Boomers helped build this society - but are they ready for how it’s evolving?

There's a conversation happening right now, mostly in comment sections and at family gatherings, about how society is changing.

Boomers look around at remote work, gender fluidity, trigger warnings, and participation trophies and wonder what happened to the world they built.

And they did build it, let's be clear about that.

The infrastructure we use, the institutions we rely on, the economic systems we navigate - Boomers were instrumental in creating and maintaining all of it. They put in the work, followed the rules, and believed in a particular vision of progress.

But here's the thing about building something: you don't get to control how it evolves once it's out in the world.

The society Boomers shaped is now being reshaped by people who grew up in it, who inherited both its benefits and its dysfunctions, and who have different ideas about what progress looks like.

The question isn't whether Boomers contributed. They obviously did. The question is whether they're prepared to watch the next generations take what they built and transform it into something they might not recognize or even approve of.

The foundation they built

Let's give credit where it's due. Boomers came of age during extraordinary social change and participated in movements that fundamentally altered American society.

They pushed for civil rights, environmental protection, and women's liberation. They questioned authority in ways their parents never did. They expanded access to education and created technologies that changed how we live and communicate.

The prosperity many of them enjoyed came from hard work, but also from timing.

They entered a job market where a college degree or even just a high school diploma could secure stable employment. They bought homes when housing was affordable relative to wages. They built careers with pensions and benefits that became increasingly rare for subsequent generations.

That foundation created real opportunity and real progress. But it also created systems that worked better for some than others, systems that younger generations now inherit with all their embedded inequalities and unsustainable assumptions.

The world that grew from that foundation

Here's where things get complicated. The world Boomers built succeeded in many ways and failed in others, often simultaneously.

They created unprecedented wealth, but that wealth concentrated at the top while wages stagnated for everyone else.

They expanded access to education, but turned it into a debt trap that leaves young people starting their adult lives financially underwater. They championed homeownership as the path to prosperity, but the housing market they shaped makes that path increasingly inaccessible.

They built careers on the promise of stability and loyalty, then watched those promises evaporate as corporations prioritized shareholders over employees. The social contract they believed in—work hard, play by the rules, and you'll be fine - turned out to be more fragile than anyone expected.

Now younger generations are looking at this inheritance and making different choices. They're prioritizing flexibility over stability, meaning over money, mental health over grinding through. They're questioning systems that Boomers take for granted and proposing alternatives that sound radical to ears trained in a different era.

The evolution they're resisting

The resistance shows up in predictable ways. Comments about kids these days being soft, entitled, or unwilling to work. Dismissiveness toward concerns about mental health, work-life balance, or systemic inequality. Nostalgia for how things used to be, when people just toughed it out and didn't complain so much.

I watched this play out at a family gathering last year.

A Boomer uncle complained about younger workers wanting remote flexibility and frequent feedback. "In my day, you showed up, did your job, and didn't expect a pat on the back," he said. His Gen Z niece responded, "Yeah, and you also got a pension, affordable housing, and your employer's loyalty. We get none of that, so we prioritize differently."

The tension in that exchange captures something important. Boomers often compare younger generations' choices to their own without acknowledging how different the context is. The economy, the job market, the housing situation, the cost of education—none of it resembles what they experienced.

When someone who bought a house for three times their annual salary tells someone facing houses at ten times their annual salary to just work harder and save more, the advice isn't just unhelpful. It reveals a fundamental disconnect about the world younger people are actually navigating.

Why this matters now

We're at an inflection point. Boomers still hold most positions of power in government, business, and institutions. They're making decisions that will shape society for decades after they're gone.

The question is whether those decisions will acknowledge the reality younger generations face or whether they'll be based on nostalgia for conditions that no longer exist.

Climate change is the most obvious example. The scientific consensus is clear: dramatic action is needed immediately. But the generation that will experience the worst effects has less power to make policy than the generation that benefited most from the systems causing the problem.

The same dynamic plays out in housing policy, labor law, healthcare reform, and education funding. The people most affected by current systems have the least influence over changing them, while the people who benefited from previous systems are reluctant to see them transformed.

What readiness looks like

Being ready for how society is evolving doesn't mean agreeing with every change or abandoning your values. It means acknowledging that change is inevitable and your role is shifting from builder to elder.

Elders have wisdom to offer, but only when they're curious about the present rather than fixated on the past. That means asking questions instead of making pronouncements. Listening to why younger generations are making different choices rather than dismissing those choices as wrong.

It means recognizing that just because something worked for you doesn't mean it's working for everyone or that it will work in the future. The world changes. What was true in 1975 or 1990 or even 2005 might not be true now.

I've seen this done well. A mentor once told me, "I don't understand half of what's changing in the workplace, but I trust that young people are responding to their reality, not just being difficult." That humility created space for real conversation instead of generational antagonism.

The Boomers who navigate this transition well are the ones who can hold two things at once: pride in what they built and openness to how it needs to change. They can offer perspective without insisting that their experience is the only valid one.

The risk of resisting

The alternative is digging in, insisting that the old ways were better, and using whatever power remains to slow down change rather than guide it.

That creates resentment. Younger generations already feel like they inherited a world with massive problems - climate crisis, economic inequality, political dysfunction - and limited tools to address them. When the people in power dismiss their concerns or block attempts at reform, that resentment calcifies into something harder.

It also squanders the genuine wisdom that comes with age and experience. 

There are things Boomers know about building institutions, navigating change, and sustaining movements over time that younger generations could benefit from. But that knowledge only transfers when the relationship is collaborative rather than adversarial.

Resistance also leaves Boomers increasingly isolated. When you're constantly complaining about how things are changing and how the younger generation is ruining everything, people stop wanting to be around you. You become the person everyone tolerates at holidays but nobody actually wants to talk to.

Final thoughts

Every generation faces this transition.

You build something, you believe in it, and then you have to watch the next generation critique it, dismantle parts of it, and rebuild it according to their own vision.

That's not disrespect. It's how societies evolve.

The civil rights activists Boomers celebrated were critiquing and transforming what their parents built. The environmental movement Boomers championed was pushing back against industrial practices the previous generation saw as progress.

Now it's Boomers' turn to experience that process from the other side. To watch younger generations look at what they built and say, "This part works, this part needs to change, and this part needs to go entirely."

The ones who adapt well will find new roles. Advisors, not directors. Supporters, not gatekeepers. People with valuable perspective who offer it generously without insisting it's the only perspective that matters.

The ones who dig in and resist will become increasingly irrelevant as the world moves on without them. Not because younger generations are heartless, but because change doesn't wait for permission from people who preferred how things used to be.

Boomers helped build this society. That contribution matters and deserves recognition.

But societies don't stay built. They're living systems that have to keep adapting to survive. The real question isn't whether Boomers are ready for that evolution. It's whether they'll participate in it meaningfully or spend their remaining years complaining about it from the sidelines.

The choice, as it always has been, is theirs.