What's This "OK Boomer" Meme All About?

From Oprah Magazine

• "Ok boomer" is one of the more controversial memes of late 2019.

• The meme is a dismissal of the perceived narrow-mindedness of the Baby Boomer generation, typically used by members of Gen Z and millennials on social media platforms like Tik Tok.

• Here's a (brief) overview of how the term grew in popularity.

Although it might not have made it to your own feed, the latest meme being bandied about on social media is "ok boomer." It's a pejorative response used by (some) millennials and Gen Z-ers to dismiss, disregard, and/or mock those of the Baby Boomer generation, who are perceived by users as old-fashioned and out-of-touch. It's usually accompanied with an eye roll emoji, head shake, hand wave, or a combination of all of the above. Nice, right?

How did the "ok boomer" meme get started?

According to KnowYourMeme, the origin is unknown, but its first use was reportedly on forum 4chan on September 3, 2015 and it supposedly had its Twitter debut in April 2018:

In January 2019, the phrase began picking up speed and ultimately peaked in popularity by late fall thanks to a song written and produced by Jonathan Williams, a 20-year-old college student, and the subsequent "ok boomer" remix by Peter Kuli that exploded on the social media network, TikTok.

But the phrase didn't fully reach the mainstream until The New York Times wrote about it in October 2019, focusing on the teenagers who've capitalized on the hashtag by creating "ok boomer" merch. The New York Times article, author Taylor Lorenz describes "ok boomer" as "Generation Z’s endlessly repeated retort to the problem of older people who just don’t get it, a rallying cry for millions of fed up kids."

Um, alright, but why are they saying "ok boomer?" in the first place?

Long story short, some millennials and members of Gen Z feel that though Baby Boomers hold nostalgia for their younger years, their political and financial actions will ultimately harm future generations.

“Everybody in Gen Z is affected by the choices of the boomers, that they made and are still making,” 18-year-old Nina Kasman, who sells "ok boomer" swag, told the New York Times. “Those choices are hurting us and our future. Everyone in my generation can relate to that experience and we’re all really frustrated by it.”

The most notable use of "ok boomer" was by 25-year-old New Zealand politician Chloë Swarbrick who said it in response to a heckler who interrupted her speech about climate change. “My ‘ok boomer’ comment in parliament was off-the-cuff, albeit symbolic of the collective exhaustion of multiple generations set to inherit ever-amplifying problems in an ever-diminishing window of time,” she wrote in an essay for The Guardian.

Yikes! Fine, just show me some of the most popular "ok boomer" memes.

Here you go!

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