Think boomers and millennials are always at odds?
Think again.
Despite their reputation for clashing on everything from politics to pop culture, there are actually some surprising areas where these two generations see eye to eye.
In fact, millennials are embracing some of the same opinions and perspectives that their boomer counterparts have held for decades.
Here are 21 boomer takes that millennials can’t help but agree with.
Music Is Bad These Days
If you’ve noticed that modern music feels bland, unoriginal, and soulless, you’re not alone, and you’re not just being old.
The argument is that the internet has flooded younger generations with every song, style, and genre in history, overwhelming their creativity.
What once made music great was the limitation of exposure; those creative constraints were actually fertile ground for originality.
Take those away, and you get what we have now.
Virtual Communities Aren’t Real
You might be right to roll your eyes at people who treat their online friendships as a substitute for real human connection.
The platforms may be slick, but no amount of messaging back and forth on a screen compares to meeting someone face-to-face at a café, going for a walk together, or simply being present in the same room.
Younger People Have a Low Sense of Agency
If you’ve noticed that many younger people seem to have a poor sense of will and little desire to develop agency for themselves, you’re seeing something real.
Economic hardship may play a role, but sliding into a defeatist victim mentality as the default response to adversity isn’t a solution, and watching it happen can be genuinely frustrating.
Smartphones Are Bad
You don’t need a study to tell you that smartphones haven’t been great for humanity.
They’ve quietly dismantled some of the most basic elements of being a human being.
And if you’ve ever sat down at a restaurant and watched an entire table of people stare at their screens instead of each other, you already know exactly what that looks like in practice.
Helicopter Parenting Ruined Kids
If you believe that helicopter parenting has done real damage to younger generations, you’re in good company.
The tricky part is that most helicopter parents don’t see themselves as one.
There’s always someone more extreme they can point to. But the pattern and its effects are hard to ignore.
Get Off Your Phone When You’re Outside
When you’re out for a walk, especially with your dog or your family, your phone can probably wait.
There’s something genuinely sad about watching someone stand frozen on a sidewalk, eyes locked on a screen, while their dog looks up, wondering what’s going on.
Whatever is on that phone almost certainly could have waited ten minutes.
Parents Don’t Let Their Kids Outside Enough
If you grew up playing outside unsupervised, you probably turned out just fine, and many people believe today’s kids are being deprived of that same experience.
Part of the problem is practical: many kids today don’t have accessible outdoor spaces within walking distance, making unstructured outdoor play harder to come by even when parents are willing.
The Legal Risk of Hands-Off Parenting
Before you judge parents for keeping their kids indoors, consider this: many traditional, hands-off parenting approaches can now get the police or child protective services called on you.
Parents have faced child endangerment charges simply for letting their child walk home from the bus stop alone.
The culture around childhood independence has shifted dramatically, and not entirely by parental choice.
The Younger Generation Is Lazy
If you once drove to another state to save thousands of dollars on a car purchase, you might raise an eyebrow at a younger person who won’t do the same thing.
That kind of practicality and willingness to put in effort used to be considered standard.
Watching it disappear can make even the most open-minded person think twice.
Phone Calls Are Better Than Texting
When you actually want to have a real back-and-forth conversation, a phone call is almost always the better option.
Texting was designed to be a convenience: something you respond to on your own time, not a replacement for actual dialogue.
If you prefer to just pick up the phone, you’re making a perfectly reasonable choice.
It Really Is the Avocado Toast
You may have laughed at the criticism of the avocado toast, but the spending data tells an interesting story.
Gen Z is, by a decent margin, the most consumption-focused generation yet, with a heavy emphasis on luxury goods, dining out, and travel.
The average age at which Gen Z buys a first designer item dropped to 17, compared to 20 for millennials and 25 for Gen X. The meme, it turns out, has more than a little truth to it.
Tattoos Are Stupid
You might keep this opinion to yourself at parties, but plenty of people quietly agree: most tattoos, particularly in American culture, don’t hold up well.
There’s room to appreciate tattoos with genuine artistic or deep cultural significance, but permanently marking your skin with a pop culture reference is a choice that tends to age poorly in more ways than one.
Be More Respectful
This one is simple.
If you believe kids and teenagers should show more respect toward their elders, you’re holding a position that plenty of people across generations quietly share, even if it’s become unfashionable to say out loud.
Young People Should Spend Time With Older Folks
If you’re a young person with few close friends, consider looking beyond your own age group.
Spending time with people older than you, not just relatives, can be enormously beneficial for your development and mental health.
When you’re in your twenties and spiraling over a relationship or a work problem, an older friend has likely seen the same situation a dozen times and can offer the kind of perspective that no peer group can.
Poor People Have Bad Money Management
If you’ve ever watched someone use food assistance to buy cigarettes while also picking up lottery tickets and energy drinks, you understand where this take comes from.
Acknowledging poor money management doesn’t mean ignoring systemic poverty; better financial habits wouldn’t eliminate the problem, but it’s a pattern that’s hard to overlook once you’ve seen it up close.
Get Over Yourself
Everyone goes through some form of trauma.
Life isn’t perfect for anyone.
If you believe that leaning into a victim identity is both self-indulgent and ultimately self-defeating, that it breeds resentment rather than resilience, you’re not being heartless.
You’re recognizing that how you respond to adversity matters just as much as the adversity itself.
Digital Cinematography Has Hurt Film
If you’ve ever felt like modern movies look a little too clean, too polished, or too visually hollow compared to older films, there’s a real argument behind that instinct.
The shift to digital cinematography didn’t just change the look of film. It changed the discipline behind it.
When you can shoot unlimited takes at no extra cost, the creative restraint that once forced better decisions disappears with it.
The Internet Has Taken on a Life of Its Own
If you’re genuinely concerned about what the internet is doing to the next generation, you’re not being paranoid.
The algorithms driving social media and online content have taken on a momentum that even the people who built them don’t fully understand.
Young people today are being funneled toward increasingly extreme and consumptive content, and the long-term effects of that are still being felt.
Most Movies Are Trash
If you find yourself agreeing with Martin Scorsese’s criticism of superhero and franchise films, you’re not alone.
The argument is that these movies function as the fast food of cinema: broadly appealing, endlessly replicated, and ultimately empty.
And if you’ve spent enough time on short-form video platforms, you may have noticed that the appetite for anything slower or more demanding has quietly eroded.
Hard Work Leads to Success
You don’t have to believe in the bootstrap myth to recognize that hard work and success tend to move together.
Yes, people start from different places, and those differences matter.
But if you’ve looked at your own life and the lives of people around you and noticed a pattern, that the people who consistently do the right things tend to land on their feet, you’re not imagining it.
The cultural pendulum may have swung too far toward the idea that outcomes are entirely out of your hands.
One Parent Needs To Stay Home
If you believe that the current model, which is two parents working full-time while children are raised by a combination of low-wage workers, screens, and processed food, isn’t working, the evidence is hard to argue with.
Whether the solution is one parent stepping back from full-time work or a broader shift to shorter workweeks, something about the current arrangement isn’t adding up for families.
People Should Dress Better
How you present yourself to the world sends a signal, whether you intend it to or not.
If you believe that dressing with some care and intention reflects self-respect, and that showing up to class or daily life looking like you just rolled out of bed has a quiet, demoralizing effect on everyone around you, you’re making a point that more people probably agree with than would admit.
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