Every generation has its nickname from Boomer to Zoomer, the latter is currently known as Gen Z, the cohort born between 1997 and 2012. During lockdown and quarantine, Gen Z attended virtual school and used Zoom to communicate with their teachers and classmates.
The Seattle Times published an article on February 26, 2021 that discusses certain words and phrases that have become part of the pandemic vocabulary including new words that uniquely describe the experience of living through the Covid era. The author acknowledges that some terms are a “couple of tongue-in-cheek additions that maybe aren’t used daily quite yet – but that certainly should be.”
Zoomer, n. | Definition: 1 Kids who’ve grown up in this age where every social interaction takes place over the video app Zoom. (See also “quaranteen”). 2 Historical/archaic: Adults from the baby boomer generation who think they’re cooler than they are. Example: “Sorry I’ve been MIA at work lately, I’ve got two Zoomers at home and they’re using up all the bandwidth on group Zoom calls with their friends.”
Seattle Times
This isn’t the earliest article where the word zoomer is discussed in a pandemic context. That credit goes to Megan Gerhardt, a Miami University professor who published an opinion piece for NBC News on June 7, 2020 entitled “Coronavirus and Zoom have marked a generation. Let’s call them Zoomers.” Gerhardt discusses how life changing events can influence the naming of generations and some have suggested labeling Gen Z “Coronas” or “Gen P” for Generation Pandemic.
Gerhardt makes the argument that generations should not be named for “tragic disasters” because that label “saddles them with that burden of negativity for life. We didn’t call those who grew up in the late 1920s and early 1930s the ‘Depression Generation,’ nor was Gen X the ‘AIDS Generation’ or Millennials the ‘9/11s’ – those were things they survived, but not how they were defined.” She proposes using a name that honors what a generation has lived through and which captures the positive aspects, as she says “the best name is the one that captures the resiliency this generation will need to bounce back from the impact of the pandemic: The Zoomers. It’s a nod to the former moniker of ‘Z,’ a play on the ‘Boomers’ and an acknowledgment of the dramatic shift to remote communication that will shape the interactions of this generation.”
I decided not to include social media trends for “zoomer” since it has been used as early as 2016 and won’t accurately reflect a pandemic context.
Sources:
Gerhardt, Megan. “Coronavirus and Zoom have marked a generation. Let’s call them Zoomers.” NCB News. June 10, 2020. URL: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/coronavirus-zoom-have-marked-generation-let-s-call-them-zoomers-ncna1226241.
Seattle Times Staff. “From ‘anti-masker’ to ‘Zooming’: Words and phrases that have become part of our COVID-19 vocabulary.” The Seattle Times. February 26, 2021. URL: https://www.seattletimes.com/life/from-anti-masker-to-zooming-words-and-phrases-that-have-become-part-of-our-covid-19-vocabulary/.
Tarikvision. “3D Isometric Flat Vector Conceptual Illustration of Generation Z, Zoomers.” image. Adobe.com. File no: 415433300.