• FourteenEyes [he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    "Young people are using slang wrong. They need to conform to my older and therefore correct usage."

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
      ·
      1 year ago

      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.

      • FourteenEyes [he/him]
        ·
        1 year ago

        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"

        • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
          ·
          1 year ago

          Counterpoint

          Counter-counterpoint: no-thats-wrong

          4chan popularized it

          The term "Baby Boomer" has been in use before Netscape Navigator was a thing

          • FourteenEyes [he/him]
            ·
            1 year ago

            But before it was in reference to a specific demographic and not a catch-all term for old people

            • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
              ·
              1 year ago

              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.

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
        ·
        1 year ago

        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.

        • AssortedBiscuits [they/them]
          ·
          1 year ago

          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.

          • UlyssesT
            ·
            edit-2
            1 day ago

            deleted by creator

          • kot
            ·
            edit-2
            4 months ago

            deleted by creator