Boomer is short for Baby Boomer, which is a demographic surging in newborns following the end of WW2.
The real material consequences of this surge in population can be linked to a host of socio-economic events - suburbanization, a surge in consumer economic demand, and a decline in labor power due to market saturation, to name a few - which contribute to the political and social characters of the generational cohort.
That, along with significant historical events - the Cold War, deindustrialization, the rise of the professional managerial class, the advent of modern computing technology - destinguishes the character of this generation in a host of significant ways.
Part of that is simply ignorance. Teenagers not being familiar with a baby boom 80 years in the rear view mirror are simply borrowing the language of their elders, who did. As they mature, they’ll likely fixate on other turns of phrase that more accurately describe the habits and characteristics of the GenX/Millennial demographic. Maybe they’ll all just call us Weebs. Maybe they would be right to do so.
This is how you get “socialism is when the government does stuff.” Descriptivism is just a way of determining what a word means. It has no say in what a word ought to mean.
I agree that there should be a boundary between “words can only mean this one thing forever” and “don’t tell me what to doooooooooo I am now literally a PhD and MD in literal linguistics because I literally decided that I am and you literally can’t tell me what literal words mean, also socialism is literally when the government does stuff.”
I mean, groups of people can deliberately the meaning of words or other parts of language. Socialism coming to mean things that have no relation to marxism was probably a deliberate campaign. That’s also what the neutral language movement is about. But also linguistic derivation is just a fact of life, as described by sociolinguistics. And being mad that gay doesn’t mean happy anymore or that a certain word should always mean the same thing just makes you pedantic weirdo, if it’s not attached to a cause that actually matters.
Boomer is short for Baby Boomer, which is a demographic surging in newborns following the end of WW2.
The real material consequences of this surge in population can be linked to a host of socio-economic events - suburbanization, a surge in consumer economic demand, and a decline in labor power due to market saturation, to name a few - which contribute to the political and social characters of the generational cohort.
That, along with significant historical events - the Cold War, deindustrialization, the rise of the professional managerial class, the advent of modern computing technology - destinguishes the character of this generation in a host of significant ways.
Counterpoint: teenagers use “boomer” to mean “old person” so it means that now
4chan popularized it and that’s why we now see 90s-style FPS games marketed to Gen X PC gamers as “boomer shooters”
Counter-counterpoint:
The term “Baby Boomer” has been in use before Netscape Navigator was a thing
But before it was in reference to a specific demographic and not a catch-all term for old people
Part of that is simply ignorance. Teenagers not being familiar with a baby boom 80 years in the rear view mirror are simply borrowing the language of their elders, who did. As they mature, they’ll likely fixate on other turns of phrase that more accurately describe the habits and characteristics of the GenX/Millennial demographic. Maybe they’ll all just call us Weebs. Maybe they would be right to do so.
Okay boomer
You’re trying to be a prescriptivist. Never try to be a prescriptivist. The correct way to use language is the way people are using language.
This is how you get “socialism is when the government does stuff.” Descriptivism is just a way of determining what a word means. It has no say in what a word ought to mean.
I agree that there should be a boundary between “words can only mean this one thing forever” and “don’t tell me what to doooooooooo I am now literally a PhD and MD in literal linguistics because I literally decided that I am and you literally can’t tell me what literal words mean, also socialism is literally when the government does stuff.”
yeah, it’s hard
spoiler
as in difficult, not a dense solid
I mean, groups of people can deliberately the meaning of words or other parts of language. Socialism coming to mean things that have no relation to marxism was probably a deliberate campaign. That’s also what the neutral language movement is about. But also linguistic derivation is just a fact of life, as described by sociolinguistics. And being mad that gay doesn’t mean happy anymore or that a certain word should always mean the same thing just makes you pedantic weirdo, if it’s not attached to a cause that actually matters.