Zoomers Will be the Death of Me
I’m getting too old for this
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Everywhere I turn on social media, regardless of my intentions, I’m finding members of Generation Z either upset with what I’ve said or attempting to gatekeep me out of a particular community, merely because of my age.
I’m a member of Generation X, and I was born in the 1970s and came of age in the 1980s. I was part of the latchkey generation, raised with the threat of the cold war and the false promise of trickle-down prosperity. While I am a product of my time, I do my best to keep up, as best as my aging brain can handle.
Zoomers are gatekeeping older generations
I’m not the only one who has run into this, as both older Millennials and Gen-Xers are getting told to get out by Zoomers from participating in geeky fandoms, online video game communities, and many other recreational activities.
I have been told that I’m too old and I should grow up and raise my kids. When I mention that I’ve never had kids because I’m childfree by choice, I’ve been called a liar. Apparently, Zoomers and younger Millennials have invented the concept of being childfree and anyone older must have had kids, whether we wanted to or not.
While I am a fan of several TV shows and some video games, I’m currently only active in one particular fandom online. It was a long running TV series, featuring several actors who are only slightly younger than me. Yet, I’ve been repeatedly told that I should leave the fandom because I’m too old and that younger fans find it creepy. I don’t understand why it’s creepy for people my age to be a fan, and engage with other fans, of a show starring people around my age.
Why is everything so offensive?
I do my best to be respectful of everyone. Yet, everywhere I turn, a Zoomer will find something wrong with what I say. Even fellow trans folks of that generation seem to take exception to me. If I post about how happy I am to have had top surgery, I’m accused of being a transmed and attacking trans people who either don’t want or cannot have surgery.
Nothing could be further from the truth. I have never bought into the transmed rhetoric that to be a true transgender person…
