Spot the difference: Is the generational divide worse than ever?

An observation.

“Okay boomer” is quite funny. Hearing someone get called a “boomer” for having a traditional view about something was perhaps my first exposure to the term as an insult. Until then, it had been a descriptive word for the generation born just after the War - and that was it.

• Boomer - born 1946-1964 - now retired or approaching retirement.

• Generation X - 1965 - 1980 - now at the peak of their careers, likely with adult children, or young grandparents

• Millenials - 1981-1996

• Zoomer - born 1997-2012 - the generation after millenials

• Generation Alpha - born 2012-2025*

  *approximate age range across multiple sites

We respected our elders growing up, appreciating that they had worked hard to build a better future for the next generation, and so on. This often meant your grandparent worked for 50 years with his or her hands, without a need for - or understanding of - internet connection, student loan repayments, a Teams address or a remote working budget.

It worked, I guess.

We associate the ‘boomer’ with stability, living within a rapidly changing world of which they need no part, as some sort of main character whose arc is complete. I posit that the gap between two generations has never been wider, the boomer and the current ‘Zoomer’ have less in common than ever, and this is only accelerating; the red shift of social structures in which we find ourselves.

I witnessed last week a boomer stood outside at a nice restaurant in a nice area. He was shouting at a group of four mid-teens on bikes. Clearly they’d almost run into him as he went to enter the restaurant. The tweed suit, proper pronunciation of words, and rational logic was met with a swirl of black North Face apparel, combined with a torrent of mumbled hormones, profanities and pent-up anger. The two were worlds apart, barely speaking the same language anymore.

There are various social media trends that encapsulate this divide, one being the comical numbers some people in Gen X or the Boomer generation purchased their first house for. It was never a thought that homeownership wouldn’t be in the picture, but this is a growing fear among city-dwelling millenials. “Save your money” comes the cry - but the reality is two very normal jobs in the 1970s and 1980s would lead to home ownership within a couple of years - and now this is not the case.

Please see this meme of elderly people Morris dancing with a caption related to the price of their house.

Five decades ago, The average house price in the UK was ~£4-5,000, which can be viewed as £50,000 in today’s money, except it can’t because of fluctuations and inconsistencies in fiscal policy, the average age of home buyers and the loss in purchasing power of the pound. Even then, the averagr house price is over four times that. Six times - in populated places.

Very little skill was involved in the rise of the value of this asset, just good timing. I can understand the inter-generational gripe, particularly when one falls victim of the eye rolls and the ‘kids these days’ mindset.

The value shift between generations is cataclysmic - and it is quite clear in everyday life. For example, with the upcoming US election, I am astounded by the commentary in popular podcasts - 65+ year olds (like Alistair Campbell and The Rest Is Politics crew, whom I enjoy listening to) thinking that Democrats would win by a landslide back in May, who have since renegged when looking at the numbers, and the millions of fans that would not partake in polls or surveys but will use Truth Social, YouTube and X for their news.

I am amazed by how many of those nearer Donald Trump’s age consume only soundbites of his worst moments, via social media that came into their lives at 40 not 14 - and has been coordinated to reinforce their existing worldview, that is becoming increasingly one-sided. Younger people, men especially, see him as a force for good. BBC News and X report the same news, with conclusions that could not be further apart.

There are myriad differences between boomers and zoomers now, not least the ability to source information from all corners of the internet. I’m amazed by what people hear, and subsequently do not hear and therefore do not know. What is it they say - 80% of language is non-verbal? I wonder what the elderly man and young boy saw in each other during that exchange. I’d be willing to bet both have forgotten about it now, but only because they couldn’t understand what the other was trying to say.

Talk soon,

Pat.