Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z: Do You Relate? (1 of 2)

Vince Kern  
FriendsInWonder.com

Unknown Speaker  
Oh. You guys are definitely boomers. Oh, no, it's the locks. The flowing locks. 

Joe Luther  
Hey, Boomer, how you doing this morning? 

Vince Kern  
Hey, I resemble that remark.

Joe Luther  
Yes, we do, don't we?

Vince Kern  
Yeah, you know, it's interesting because this is an exciting episode for us one that we wanted to tackle from the very beginning, when we started planning this show, way back in March. And as a couple of older guys doing a podcast, one of the things we thought a lot about was this generational aspect of it. Right, we

Joe Luther  
Right, we wanted to decide whether we have any business even being in the podcast world, or that's already passed us by.

Vince Kern  
Yeah, you know, the generational aspect of, I don't know, some people call it the generational divide. And you read a lot of articles about millennials and Generation Z and boomers and the term Hey, Boomer, and, and it's been a hot topic for I don't know, the last couple of decades, and, you know, feels like we continue to label and I'll use air quotes and say, research all of these things that go along with these generations. And you and I were wondering, from the very beginning. Can we you help bring people together? Are there things that are common? Is it really as bad as it is? It's put out there in the media to be? And so we have a lot of questions about that.

Joe Luther  
Well, yeah, I mean, we, first of all, we were trying to determine whether we have a place in the podcast world because we are boomers, and mostly, you know, younger generations that are listening to podcasts. And, you know, one of the common I will call misconceptions of boomers is that we don't know how to work electronics. So if our target audience is boomers like we are, we may have a very small target audience because they don't know how to find podcasts in the first place. But of course, that's not a true label. But yeah, and I think that really comes down to this whole idea. When we first did the research on this. We recorded a kind of a fun little trial episode that was really just you and I riffing about what we want to do. Back and forth. Yeah. And then we let my son my millennial aged son, who is quite a podcast listener. In fact, he's the one who introduced me to listening to podcasts in general, you know, my nieces and nephews, and, and my son, and we let him listen to it in. And he thought we sounded a lot like boomers.

Vince Kern  
He even came up with a name for our show, didn't he?

Joe Luther  
Yeah, I think well, I don't know. He, he, what he suggested is that we embrace that were boomers. And he, he said it in a in a nice way I went. When I say that, he said that we sound like boomers, it wasn't in a disrespectful way. It was more that, you know, maybe that should be our target market. And so we originally, were even considering calling this podcast, expanding boomers,

Vince Kern  
Expanding boomers. Yeah. And we talked about that. And we did a lot of sort of r&d work on that title. And we had a little feedback from from people about it. And one of our dear friends who we've known for a long time, gave us some feedback that said, don't use that. 

Joe Luther  
He doesn't like to mince words, that fellow. Yeah, well, we've actually interviewed him in another episode, but Right, yeah. And the idea is you and I kind of embrace it. We like the idea of expanding boomers. Because we do we, that's part of our DNA, we, we all recognize that we're boomers, and we're always trying to expand our understanding of things. And, but what we didn't like about it is that it was a label and it was a division. And really, we want to be more about unification and, and unity rather than you're a boomer, you sit over there, and you talk about those things. And we're, we're millennials, we're going to be over here and, and let's just stay on separate sides of the fence. We're not like that at all.

Vince Kern  
No, in fact, and that's one of the reasons why our good friend was absolutely correct as he generally is. And we decided to sway away from that because we didn't like the labeling and we didn't want to be put ourselves in a box or I think a better another way of saying it from is we don't want to put anybody else in a box. Right so and so we we started talking about episodes that we could do surrounding this quote unquote generational divide, and we decided we go out into the field at some point and and so we did,

Joe Luther  
yeah, Yeah, well, we, we definitely want to if we're going to talk about the different labels and the different divisions of generations, we thought, what better way to deal with it than to talk to people from those labels or generational groups?

Vince Kern  
Yeah. Yeah. And so we tried a couple of different scenarios. I know we went to Novi on a Sunday afternoon during a football game and crickets were there. So

Joe Luther  
nobody's A is a suburb in metropolitan Detroit. Yeah, we thought if we went to kind of a bar area, on a Sunday afternoon, we'd find all sorts of people go into to the bars to watch football games.

Vince Kern  
Yeah, but I guess people don't do that anymore. Since COVID. Right.

Joe Luther  
I know, I told my son, one of my sons that we did that. And he said, Well, that's Boomer, have you in the first place to think that you're gonna find a bunch of kids from my generation on a Sunday afternoon? So yeah.

Vince Kern  
So you came up with an idea to come to go to a tailgate party, or tailgate parties at a U of M football game? And that worked out quite splendidly, didn't it?

Joe Luther  
Well, I mean, we thought that what we wanted to do is get as large a sampling of people in as small and area as possible to make it easy for us. And you know, we thought about a Lions game or you know, and then obviously, Michigan University of Michigan game was another idea. And our were being very close to us. And so that's what we decided on that was actually turned out to be perfect.

Vince Kern  
Yeah, very good weather. The weather it was. So this was November 19, the U of M was playing Illinois. And I think it was about 15 freakin degrees outside.

Joe Luther  
It was thankfully it wasn't that windy. But when we got there, we went to an area where, you know, very close to the stadium where people take their tailgating very seriously. And they have tents. And they have heaters and in open fires and televisions and all sorts of good things. If anybody's been to fancy tailgates before they know what we're talking about. But the cool thing was, it was a wide range of demographics, both from age, as well as, you know, from various parts of the country.

Vince Kern  
Yeah, yeah, it was really, it was really interesting. So, you know, this was really a qualitative adventure. For us. We're not looking to, you know, make any great statistical correlations between what we heard, but it certainly was some reflective interviews, and we visited 21 Different tents. And, and as you said, there was a wide range of people. There were people from, obviously, Michigan, but a lot of different parts of Michigan, Illinois, California, West Virginia, and our Canadian friends who were trying to sell their tent. And they they were quite an interesting group of people, they were trying to sell it for about 180 bucks.

Joe Luther  
Let us say those Canadians got to the tailgate a lot earlier than we did and began celebrating a lot earlier than we did to.

Vince Kern  
Not quite not an understatement, but they had a lot of interesting things to say.

Joe Luther  
Yeah, 2121 different tailgates. But there were probably four to five people, at least, at every tailgate, I would say, I would say we probably talked to a put a microphone in front of 70 or more people. And it was interesting, it was very interesting. We, we kind of you've done this before. And it was new to me. And it was a lot of fun. But we wanted to ask some of the similar questions to a wide variety of people so we could get an idea of how people feel about these generational labels in the first place.

Vince Kern  
Yeah, and we got so much great feedback from all of those people, that when we came back and dug into it, we decided that we're going to need to do two shows on this

Joe Luther  
topic. Yeah, too. So this is the first one,

Vince Kern  
this is the first one. And in the first one, we want to give you a feel for what we heard. We're going to we're going to play some clips, and in the second show will give you sort of our summary and conclusions. So we don't want to give it away because it's going to be too great shows

Joe Luther  
it was interesting there was there were some very interesting answers to questions about this whole idea of different generations and what the younger generations think of the older generations, what the older generations think of the younger generations, and that kind of thing. And in really the question of do you really relate to all of this generational labeling in the first place and, and so it was a lot of fun. It was really a lot of fun.

Vince Kern  
Yeah. So let's get right into some of the things that we heard

Joe Luther  
Well, yeah, one of the first ones that we wanted to ask everybody because we almost call this program expanding boomers. And we see ourselves as boomers and, and you know, my own children see me as a boomer. So we thought, Well, why not go around? And as part of our interview process, ask as many people as we see, have you ever called somebody a boomer? And that was a lot of fun, because we got a lot of different answers.

Vince Kern  
Yeah. So let's just see what we got from from our interviews,

Joe Luther  
or you want to jump right into him now? Yeah, let's let's play the montage. In response to the question, have you ever called anybody a boomer?

Unknown Speaker  
Have you ever called anybody a boomer? I have not. No, no, that's, it's almost an offensive term, I think.

Vince Kern  
Have you ever called anyone a boomer? I have. When was that and what was it like? What was the situation? Um, one of

Unknown Speaker  
my friends said something. I remember exactly. Quite what he said. But he sounded very old and referred to him as a boomer.

Unknown Speaker  
Do. You Ever Have you ever use a term? Okay, Boomer? Oh,

Unknown Speaker  
no, no, not really. My thing. Not really my thing. Okay, cool. Why not? Oh, man, I respect. I respect everybody. I'm like, you know, everybody's got their own way. So

Unknown Speaker  
have you ever used the phrase? OK, Boomer. No.

Vince Kern  
Now come, why not? Use your budget say you

Unknown Speaker  
had? Well, I work in a nursing home. So I usually I have to say that to them every once in a while.

Vince Kern  
Have you ever called anyone a boomer?

Unknown Speaker  
I call him a boomer. All the time. Have you ever call

Unknown Speaker  
anyone a boomer? I call my dad a boomer to my friend.

Unknown Speaker  
You refer to him as a boomer to your friends. Yes.

Unknown Speaker  
How do you say? I say Christmas and it will not be good for her.

Vince Kern  
So when you refer to him as a boomer to your friends, can you give me an example how you would say it?

Unknown Speaker  
It's typically with electronics.

Vince Kern  
So you might send a text and say what? To make a Christmas any worse. But

Unknown Speaker  
I don't know if I want to say it on air or in front of

Joe Luther  
you. Yeah, that's just I you know, that's why I was so excited to do this men's is because it's so authentic. Some people think it's offensive to call somebody a Boomer and some people thought it was endearing. You know, or respectful or disrespectful. It was very, it was very real.

Vince Kern  
Alright, so let's listen to some more and go visit our Canadian friends.

Unknown Speaker  
What do you think a boomer would have been amazed by that? Hey, he's

Unknown Speaker  
like your, your I use a phone your computer technology or anything? Like you need explanations rarely? Yes.

Unknown Speaker  
Have you ever called someone a boomer?

Unknown Speaker  
Not until this moment.

Unknown Speaker  
I brought that out in you. You're Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  
you're bringing on yourselves. Boomers

Unknown Speaker  
racist. It's almost racist now to call some racist. agents. Agents? Yeah.

Vince Kern  
No, have you ever called anyone a boomer? No, it's just respectful. I love those guys. Compliment.

Unknown Speaker  
It's a compliment. Yep. Have you ever called anyone a boomer? Boomer? That's like my parents age, man. If you ever call anyone a boomer? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Give me an example of why you'd call someone a boomer. How'd that play out?

Unknown Speaker  
Oh. You know, just my dad's very old fashioned and some of the things that he does. And it's not as if like he's being paid for a thing. Or it's just like, Oh, that's such a boomer thing. He's, yeah, I love my dad. He's just been six years old way before he's turning 60 this year?

Unknown Speaker  
You're 1514? I'm 1818. Yeah. All right. So you're almost in college.

Unknown Speaker  
Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  
So have you ever called anybody a boomer?

Unknown Speaker  
Yeah, my parents.

Unknown Speaker  
Why do you call that's a generation. What do you think what did like like what triggers you to call your parents a boomer?

Unknown Speaker  
Usually when they ask the like me questions about like phones, electronics. Yeah, usually causes the boomer you know,

Unknown Speaker  
okay, so the common criticism of boomers is they don't know how to work electronics. Yeah, gotcha. No, how old are you?

Unknown Speaker  
I'm 1616. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  
so have you ever called anyone a boomer? Yeah. Tell us about that.

Unknown Speaker  
Oh, yeah. My mom. She doesn't really know how to work her phone.

Unknown Speaker  
Same reason. Yeah. So boomers don't know about technology basically, is what you're saying? Not at all.

Unknown Speaker  
First of all, I want to ask one question. Have you ever called anybody a boomer?

Unknown Speaker  
No, I know the term and my dad probably would be one of them. But I don't

Unknown Speaker  
I don't know. I've never you is a tournament?

Unknown Speaker  
Do you think it's disrespectful? No.

Unknown Speaker  
If it was anybody you ever call anyone a boomer?

Unknown Speaker  
Yeah, my parents are boomers. Yeah. So

Unknown Speaker  
So when would you what would flow trigger you to call them a boomer?

Unknown Speaker  
Knowing that they're hard workers and by their example, that's where I'm at today.

Unknown Speaker  
So it's a compliment that Yes. Have you ever called anyone a boomer?

Unknown Speaker  
No, not called anybody. I never want to be ruined be like, Oh, you're, I don't want to go out in public say, oh, you're a boomer, blah, blah, this that only allowed me like that. I'm not like that person at all.

Vince Kern  
Well, Boomer, that was sort of enlightening. And, you know, I don't feel like people were saying too many bad things about boomers.

Joe Luther  
No, you know, in fact, the one thing that we noticed is that of all the people we asked, and I don't know how many times we asked that question. Not once. Did somebody say something like visceral? Right? You know, it was it was mostly respectful. And even those who did use the term, when when they said that they did, it was mostly a playful kind of thing. And of course, the number one issue being that. Apparently, we're not good with electronics.

Vince Kern  
Yeah. parently not, but we're, here we are. So um, yeah. So you you're a parent. Does this change your perspective on Boomer or No,

Joe Luther  
no, I mean, I look at the kids love to use that phrase, kind of like, when whenever you're talking about the good old days or something like that there's a OK, Boomer. And I think now they even use it amongst themselves. Millennials will call other Millennials boomers if they do something that sounds a little bit like the good old days. And I think, again, it's fun, but it's, you know, and that's one of the things that we found in this process is that people in this labeling, it's not as divisive, as, as you might be led to believe, when you hear talked about in the general mainstream. And that was why we wanted to ask another question, which kind of hits on that topic? Do you identify as a particular generation?

Vince Kern  
How old are you

Unknown Speaker  
4045 45

Unknown Speaker  
that make you think Gen X? You think Gen?

Unknown Speaker  
I believe so. I think what's Yeah, Gen X is you kind of don't really care about anything, you just kind of get goes with the flow kind of thing, you know, so that's what I like, that's a good trait. I think, what,

Unknown Speaker  
we don't care if we're Gen X, or Y or Z, it doesn't like whatever. Like.

Vince Kern  
It's what's it like in California with the generations? Is there much of a, do you identify this generation Z?

Unknown Speaker  
Not particularly, I mean, nobody like refers to themselves as a Gen Z people just like, when you kind of like, know it to yourself, nobody really shares their generation feel like

Vince Kern  
so. It's really do you ever have discussions like in your social groups about them?

Unknown Speaker  
Never really never

Unknown Speaker  
do? Um, do you think of yourself as part of a identifiable generation like Boomer, Gen X, Gen Z, anything like that? Boomer,

Joe Luther  
you're, you're a boomer. Apparently, so

Unknown Speaker  
what, what generation would you say you belong to?

Unknown Speaker  
I mean, I wouldn't consider myself like, I was born in 2001. So I'm the Gen X millennial. Yeah, but I might be. I'm right there in that cut. I'm 21. Right there in that cut, but like personality wise, man, I feel like I'm definitely part of the order. I like the older shit. Um, 80s guy you know, I like all that stuff. And classic rock. That's all I listen, who's your favorite band? Oh, man. Probably gonna go like Motley Crue, Van Halen, more of a heavy rock kind of guy. So I'm in that area. So

Joe Luther  
yeah, this is so interesting. We were getting such a mixed bag of responses of whether people identify with, you know, their own particular generation.

Vince Kern  
Yeah. And it seems like people don't like to be labeled themselves as one generation, because they also as humans know that they have positive qualities of other generations. And so they don't necessarily fit into the label, which gets back to our conversation about labeling and is it good? Is does it help? You know, people don't see themselves that way.

Joe Luther  
And in a way we were, we were kind of leading this whole process by, you know, saying, Oh, you're a Gen Z, or you're a Gen X. How do you relate to that? But when it came right down to it when the rubber hit the road, most of these people don't want to box themselves into that label.

Vince Kern  
No, they're more expensive than then then the labeling.

Joe Luther  
Yeah, and then expanding their own generation. Exactly.

Vince Kern  
All right, Joe, so let's listen to some more. Okay.

Unknown Speaker  
Well, I'm a Gen Z or so I don't fit into the millennial.

Unknown Speaker  
Well then what do you think of millennials?

Unknown Speaker  
I kind of feel like I'm a millennial, but I to Gen Z, I

Vince Kern  
don't know. So your generation Z, do you? Do you? Do you identify as like Generation Z? Do you? Do you do? Is that a common part of your conversations with people?

Unknown Speaker  
Not really now? Okay, so

Vince Kern  
you're 20 I'm gonna ask you a few questions. So do you think there's misconceptions about Generation Z? Ah,

Unknown Speaker  
now not really. I mean, we were kind of weird. We kind of I think we have we're weird generation. I don't think we're there's any misconception Why do you think you're weird? What

Vince Kern  
do you describe weird if you can? And why do you think that is a bunch of

Unknown Speaker  
kids grew up on the internet. That's basically it. Like they were just always on the internet just grew up weird. That's just how it was. Just weird. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  
Do you identify as a particular generation?

Unknown Speaker  
No, because I don't agree with my generation.

Vince Kern  
What's your generation?

Unknown Speaker  
Apparently a millennial and I don't like it. Okay. Well, can you tell us why? Because I don't agree with the way they fucking going. Well, I, I see things going a different direction than what things are actually going with

Unknown Speaker  
them. Do you think there's misconceptions about millennials are true? No. I

Unknown Speaker  
think there's misconceptions depending on beginning stages or end stages of millennials. Millennials need to be divided. Yes, they need to be you got you got millennials that actually want to work for a living. You got millennials?

Vince Kern  
What gender do you identify with a particular generation? I do. I'm a millennial. You're a millennial. What are some of the best things about millennials? And what are some of the worst things about millennials?

Unknown Speaker  
The best and the worst? The best? Is we're very outgoing. Make our own future. The worst thing is, we're a little dramatic.

Vince Kern  
A little dramatic. Can you describe that a little bit? Give me an example?

Unknown Speaker  
Um, you know, we we? I don't know. High School. You're part of Generation Z. Did you know that? No. You don't know that you're part of Generation Z. Do you have any idea about generations in general? No. Okay. Well, that's good. That's good answer.

Vince Kern  
What generation do you identify with?

Unknown Speaker  
I'm a baby boomer at heart. I guess I'm Gen Z if you really want to get down to it, but

Unknown Speaker  
I don't I don't I don't identify with them. No. Okay. So you're a boomer at heart. And why do you say that? Because I drink beer. And I come from a good family. That's why so you

Vince Kern  
were raised? Right. So you have Boomer values.

Unknown Speaker  
I was raised the right way. I know the way to act. I'm respectful. And yeah, that's just the way that's the way you should be. 64

Unknown Speaker  
Okay, you're right on the cusp. You're around the customer. The Boomer generation.

Unknown Speaker  
Got outside, you got outside, you're not on your laptops, playing video games. You're outdoors.

Unknown Speaker  
So what it appeared, it's gone.

Joe Luther  
Do you think it's

Vince Kern  
gone forever? No, no, it'll rekindle what's going to rekindle it.

Unknown Speaker  
Parents like us trying to get our kids out. My son's always outside. You know, it's just you got to get out and get the parents to take the kids out. Have fun. Enjoy the outdoors again.

Vince Kern  
What generation are you?

Unknown Speaker  
I'm x. I'm through I'm 49. Okay,

Vince Kern  
do you have children? Yeah. Are they generation? What generation are they?

Unknown Speaker  
They're? I think they're, well, they're 19 and 22. They're z's. Okay. Yeah. So we wish they were not Gen z's, they wish they were born in our era. Because they like how, how we are as I don't know, like, aren't just how we're how we perform with our work and everything like that. Right. That makes sense. Alrighty, then.

Vince Kern  
So what I heard there to try and sum it up, so we can talk about this a little bit, is that people don't generally put themselves in a box of labeled by generation. But in some cases, they are willing to put other people in a box. Did you do that?

Joe Luther  
Yeah. I mean, it's a little bit divisive. And I was a little concerned, because we're running around, putting microphones in front of people's faces and asking them, do you relate to a generation? Or what do you think misconceptions of other generations there? We were kind of leading it with the questions. But it was interesting to see how quick people didn't want to be put in a box themselves, but we're willing to allow others to be put in a

Vince Kern  
box or put up Yeah, yeah, it's it's sort of this chameleon like, self concept where, and I think it's human nature. We either have been taught, absorbed or want to absorb the good qualities of other humans and certainly we get that from people who are older than us. And yet at the same time, we don't want to cop to some of them. The stereotypes that are made about our generation.

Joe Luther  
Yeah, it was, it was it was definitely a mixed bag, a mixed bag when we asked whether they relate to the generational labels. But as we're going to demonstrate in the next episode, when you start asking people to describe characteristics of other generations, it's interesting that people are quick to do that, especially when they're talking about generations younger or below them

Vince Kern  
very quick. And they have very definitely formed opinions. And that's interesting, because not everybody fits into each category. So you know, this, this misnomer about boomers not being able to handle technology, I'd say we're on a on a pretty good level of being able to do that. But at the same time, there are there are people that are our age that just don't use the internet. And they don't still have to

Joe Luther  
flip phones. Yeah, exactly. That.

Vince Kern  
So we've got a lot of great stuff coming up in our next episode, where we dig a little bit deeper into all of this. And we have a lot more great interviews coming up. And this was a lot of fun. Oh my

Joe Luther  
gosh, you give people a microphone, they'll pretty much say anything. And of course, we got to the point where we were a little playful with some of our questions too, but it really made for some some humorous recordings or I guess, yeah, clips.

Vince Kern  
So as we end today, please enjoy some of these bits of humor that we heard and be sure to join us next week. Like I said, we'll dig deeper into some of the things that generations are saying about each other, some disrespectful, some respectful and we'll also give you some of our conclusions about all this. So thanks for joining us today. Friends in winder.com for top it friends

Unknown Speaker  
we also have our people who want to buy tents. The hours are in a podcast for some reason. I don't know called a Podcast, the podcast. actually come in we got a heater come in. All right,

Vince Kern  
thank you. You don't actually say

Unknown Speaker  
you guys want to read?

Unknown Speaker  
Have you ever told anyone to get off your lawn? No, but

Unknown Speaker  
we joke about it because sometimes I want to I don't identify as a boomer My pronouns are wrapped God and Boomer I guess, rubbed

Joe Luther  
out I like that.

Vince Kern  
It's covered call friends and wonder. And this is Joe and I'm Vince love to have

Unknown Speaker  
a good time listener first time.

Vince Kern  
Alright, so what do you think boomers are? What are the conceptions that you have of boomers?

Unknown Speaker  
Be honest, they like muscle cars, muscle cars, muscle cars, stealing AC DC.

Unknown Speaker  
Too much Steely Dan, way too much. Steely Dan