West students are the tech-savvy, sarcastic, screen-addicted  Generation Z! Whereas West’s secretaries and staff fall into the category of the old-fashion, hard-working, tech-challenged Boomers. Boomers are people age 55-75 years old. Gen Z’ers are people age 4-24 years old. Boomers were born in 1946-1964. Gen Z’ers were born 1995-2012. Outside of the age gap, are the two generational groups really that different?

West students and staff noticed the differences between their generations. Boomers and Gen Z’ers sometimes have these differences because of what time period they were born in and what was popular at that time. Sometimes Gen Z’ers and Boomers get angry with each other because of the differences between them. Beyond this conflict with Boomers and Gen Z’ers, many other more serious conflicts, not related to generational differences, have occurred because of people dividing and discriminating, just because of differences.

Jane Northcott, a 7th-grade student at West, said that “Gen Z’ers find random sets of images and words funny, for the most part.” “Boomers, in my opinion, find things funny that aren’t even funny, like knock-knock jokes or ‘dad’ jokes.” For example, a dad joke might be a pun or something like, “I would tell a joke about pizza, but it’s a little cheesy.”

Sahara Kaur, a 7th grader at West says, “ To be honest, I think that Gen Z’ers like watching Netflix and riding bikes or doing sports.” She also thinks that “Boomers, when they were our age, probably thought that going to the park was fun, while today Gen Z’ers would probably think going to the park is boring, and they would want to stay home.”

Mrs. Rapson, a secretary who works in the main office at West, says, “ To stereotype Boomers, I would say that Boomers sometimes talk about ‘the good old days’ before there were TV or cell phones. It’s never good to stereotype because there are so many differences like ’50 is the new 30′. So not everyone  50 or 75 is gonna act exactly like the next 50 or 75. Not every 13-year-old is gonna act exactly like everyone else. But in general, there are quite a lot of them (Boomers and Gen Z’ers) that are similar. It doesn’t mean they are all identical.”

Works Cited

https://www.kasasa.com/articles/generations/gen-x-gen-y-gen-z Kasasa. “Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, and Gen Z Explained.” Earn Cash Rewards, 2019, www.kasasa.com/articles/generations/gen-x-gen-y-gen-z.