Fellow Boomers, these kinds of memes are really gross, super cringe, and honestly I think it’s getting kind of embarrassing, don’t you? [Sepia-toned blurry photo of kids playing outside. Caption: “We had a social network, it was called being outside.“]
Let’s look at this. We are smugly taking credit for how our parents/grandparents raised us.
Therefore, when we post these kind of shaming memes, implicitly putting down today’s kids because they didn’t grow up in the wholesome manner that we thought was appropriate —
UM … IF we think the younger generation is so bad (which I don’t BTW), well, the blame should be on US, not the kids. We were the parents (and/or the aunts, uncles etc..)
We raised them. And WE, the highly populous “Me Generation,” with our highly vocal mouths and our outsized wallets, shaped the society they grew up in!!! (And I personally think they turned out great, especially considering the societal circumstances they grew up in.)
Recently I learned the term for this kind of post, it’s “weaponized nostalgia.” Being smug like this may feel good in the moment but it doesn’t solve anything, and we’d do better to look at how we (with our large-numbered demographic and outsized spending power) can shape society in a compassionate creative direction moving forward.
It’s not too late for us to change. Or perhaps I should say change BACK. “Get back to the garden,” as it were, to use a phrase from our Woodstock era. We can be models of thrift, wisdom, peace-seeking, community spirit, and yes, dare I say a bit of healthy self-sacrifice, to the younger and future generations.