Aug 12, 2026–I remember the first time someone said to me, “OK, Boomer.”
I’m such a Boomer I didn’t realize it was meant as an insult, apparently referring to someone out of touch with today’s younger generation.
Wait until they learn that mocking the older generation was something we Boomers invented.
I have recently had rewarding conversations with members of the alphabet generations (X, Y, Z, and so on). They were surprised as I was to learn how much we had in common.
Computer Programming
A 22-year-old who is studying video gaming and programming was surprised to learn that we were programming computers back in 1968. We were writing software using BASIC language and actually filling in bubbles with #2 pencils on cards. Our teacher would take them to the big computer at the university and run them in batches. It took a full week to get our results printed out in dot-matrix on those big green and white rolls of paper with sprocket holes along each edge.
Yes, it was crude and slow. But the logic and syntax was the same as a modern programmer needs to create those amazing first-person shooter games. With experience separated by half a century, we were still able to communicate.
Music Production
Another student was demonstrating her graduate project of an original composition where, using a MIDI-linked keyboard and online software, she was able to perform all the instruments and mix them together.
I nodded with understanding. She was fascinated to hear how I had done the same thing, but using a 4-track reel-to-reel tape deck where I had to record each analog instrument and bounce it back and forth to build up a multi-track song. When complete, we had to slice the tape with a razor blade and splice it on to the 5-inch plastic reel.
But again, the concept and result were the same.
Video Games
I played PONG.
BOINK… BOINK… BOINK… BOINK…
That was the sound of “paddles” hitting the white “ball” against a black background and sending it back to the guy across the table in the bar. It was the first commercial video game. That game led to Asteroids, Pac-Man, DigDug, Mario, Zelda, and thousands of other titles. I also lived in Ottumwa, Iowa, in 1982-84 and played at Twin Galaxies, which was ground zero for what has become e-gaming, which now offers international tournaments and college degrees. So don’t think you are impressing me with your video game jargon–you’re talking to someone who once held the High Score for “Star Castle.”
I could go on with many examples, but that is something a Boomer would do. Instead, let me point out that the true innovators eclipsed all of us as recently as 500 years ago. Examples:
Galileo discovered how planets really move.
Isaac Newton coaxed the color spectrum out of a ray of sunlight.
Michael Faraday used wires and magnets to discover the principles of electromagnetism, inventing the first electric motor.
Marie Curie discovered radiation, Louis Pasture uncovered the germ theory of disease, while Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin to combat it.
Were they Boom-chick-a-Boomers? I cannot imagine disparaging them for their out-of-date views. Most amazing, they accomplished all this without our computers, internet, sarcasm, or indoor plumbing. Without their discoveries, most of us would not be alive today.
There are two points to this Boomer’s rant.
1) We Boomers not only had to learn how to create, using primitive tools, we had to learn and relearn all the iterations over the intervening 50 years. For web design alone, that meant learning, then forgetting HTML, Front Page, Pagemaker, Dreamweaver, WordPress, and now AI prompts.
2) Whatever the interface, the underlying concepts are timeless. Learning how to build an IF/THEN argument in BASIC is the same process in the latest Excel software. Cutting and pasting with real cuts and real pastes is the same concept as pressing Control C/Control V. Building a musical composition today requires software named with letters from a Boggle toss, but the 12 tones of a music scale remain unchanged.
Congratulations, kids. We are all Boomers.