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It's been a few months since the last BuzzFeed listicle mis-categorizing everyone over 40 as "Boomers". It's time for another! Earlier this week I read "If You've Done At Least 15 Of These 35 Things, You're 1000% A Boomer"... which I'll note was titled "...You're 1000% Over 65" (emphasis mine) at the time I first read it. Like the last of these articles I read it shows that Gen Z— the age group that authors who write these fluffy click-bait articles belong to— thinks that anyone who remembers things that were common up through the 1980s must be a Boomer / senior citizen.
Ahem, we kids who were growing up and doing things in the 1980s are called Gen X. And we're in our 40s/50s. And even many older Millennials remember many of the things on this recent list.
BTW, my score on this list was 20/35. And I'm many years short of being a Boomer. Here are just Five Things from the list of supposed "Boomer" items that virtually all Gen Xers, and most older Millennials, would be familiar with:
1. Have you ever manually cranked a car window up or down?
Manual-crank car windows were common up through the 1980s and into the 1990s. The first car I bought, a new 1991 vehicle, had manual crank windows. Yes, power windows were common by then, too, but in that era economy cars still had manual windows. I recall once getting a rental car in the mid 2000s that still had manual windows. I'll bet most people who are 35+, not just 65+, have cranked a manual window at some point.
3. Have you ever watched television on a TV that had no remote control and just dials?
I recall my parents first got a TV with wireless remote control in about 1985. Prior to that changing the channel— or even adjusting the volume— required walking up to the device and turning a knob. Or pressing a button. Yes, there was a middle ground between turning big, chunky, old-fashioned knobs and modern remote controls. TVs had modern push-button controls on the device for years before buttons on wireless remotes became common.
I used a non-remote TV again in 1992-1993 in college. It was an older TV set one of my housemates got from his parents. It had those chunky, old-fashioned knobs on it... but we rarely used them, because with only one, weak, weeny TV station available via antenna, we left the TV tuned to channel 3 for input from the VCR. Ah, tuning to channel 3 for VCRs and video games. that's another 1980s-ism... that virtually all Gen Xers and older Millennials would remember.
16. Have you ever looked up a phone number in the phone book?
Younger people these days may have trouble imagining a world before everything was online, but it wasn't that long ago. Amazon didn't even open until 1995, and back then it was just a bookstore. It wasn't until the early 2000s that most traditional businesses began to have even a minimal web presence, one where you could at least find their address and store hours. Thus, needing to use a phone book to find phone numbers to call for information— if it wasn't already shown in a yellow pages ad— was a regular thing up through the early 00s.
BTW, I say this as a digital native living in Silicon Valley. Less technical people and those living in less connected areas would've used phone books on the regular for a few more years.
19./20. Have you ever eaten at McDonald's when the food still came in Styrofoam packaging / when smoking was still allowed?
This one's a two-fer. I've grouped these two together because they're both about McDonald's and because they're not subject to any one person's memory. Questions like "When did [Company X] start/stop [doing Y]?" can be answered via simple search. Y'know, by using the web, that thing that people mistakenly believe kids these days excel at because they're online 24/7 while Boomers (and "Boomers") squint their eyes at and act befuddled and call their kids for help?
McDonald's went big with styrofoam containers for sandwiches in the 1980s. They started phasing it out in 1990 due to popular campaigns against non-biodegradable waste. I mention both the stop and start dates here because actual Boomers would remember a time long before styrofoam containers became common. And really it was just a period of <10 years. But yes, we Gen Xers remember that era well, because it's when we were growing up and treasuring those visits to McDonald's with our parents.
As far as smoking in McDonald's, smoking in all restaurants was common up through the 1990s and even into the 21st century. McDonald's banned smoking in restaurants as a corporate policy in 1994 (New York Times article, 1994!) but that only affected company-owned stores. Most stores were franchised. Smoking in restaurants was banned by law in various jurisdictions over the next fifteen years. California banned smoking in restaurants (but not bars) in 1995. New York banned smoking in restaurants in 2003. It wasn't until 2010 that many other states banned smoking in restaurants. Example source: List of smoking bans in the United States (Wikipedia article).
14. Have you ever balanced a checkbook?
Yes, two days ago.
Ahem, we kids who were growing up and doing things in the 1980s are called Gen X. And we're in our 40s/50s. And even many older Millennials remember many of the things on this recent list.
BTW, my score on this list was 20/35. And I'm many years short of being a Boomer. Here are just Five Things from the list of supposed "Boomer" items that virtually all Gen Xers, and most older Millennials, would be familiar with:
1. Have you ever manually cranked a car window up or down?
Manual-crank car windows were common up through the 1980s and into the 1990s. The first car I bought, a new 1991 vehicle, had manual crank windows. Yes, power windows were common by then, too, but in that era economy cars still had manual windows. I recall once getting a rental car in the mid 2000s that still had manual windows. I'll bet most people who are 35+, not just 65+, have cranked a manual window at some point.
3. Have you ever watched television on a TV that had no remote control and just dials?
I recall my parents first got a TV with wireless remote control in about 1985. Prior to that changing the channel— or even adjusting the volume— required walking up to the device and turning a knob. Or pressing a button. Yes, there was a middle ground between turning big, chunky, old-fashioned knobs and modern remote controls. TVs had modern push-button controls on the device for years before buttons on wireless remotes became common.
I used a non-remote TV again in 1992-1993 in college. It was an older TV set one of my housemates got from his parents. It had those chunky, old-fashioned knobs on it... but we rarely used them, because with only one, weak, weeny TV station available via antenna, we left the TV tuned to channel 3 for input from the VCR. Ah, tuning to channel 3 for VCRs and video games. that's another 1980s-ism... that virtually all Gen Xers and older Millennials would remember.
16. Have you ever looked up a phone number in the phone book?
Younger people these days may have trouble imagining a world before everything was online, but it wasn't that long ago. Amazon didn't even open until 1995, and back then it was just a bookstore. It wasn't until the early 2000s that most traditional businesses began to have even a minimal web presence, one where you could at least find their address and store hours. Thus, needing to use a phone book to find phone numbers to call for information— if it wasn't already shown in a yellow pages ad— was a regular thing up through the early 00s.
BTW, I say this as a digital native living in Silicon Valley. Less technical people and those living in less connected areas would've used phone books on the regular for a few more years.
19./20. Have you ever eaten at McDonald's when the food still came in Styrofoam packaging / when smoking was still allowed?
This one's a two-fer. I've grouped these two together because they're both about McDonald's and because they're not subject to any one person's memory. Questions like "When did [Company X] start/stop [doing Y]?" can be answered via simple search. Y'know, by using the web, that thing that people mistakenly believe kids these days excel at because they're online 24/7 while Boomers (and "Boomers") squint their eyes at and act befuddled and call their kids for help?
McDonald's went big with styrofoam containers for sandwiches in the 1980s. They started phasing it out in 1990 due to popular campaigns against non-biodegradable waste. I mention both the stop and start dates here because actual Boomers would remember a time long before styrofoam containers became common. And really it was just a period of <10 years. But yes, we Gen Xers remember that era well, because it's when we were growing up and treasuring those visits to McDonald's with our parents.
As far as smoking in McDonald's, smoking in all restaurants was common up through the 1990s and even into the 21st century. McDonald's banned smoking in restaurants as a corporate policy in 1994 (New York Times article, 1994!) but that only affected company-owned stores. Most stores were franchised. Smoking in restaurants was banned by law in various jurisdictions over the next fifteen years. California banned smoking in restaurants (but not bars) in 1995. New York banned smoking in restaurants in 2003. It wasn't until 2010 that many other states banned smoking in restaurants. Example source: List of smoking bans in the United States (Wikipedia article).
14. Have you ever balanced a checkbook?
Yes, two days ago.
