generation that is dominated by feelings, not by facts. The irony is that boomers criticize millennials for being 'snowflakes', for being too driven by feelings. But the boomers are the first big feelings generation. They’re highly motivated by feelings and not persuaded by facts. And you can see this in their policies."
Today: F*****g Boomers with their houses they afforded with a janitor job.
2050: F*****g Millennials all inheriting their houses from their grandparents.
When millennials are like 70 and are still whining about boomers and why everything’s their fault.
“Ok millennial”
Speaking with my 21-year-old journalist colleague Daniel Fauzi from the UK about the prevalence of the 'OK Boomer' meme, they believe "it mostly comes from younger generations rejecting the boomer’s values, making the traditions they care about seem trivial." While Fauzi personally hasn't had an opportunity to use the meme in real-life interactions, they observed many of their peers taking advantage of it when the situation called for it.
Grandpa is giving them the old "You call that dancing? This is dancing!" followed by breaking his hip while trying to floss.
"There’s definitely something to be said about Gen Z differentiating themselves from millennials by doing so - I guess every generation wants to be doing things differently," Fauzi said to Bored Panda in a message. While Fauzi admitted to not being familiar with the 'OK Millennial' meme, they did notice a shift where Gen Z started directing their aim towards millennials. "I guess every generation wants to be doing things differently."
Back in my day, humans used to actually drive cars. There were so many accidents.' It's wild and crazy to think of a 2010 Ford Focus being seen as a classic car...
"Now your AI driver just decides when to kill you. Don't write any mean tweets about Elon Musk!"
They won't stop making edgy s*icide jokes.
"Grandma, my pet fish died"
"god I wish that was me"
"......"
Jamie Cohen, a digital media culture expert who studies memes academically, shares the same sentiment with Fauzi. "Millennials deserve some of the pushback because Gen Z is so distinct from them. Millennials lived through 9/11 and a bunch of recessions, but Gen Z had a pandemic, 'Zoom school', school violence, and the wasting away of social media just as they're growing up. The last thing they want to hear is some Millennial telling them what to do or how great the '90s were," he told Bored Panda in an email.
"I just think that brain chips have ruined what it means to be a kid. No one's texted each other in years, no one even looks at what their friends are posting. They just spend all their time in the "digi-space", pretending to be in the same room with each other! Ridiculous."
"Ok millennial."
It will probably be us telling them every new technological advance is just a new way for the government and companies to spy on them. Even if the laws change and you do have more privacy, I feel like our generation will always be suspicious.
According to Cohen, the notable influence of the 'OK Boomer' meme, to the extent of inspiring its contemporary iterations, can be attributed to its collective nature. "It's become quite clear that views held by boomers are unaligned with their younger generation counterparts as the boomers are likely the last generation (ever) to benefit from the capitalist growth of the industrial revolution," he explained. "So a good and effective retort to their outdated ideas is a simple, 'OK Boomer' which even sounds sarcastic."
They do not realize that in the days before the invention of the hypnopillow, it was possible to NOT get a perfect night's sleep every time.
And I will burn the city to CINDERS before I allow my daughter to marry Conceptual Identity Matrix 69-T as her 2nd co-wife. ESOTERIC CONSTRUCTS ARE NOT PEOPLE.
All that generation wants to do is marry their sex robots and it's disgusting!
Hey, in 2050 if you don't have kids, you might be able to afford your soylent (brought to you by Amazon) rations.
Ugh, for the last time gramps, no, i don't want to see your "iPhone".
Us having to explain that we got up for school 5am and would have to wait in the cold for a sh**ty bus.
Liberals today will be the conservatives of tomorrow.
Millennials, while solemnly swearing that they are not going to repeat the mistakes of Boomers and Gen X, they will make them anyway.
Millennials will always complain about the games they play, just like they did with Minecraft and do with Fortnite even this early.
Millennials will complain about them for using VR/AR goggles all the time.
Millennials will think it's not fair for everyone to get Universal Basic Income after the automation revolution since they had to go to college yet they still hardly got any job.
Millennials will look down on the next generation because they can't hand write since pencils and pens ale long obsolete.
You really think the rich aholes are just gonna give you the profits from automating away all the jobs? You're gonna have to earn that through revolution kiddos. And not the kind where you sit on a**e in a public square and post clever TikTok videos about your outrage. Gonna have to get French on these greedy scumbags.
Milennials will boast about fighting a revolution against the "Baby Boomers" which reference would have no relevance to future generations which will blame millennials for all inflation, debt, and global warming.
Saying back in my day, us kids had a childhood without google, we’d use encyclopedias.
We will still be meme addicted but will be still using the memes that should have been lost and forgotten.
“Tide comes in, tide goes out, you can’t explain that!”
“You thought this meme was dead? NOOOOPE CHUCK TESTA!!!”
No one will get it and everyone will be rolling their eyes at us.
Our version of "boomer hates his wife" cartoons will be "millennial wants to die" memes.
Euthanasia gets legalized in 2035, by 2040 all Millennials have "taken themselves out". GenZ and Gen Next have no one left to complain about.
Polluting. We think we're doing well, but there's still heaps of habits that have to be improved and I expect future generations will resent us for being backwards. "Why can't we get oranges in the dead of winter anymore? Stupid youngsters f*cking up my healthy balanced diet."
"... Ok millenial."
If they're smart, future generations will realize it's industry, not individuals, that are having the most impact. Use all the paper straws you want, it's not going to make an impact like proper regulations on industry.
It became unethical to harm insects. Animal rights activists protesting against killing cockroaches and mosquitos. Those who disagree (us) get called animal abusers, but we're too old for this s**t and at that point just kinda waiting for life to end realizing that something similar will happen to them as well when they're old.
I imagine its only.a matter of time before body modification (via advanced prosthetics / implants / etc) and / or widespread use of genetic modification. Undoubtedly, many members of the millenial generation will see this as unnatural and will probably oppose it.
The way business model is going now is "subscription". I've no issues (and actually welcome) various kinds of improvements be that via mechanization of body elements or gene lottery, but you most likely wont own any of these. You will pay "small fee" for implants and your gene sequences will be owned by some nameless corporation. Therefor I totally imagine debt collectors ripping off your arms or lawyers restricting your reproduction rights in order to "protect" intellectual property baked into your genes.
"You're dead when your body dies! PERIOD! You're not real anymore! You're just some damn digital fantasy who thinks you're still that person!"
I was hoping this would be funny and I could laugh at how true it all was. It was just boring though.
I was hoping this would be funny and I could laugh at how true it all was. It was just boring though.