gen-z

Wrinkled wisdom – Zoomers and Boomers

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Okay, Boomers, let’s learn more about Zoomers—our Gen Z family members aged 13 to 28 years old. 

Some easily stand out for their “broccoli cut” or “Zoomer perm.”  It’s that popular haircut that combines shaving the sides short and perming the long hair on top.  A fun internet trend highlights how fashion recycles older looks and jokes that Gen Zs have adopted their grandma’s curly perm style.  

Zoomers are the first generation to grow up totally in the digital age.  It’s often said that they could scroll before they could walk or talk.  A bit of an exaggeration.  But, over a third scrolled or touched a screen before they were one year old.  They are true digital natives!

Gen Zs are heavy users of YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat.  They utilize social media for entertainment, news, and product discovery.  They are the most likely to buy a new product or service promoted by an online influencer.  Another group that doesn’t watch TV ads! 

Zoomers, not surprisingly, have created a new lexicon that has invaded dictionaries over the last few years.  Thanks, lexicographers!  This helps us Boomers translate what the kids are saying.  Much of this slang will eventually fade…or could we just be delulu?

Huh?  “Delulu?”  It’s Gen Z shorthand for delusional.  Wishful thinking.  It might have a limited future, but we could be delulu about that.  “Bussin” is used to describe something that is exceptionally good or delicious. 

Another new slang word is “adulting.”  Gen Zs feel that they won’t be grown up until around age 27 because of financial and other pressures.  They take online “adulting” courses to learn traditional life skills like cooking, laundry, and managing personal finances.  They might also use the word as a verb—I am adulting today and not wearing my PJ bottoms to the mall.  Let’s face it, adulting is hard!  And Boomers have been there; done that.

Much more fun is “hard pass.”  We always appreciate an assertive NO.  While “rizz,” short for charisma, is cute, it’s hard to believe it was the Oxford Word of the Year in 2023.  This year it made it into Merriam Webster.  Who knew?  Not us! 

“Bed rotting” is the term for spending excessive amounts of time in—you guessed it—bed.  A slang term we can understand.  Yes!!!  “Sus” is just short for “suspicious.”  “Ick” made it into the dictionary.  Oh, but Gen Zs define this as a sudden loss of romantic or sexual attraction to a person.  Heck, we’ve been using it for decades to express plain old disgust.

Another Gen Z word to hit the dictionary is “doomscrolling.”  This describes their habit of spending excessive time on the internet scrolling distressing news or social media content that leaves them sad, anxious, or angry. 

There is a solution!  Digital detox.  When we hear the word detox, we thinkof it as steps toward recovery from alcohol or drug addiction.  They’re referring to social media detoxes because many of the generation are burnt out from scrolling.  To detox, some Zoomers have even turned to flip phones, which they call dumbphones, to minimize constant, distracting notifications.  Wow.  Does digital detox cause withdrawal symptoms??  Yup! 

Check with the kids on the 6-7 fad…Dictionary.com’s 2025 Word of the Year.  It’s not even a word!  It’s more than cool to Gen Zs and the bane of school teachers everywhere.  We dare you to uncover the meaning. 

So, our Wrinkled Wisdom for today?  Because of how Zoomer’s use it, drop “ick” or “icky” from your vocabulary.  Stick to “ew” or “that’s gross” to express disgust.  Interestingly, Gen Zs are reviving lots of Boomer hobbies.  Propose helping them with baking, knitting, or vinyl collecting.  And, when they get excited by your offer, throw in some Boomer slang.  Like…Gee, no need to flip your wig!

Wrinkled Wisdom:  A Lesson in Slang

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Walt Whitman described slang as “…imagination and humor, breathing into its nostrils the breath of life.”  Guardians of standard English roll their eyes and bemoan slang’s degrading impact.  They are ignored.  Slang has long permeated everyday speech.  Heck, there is even an Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang that includes over 6,000 slang words and expressions from the 20th and 21st centuries.

Each generation creates its own unique slang.  This informal language conveys meaning quickly and expressively.   It establishes a sense of community among its speakers and listeners.   As someone once said, “Slang is like a secret handshake.  If you understand it, you’re in the club.” 

Remember saying we “dig it” to describe something we really liked.  You never wanted to be a square, our term for someone uncool.  That would be a bummer!  A fink was a snitch and we called the television the boob tube. 

In our youthful 1960s and 1970s, hippie slang was in.  Groovy.  Far out.  Cool.  Flower power.   “Cool” has had staying power.   Cool!

Cannabis was a symbol of hippie rebellion.  Yikes, remember Woodstock?  Our slang for marijuana was dope—one syllable not four.  We were recently politely critiqued by a young man for using the word dope.  Showing our age, apparently.   The kids refer to it as weed.  Who cares.  If we oldies are using cannabis products, it’s probably for medical reasons!  Oh, and the word dope in slang now means cool or awesome. 

Giggled reading AARP’s article titled: A Guide to Understanding Today’s Slang: We deciphered some key phrases to help you understand your grandkids.

We’ve got a few down.  OMG often conveys our feelings very effectively.  We type LOL in response to a fun text from a friend.  We really are often laughing out loud.  But, LOL, we are not going to buy that tee shirt sporting the catchy phrase: “I’m a TMI Enjoyer…You Can Never Tell Me Too Much.”  Though, admit it.  Some TMI can be very entertaining!   Didn’t know that in the 1960s a San Francisco Chronicle columnist popularized LOL as an acronym for “little old lady.”  Don’t tell the grandkids!

But, that’s about it.   Other acronyms?  IYKYK stands for “if you know, you know.”  FOMO?  Fear of missing out.  GOAT?  Greatest of all time.  Then there is fit— short for outfit.  Lit?  Something that is amazing or exciting.  Gucci reportedly means cool or going well.  That one surprised us.  Do kids even know it’s a luxury brand that’s hard on the pocketbook?  Wait.  Maybe the slang originated with the rapper Gucci Mane??  Yes.  We know.  Never heard of him either.

Knowing today’s slang doesn’t just facilitate communicating with the grandkids.  Better pay attention if you want to finish a crossword puzzle these days!  Puzzles are skewing younger.  Phat?  It will be clued as something that is very attractive or appealing.  Bae is your main squeeze in modern lingo and the answer in many recent puzzles.  We got ticked when a recent puzzle clued an answer as meaning agreement or relatable in slang.  Mood??  Huh??  We were in no mood for that.   

Surprised to learn that the word “mother” today doesn’t always mean…well, mother.  Gen Z, 13-28-year-olds, use it as slang to describe someone they admire or respect.  A positive!  Maybe its source is the drag culture, where “mother” has long been used to affectionately refer to the people who inspired them and/or their personas.  Remember RuPaul, an American drag queen, television host, singer, and actor, wrote the hit dance song “Call Me Mother”??

So, our Wrinkled Wisdom for today?  Quiz the grandkids about any slang you should be up on.  Doubt you’ll want to add any of it to your vocabulary, but knowledge is power!  When the grandkids use slang around you, just laugh and say “you really slay me!”  It’s common slang today as it was in the 70s and 80s.  So, you should feel comfortable spouting the phrase.  We’re still with it!