Millennials versus baby boomers. It’s a rivalry as old as, well, whenever boomers finally learned the word millennials and saddled that generation with the blame for killing every category of expensive goods because they can’t afford expensive goods. The news media loves reminding millennials that they should have more money and they could pull up those bootstraps if they just stopped buying avocados and added another side hustle to their side hustle.
The newest form of millennial-shaming reared its head last week via a New York Post article with the attention grabbing (and internet enraging) headline, “Millennial dads have pathetic DIY skills compared to baby boomers.”
Millennial dads have pathetic DIY skills compared to baby boomers https://t.co/BC1ALhTqZ4 pic.twitter.com/5GsfZ8MBEj
— New York Post (@nypost) June 6, 2019
Without even getting into the assumption that only dads can fix things, there’s plenty of reasons to laugh at this complaint. Over the weekend, people on Twitter had fun making parody versions of the tweet:
https://twitter.com/thoneycombs/status/1136812077153181696
And many pointed out the obvious: DIY-ing a rental makes you lose your deposit:
they all live in apartments where you can lose $1300 if you put a nail in the wall you dumb shits https://t.co/9vAkz0nWAa
— Sega Protogenesis (@gravislizard) June 6, 2019
Phew! Good thing boomers made it almost impossible to ever own a house or this would be a real problem! https://t.co/k9UAv7MNE4
— Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) June 7, 2019
https://twitter.com/dubsteppenwolf/status/1137100856342515712
Millennials: I wanna buy a house
Housing market: no
Millennials:
Housing market: wow embarrassing that you don’t know how to fix houses though lol https://t.co/YaudRBACmE
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) June 6, 2019
BOOMERS: no, you can’t have any of these houses. You can live in one of my 26 houses but god help you if you so much as try to hang a picture frame
ALSO BOOMERS: whaddya MEAN you can’t spin-crank a hutching beam with a simple centrifugal wench, this is basic stuff https://t.co/Hj817OHqce
— Dan Hall (@danieljohnhall) June 6, 2019
am I supposed to use all the skills I learned from HGTV to make my landlord's house nice or?????
— COUNTING WORMS MOSH CALL (@HYENABLOOD) June 7, 2019
Speaking of housing, what’s that guy in the stock photo doing, anyway?
https://twitter.com/mikefossey/status/1137009308900777985
dog showing appropriate concern/confusion mix pic.twitter.com/hKl2PCnLTw
— charlie peters’ burner account (@CharlieTweeters) June 7, 2019
People also pointed out that the technology inside a house can be DIY’d as well:
Oh look, the generation that doesn’t know how to connect to their WiFi has another opinion. https://t.co/6pDmO48BzV
— Katelyn Burns (@transscribe) June 7, 2019
A boomer who can’t convert a PDF wrote this. https://t.co/AzDUCLuV0n
— Striggity (@35mmPapi) June 6, 2019
Boomer dads don’t know how to put a phone on silent. What’s your point. https://t.co/OmtcHR9Uw0
— Imo (@imogenrq) June 6, 2019
https://twitter.com/fakemikemulloy/status/1136801204707532800
my dad has bricked 7 laptops https://t.co/Bty7vaIvpy
— Shaun (shaunvids on bsky) (@shaun_vids) June 7, 2019
https://twitter.com/carIisIe/status/1136775880674566145
And sometimes other priorities win out:
yeah but how many fortnite wins do they have https://t.co/SKA6PURfPc
— Memeulous (@Memeulous) June 7, 2019
yeah but can they get the scarab gun in halo 2 https://t.co/bh3ADs7qcX
— Matty McDee (@MattyMcDee) June 7, 2019
Many made the fair point that DRM and planned obsolescence weren’t invented by millennials, but they sure are a strong disincentive to fixing things:
The generation that made it illegal for farmers to repair their tractors and turned everything into cheap unrepairable junk has some words about the shitty world they left their kids. https://t.co/xECbgNzDdC
— John-Michael Bond (@BondJohnBond) June 7, 2019
https://twitter.com/AnaMardoll/status/1137089993879498753
I don't buy this for a second.
Boomers basically invented disposable economy because they didn't want to spend time fixing things like their parents did. By contrast, Gen-Xers and Millennials have been hooked on "lifehacks" and "one weird tricks" that are just "fixing things" https://t.co/dxVRWMZklP
— Bob Chipman 😁 bobchipman.bsky.social (@the_moviebob) June 7, 2019
Did we mention yet that millennials just have less money?
Millennial dads work 65 hour work weeks and have a side freelance gig on weekends just to feed their kids fuck you. https://t.co/WLqml70cTR
— Tea Berry-Blue (@teaberryblue) June 8, 2019
And some people really went for the jugular:
https://twitter.com/SrFCasanova/status/1137087071741460480
https://twitter.com/DisneyCPT/status/1137004127685435393
SOME ARTICLE: Millennials Suck at Some Things Compared to Boomers. Like Model Trains and Getting Divorced
BOOMER MAN (through tears): it’s just so wonderful to be recognized. representation matters— america's lounge singer (@KrangTNelson) June 9, 2019
Alternative headline: Baby boomer dads neglected to teach their millennial sons basic DIY skills https://t.co/e2DnqyrSUQ
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) June 7, 2019
https://twitter.com/belledejour_uk/status/1136884333711679488
https://twitter.com/JATayler/status/1136774881994055681
Man the 5 boomers who know how to use Twitter are gonna be stoked when they see this https://t.co/eIDhKk8ylF
— Bobson Dugnutt (@jerry_type_beat) June 7, 2019
IF YOUR FAMILY MEMBERS SHARE ONE OF THOSE ARTICLES ABOUT HOW MILLENNIALS CANT DO ANYTHING RIGHT CONSIDER COUNTERING BY SHARING THE PAGE OF A BELOW AVERAGE NURSING HOME OR EVEN JUST A PHOTO OF BONES WITH THE CAPTION “SOONER THAN YOU THINK”
— NOT A WOLF (@SICKOFWOLVES) June 7, 2019
https://twitter.com/ItsDanSheehan/status/1137028823239708673
Y’all better shut up before we turn off the wifi and don’t tell you how to reset it. https://t.co/IEM9vrcd8z
— Daniel (@slowdrams) June 7, 2019