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Notes -
Prediction: "Generation Z" and "Zoomer" will be given a false entomology of "person who used Zoom to attend school during the COVID 19 pandemic" within the next couple decades.
That is actually hilarious.
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Unfortunately that seems likely. On a related note, it reminds me what a nonsensical and uninspired term "Generation X" is. It gives you no hint about the peculiarities about that group whatsoever, unlike the terms Boomer and Millennial, and supposedly it didn't even stick, relatively speaking. I looked up the Wikipedia entry on it and it turns out that the term in its multiple original manifestations didn't even carry the definition it does today, which gives us even less of a reason to actually use it.
Latchkey kid, on the other hand, is I think a brilliant and practical term for members of the same generation, it neatly sums up the essence of their lifestyle. It's kind of lame that no such phrase was invented for a) Millennials b) their children.
I'm partial to the Oregon Trail generation, for those of us who played Oregon Trail in school, which ends up being sort of midway between X and Millennials. It also emphasizes that we grew up with tech but still remember when tech was new.
Not a good idea, I think. If you start speaking of the Oregon Trail generation to me, I'll immediately think if 19th Century pioneers.
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I actually encountered a friend of mine confusing this a couple of years ago. He had never heard the term before, and when I explained to him the generation it was a label for, he commented how stupid it was to make the label based on a video chat app. I had to inform him that the term came predated 2020 and came from a combination of "Generation Z" and "boomer."
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That would really bug me.
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I think you're right. Hell, I thought that until I read your post. Then I remembered that 'OK Boomer' was a meme several years before the pandemic.
I assume that Zoomer was just meant as a portmanteau of Boomer and Gen Z (which itself was based on the letter convention that started with Gen X).
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False entomology is identifying as a caterpillar (soon to be a butterfly) when you're actually just a worm.
[Alex Jones voice]
“They’re turning the frickin’ bugs trans!”
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