The Washington Post, The New York Times, and many mainstream news network out there are trying to take a stab as to what “Okay, boomer,” means, and all of this recognition is quite undeserving for a harmless meme.

It is ironic that this article is also about taking another stab at the “Okay, boomer” meme, but another angle is much needed concerning this cultural phenomena.

The New York Times was one of the earliest newspapers to cover this topic. In this article, the writer wrote about how the youths of Generation-Z “has finally snapped over climate change and financial inequality.”

About a week and a half later, The Washington Post covered this meme extensively, drawing parallels between this phrase and the youth’s method of creating change in the 1960’s. Telling the story of how generational discourse started in the 1960’s as their way of revolting for change.

Both of these articles are completely valid, after all, the New York Times did mention that the “Ok, Boomer,” t-shirts merch had received more than $10,000 in order. With each shirt costing $20, this means more than 500 shirts have been sold since the publishing of the article.

However, this number is small compared to how many students there are in Annandale, let alone in the United States.

Additionally, my peers haven’t really even use the term much, and the only time we use it is just for the sake of saying it, there’s no ulterior motives behind this term for much of the people around me.

The earliest mention of the term “boomer” originated from a forum website called 4Chan, it is unclear when the phrase itself originated, but the word “boomer” was posted by a 4Chan user on Sept. 3, 2015 as a retort.

From 4Chan, this would likely spread onto Reddit, where the first post using the word was posted on Oct. 26, 2017. Then from Reddit, it traveled into the realm of Twitter, where a user posted it on April 12th, 2018 as a comment under a politician’s Tweet.

It’s also important to mention that the whole point of this phrase is to rouse a reaction out of the older generation.
The Millenials and Gen-Z had all heard people from older generations stating that they’re too frail, like snowflakes that melts quickly or strawberries that bruises too easily.

It is ironic then, that the same people from older generations are all caught up or getting sensitive about this phrase.
By shining the spotlight on“okay, boomer,” by analyzing and worrying about this “movement” so intensely, they blow it out of proportion.

In a time like this, where there are numerable important issues like climate change, dying bees and school shootings, American society has no need for hatred or separation between generations.

This phrase that started as a minor retort, is now a major catchphrase for a whole movement, and all because the press is giving a lot of attention on this subject.

Attention is needed for a movement to really catch fire, and this seems to be a movement that’s meant to be annoying and negative for society.

The most that anyone can do is not give power to the word.