'Boomer' is one of the latest terms being bandied around, along with 'woke'. It's taken on a broader meaning than the traditional classification of the Baby Boomer generation, born roughly from 1946 to 1964.
It's now being applied to people from Generation X or even Generation Y or Millennials, effectively anyone old enough to be made fun of by teenagers. It's come to mean more than a generation - it's a physical appearance, a lifestyle, a mindset.
The hallmarks of what people call a boomer:
'Boomer' has become a byword for generational divides, a single word to express what has been going on for a long time: generations having a hard time understanding each other's issues.
It's now being applied to people from Generation X or even Generation Y or Millennials, effectively anyone old enough to be made fun of by teenagers. It's come to mean more than a generation - it's a physical appearance, a lifestyle, a mindset.
The hallmarks of what people call a boomer:
- Old enough for grey hair and no longer keeping up with clothing fashion
- Inept with, or sceptical of, the latest technology
- Holds ideas about the world that are seen as outdated, like getting married before having kids, or rent being wasted money, humans are not changing the climate, or mending things rather than throwing them away
- The standalone house is paid off or almost paid off, worth five or ten times more than they paid for it - a boomer is financially established overall.
'Boomer' has become a byword for generational divides, a single word to express what has been going on for a long time: generations having a hard time understanding each other's issues.