Alex Buscemi
We’ve all been there: swearing we’ll never turn into our parents, only to catch ourselves saying something like, “Why is this music so loud?” or “What happened to good manners?” It’s almost like a rite of passage. No matter how cool and modern we think we are, time has a way of nudging us into sounding a bit more like the generation before us.
But here’s the thing—maybe those boomer complaints aren’t all bad. Maybe they come from a place of wisdom and experience that we’ve yet to fully appreciate.
Recently Reddit user u/bangbangskeetskeet23 posed the question:
“What’s the most boomer complaint you have?”
And, well, the responses were a mix of hilarious, eye-opening, and downright relatable.
1.
Just fully watching videos in public with no headphones. Where are your headphones? I don’t want to hear your TikTok clips.
2.
Gen X here. I don’t understand the eyelash thing where they’re so long and fluffy that you look like Snuffleupagus. I also don’t understand the nails that are so long you can’t function. Like, how do you wipe?
3.
Not knowing how to use punctuation. The lack of punctuation drives me nuts. I shouldn’t have to read something 50 times because you don’t know how to place a period or a comma when needed.
4.
Assaulting people as a prank.
5.
Grammar. I’m not even talking about missing commas and s**t I just want them to know the difference between “you’re” and “your”
6.
Making every single phone call via speakerphone, especially when holding the phone directly next to the side of their head because they can’t hear.
7.
Literally committing crimes as part of social media trends. Especially the “licking ice cream at the store and putting it back” challenge, that’s a straight-up health code violation.
8.
For a generation that loves social media, we are very anti-social. Lots of us cannot hold conversations or try to avoid them entirely. Another thing is how terrible literacy is amongst this generation while also loving social media. Cell phones have caused pure brain rot as people cannot function without them at all which baffles me. My parents didn’t buy me a phone until I was a sophomore in high school and it drove me nuts when people asked me how to do this or that without thinking prior to use common sense and figure it out. Critical thinking hit a massive decline from what I have noticed as well. Hope this comment isn’t harsh but being a part of one of the young generations I’m frustrated and annoyed. Please enlighten me if I am just wrong about any of this.
9.
Creating GoFundMe pages for cosmetic surgery and/or procedures.
10.
Not being taught to tell time by where the hands are on a clock.
11.
Doing incredibly embarrassing things for social media attention.
12.
Millennial here: Baffled at the number of people having children with various “baby daddies” and “baby mamas” that all seem to be horrible people. Do they not vet their partners at all before making them parents? It’s like there’s not even the expectation anymore that two people would raise their kids together.
13.
Mostly I’m baffled by how poorly educated young people are these days. History, Geography, Sciences, Maths, Literature..so much knowledge is missing.
14.
Broccoli haircuts.
15.
Taking parents to job interviews. It just happened at my workplace for the first time (television). Blew my mind. Mom waited in the lobby but came in for the negotiations. Applicant was 26 years old.
16.
That literacy rates are plummeting. This one is so confusing! How can you be the chronically online generation unable to read?
17.
Face tattoos. I don’t really have a problem with tattoos generally, but come on man, it’s your face.
18.
Becoming addicted to nicotine. I thought younglings would be a little less stupid than us.
19.
Young people seek information by watching TikTok content rather than Googling the answers. If you have a lot of time to spare, you will often get good info, but I’m middle-aged, and I’ve always been a big reader. I will do almost anything to avoid having to watch stuff (or listen, for that matter) when I can more quickly visually skim and immediately determine if the information is relevant to me and seems legit.
20.
I guess there’s like elementary schoolers with a skincare routine now?? That’s nuts…. I saw some people in the skincare addiction sub today recommending that a 17-year-old get Botox and retinol for the lines on their forehead. Insanity.
21.
Anything Andrew Tate.
22.
I’ve trained 3 early 20s co-workers now that don’t use the Shift key to capitalize letters. They hit caps lock, type the letter to be capitalized, then hit caps lock again. I can’t wrap my head around it.
23.
I run a restaurant, and employ a bunch of young people. EVERY dude under 25 has bangs, some significantly longer than the rest of their hair. I call them Flock of Seagulls. They don’t get the reference.
24.
Binge-watching short videos compiled so you never watch anything with a plot or storyline. Just tons of 10-60 sec videos and most of them suck.
25.
There was a group of teenagers in the parking lot talking about scientology, and they were thinking it was a neat religion, like a bunch of them were genuinely interested. I’ve never hit a child before…but holy hell their brains needed to be reset.
26.
I’m not really too baffled, I just see a lot of worrying trends. The main thing that concerns me is the steep decline in mental health among young people since smartphones went mainstream and we got the internet in our pockets. I’m not shocked at all to see it but it is very bad.
27.
The popularity of “nuisance streamers” with younger folks. I don’t find being a public nuisance even a little bit entertaining or funny, especially when it’s being filmed. Also just in general the trend of filming, photographing, and trying to make “content” out of their entire life in some vain hope of becoming internet famous. I don’t get it. The last thing I’d ever want to do is have my entire life posted on the internet.
28.
Vaping. Isn’t it clear by now that inhaling fumes is not really a good idea?
29.
All the self-labeling. When I was young, we avoided labels at all costs!
30.
Not using condoms. My generation was raised hearing about Ryan White and seeing Very Special Episodes about why we didn’t want AIDS and everything else. Apparently, some younger people aren’t worried about it anymore.
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