Onwords

When you hear this, the term “OK Boomer” will probably already be fading from public view. As you may recall, the term was briefly noteworthy as a way for Millennials and those younger to signal Baby Boomers’ cluelessness about matters important to young people. “OK Boomer” has been appended to subjects such as climate change, sexual orientation and gender identity, and the crushing debt from student loans. Boomers responded by calling the term ageist, and Millennials and Gen Z shot back that such a reaction from Boomers simply proves their point: “OK Boomer” is not actually about Boomers, and they’re clueless in assuming it is. The term is of interest here because of how the very debate over “OK Boomer” seems to have derailed the term. When the initial accusation that “OK Boomer” brought up, that Boomers were clueless, was met with a clueless response, there was nowhere else for the term to go, nothing else for it to do. “OK Boomer,” in making history, quickly became history. We often