Generation gap’s a trap for the old and young
THE Gold Coast is the meat in a generational sandwich.
There’s Baby Boomers above, Millennials below … and the rest of us are getting squeezed between their demands and desires.
If you want to understand the antagonism between these two generations – one born between 1946 and 1964 and characterised as technophobic, wealthy and elitist, and the other born between 1981 and 1996 and characterised as lazy, entitled narcissists who mooch off their parents – then you have to check out one particular social media page.
Titled “A group where we all pretend to be Baby Boomers”, this Facebook page is simply Millennials roleplaying as their techchallenged seniors. It is both hilarious and cruel and epitomises the adage “funny because it’s true”.
The group boasts more than 250,000 subscribers, despite being created just two months ago.
Members-pretending-tobe-Boomers enthusiastically share earnest personal news (such as “Frank just died” emblazoned against a rainbow background), Minions gifs (inexplicably popular with the over-55s), and hoax posts imploring friends to copy and paste alarmist messages (who hasn’t called their parents IRL to tell them to calm down online?).
All of this comes riddled with wacky syntax like all-caps and redundant punctuation (my own mother loves to swap a full stop for a comma … and simply cannot stop at just one).
As 20-year-old moderator Robert Snyder says: “It’s definitely been a lot more successful than I expected, and I think a lot of that can be attributed to the relatable nature of how Boomers post.”
But maybe it’s also successful simply because it’s a great way to exorcise some of the negative energy between these two generations.
To Millennials, decried by Boomers as “special snowflakes”, the Boomers had it easy with their affordable housing and strong job market. Even worse, Millennials blame Boomers for destroying both these markets and the environment for future generations.
But what does this generational war matter to our city?
A lot, actually. Demographics expert Bernard Salt predicts that southeast Queensland’s climate and coastal lifestyle will lure hundreds of thousands of cashed-up Baby Boomers as their working years come to an end, creating a Miami Down Under senior scene on the Gold Coast.
While the overall population of southeast Queensland will climb 44 per cent by 2035, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics projections, the 65-plus cohort will effectively double, rising 96 per cent.
Meanwhile, Millennials are making their mark in the property landscape.
According to the World Property Journal, Millennials are now the largest generation of home buyers, accounting for 37 per cent of all purchases.
And even when they’re not buying, they’re calling the shots – with 52 per cent of Gen Xers who bought a multigenerational home doing so not for their ageing parents, but adult kids.
You can see the influence of these two markets on our city already.
For the Boomers, witness the new breed of retirement villages in our city. They are no longer pitched at “seniors”, but “over-55s”. And it’s not “retirement”, it’s “active lifestyle”.
As for the Millennials, they’re getting their own hotel.
Long-time Gold Coast developer Robert Badalotti is behind a 19-storey Southport tower set to begin construction later this year that is designed solely for those born in the ’80s and ’90s.
Mr Badalotti said he decided to focus on the highly lucrative youth market based on research showing that Millennials would make up 50 per cent of all worldwide hotel bookings by 2020.
With our city trying to please both the young(ish) and old(ish), there could be some trouble. After all, Boomers prefer safety and security, while Millennials want community connection and organic design.
Perhaps it’s up to Gen X (that’s me) to broker some peace before some serious turf wars break out. But, oh God, I can feel the headache already just thinking of the computer communication with the seniors – and the micromanaging of every need of the Millennials.
Maybe we should just allocate each generation its own geographic nest. The Boomers can relive the glory days of Tedder Ave and take Main Beach, and the Millennials already own (or rent) Palm Beach.
As for the rest of us, as usual, we can just squeeze in between.
Read Ann Wason Moore every Tuesday and Saturday in the