"I'm With Boomers On This One": 45 People Name Things That They Think Older Generations Got Right

We got in touch with Dr. Eladio B. Bobadilla and he was kind enough to have a little chat with us about what inspired him to start this discussion.

"Like most things on social media, that post was anything but an original thought," Dr. Bobadilla, who is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh, told Bored Panda.

"I had seen someone, somewhere else, say they were 'with the boomers on this one.' I can't remember what it was, precisely, that elicited that reaction. But I'm a historian, and although this was hardly meant to be an academic exercise, it sort of organically and spontaneously turned into one."

Dr. Bobadilla has a deep interest in how things change over the years. For example, how different generations experience life in their own unique ways and the quirks that define them.

"I wondered what other young people might respond with if asked this question in an open-ended way. The responses were delightfully grumpy, weird, and thought-provoking," he said.

As the replies kept pouring in, Dr. Bobadilla started noticing a few trends. "A lot of young people really hate QR code menus, think we should spend a little less time in front of screens, and agree that loud music is, well, too damn loud," he said.

"I found the aggravation with QR codes fascinating because we often assume that young people naturally embrace anything to do with technology. But it seems a lot of us still value doing some things the old-fashioned way."

In his book Generations, Bobby Duffy, who is a Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Policy Institute at King's College London, argues that generational thinking is a big idea that's been horribly corrupted and devalued by endless myths and stereotypes.

These clichés, according to Duffy, have fuelled fake battles between "snowflake" Millennials and "selfish" Baby Boomers, with younger generations facing a "war on woke" and older generations accused of "stealing" the future from the young.

To see the true value of generational thinking, Duffy believes that we need to identify and discard the many myths.

For instance, Gen Z and Millennials are not lazy at work or disloyal to their employers. They’re also no more materialistic than previous generations of youth. Our focus on being rich is something we tend to grow out of.

Similarly, old people are not uncaring or unwilling to act on climate change, in fact, they are more likely than young people to boycott products for social purpose reasons.

Because of all of this mess, Duffy thinks that we often overlook the real and important generational differences.

For example, the probability of you owning your own home is hugely affected by the time you were born — Millennials are around half as likely to be a homeowner than generations born only a couple of decades earlier. 

The professor said there is also a real cohort effect in the experience of mental health disorders, particularly among recent generations of young women.

Our relationship with alcohol and the likelihood of smoking is also tied to our cohort, with huge generational declines in very regular drinking and smoking.