Fun facts about baby

boomers
Motoi Ancuta
1. They’re Online – and in Great Numbers
According to a Google study, 78% of Boomers
were online by 2013. A full one-third of all
Boomers online describe themselves as “heavy
internet users,” and 82% of Boomers belong to at
least one social media platform. They also spend
more time online each week than Millennials—
and they use a lot of that time to research news
and politics.
2. They’re Increasingly Foreign Born
According to a 2014 report by the US Census, the
number of Boomers who live in the US but who
were born in another country is on the rise. Today
approximately 10 million foreign-born Boomers
call America home.
3. The Past Four Presidents are/were Boomers
Barack Obama was born in 1963; George W. Bush,
Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump were all born in
1946.
4. Compared to their parents’ generation, Boomers
were more likely to protest policies and social
practices they saw as unjust. Many Boomers were
children when the Civil Rights Movement was
breaking down Jim Crow-era barriers of segregation
and they observed how the adults in their lives
viewed that cause. Later, Boomers were the driving
force behind anti-war protests during the Vietnam
era, the push by women to move into “non-
traditional” careers like business and engineering,
and the movement for queer rights.
 BOOKS WRITTEN BY BABY BOOMERS WRITERS

• Charlotte’s Web was first published in 1953. The story of friendship between a piglet and a
spider still tops lists of best children’s books as chosen by librarians and teachers, and it’s been
translated into dozens of languages. In 2000, more than four decades after its debut, it was the
best-selling children’s book in American history.
• Books that humanized world events, warned of Cold War dangers, and challenged the status
quo flourished after World War II as well, beginning in 1947 with the publication of Anne
Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl. As the Cold War ramped up, George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal
Farm issued warnings about communism, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 responded to the
excesses of the McCarthy era, and Joseph Heller summed up the confounding aspects of war
in Catch-22.
• Women were redefining their own roles in society during this time. Simone de Beauvoir’s The
Second Sex and Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, helped a generation of women to start
expanding the number of career and social options open to them.
• This was the era of Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, Carson McCullers, and C.S. Lewis. Among
the novels of the day are often required reading for teenagers today are William Golding’s
dystopian survival tale Lord of the Flies, Harper Lee’s examination of race and justice To Kill a
Mockingbird, and the ultimate tale of teen alienation, J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye.
Baby Boomers made over the American arts and entertainment twice
—first as audiences and later as musicians, writers, actors, and fine
artists. From Elvis’ scandalous moves on the Ed Sullivan show and
Chubby Checker’s dance hits to Beatlemania and
Woodstock, Boomers made rock and roll the centerpiece of their
youth culture.
Film studios catered to young audiences’ tastes with movies featuring
Presley and the Beatles. Boomers flocked to the movies to see James
Bond films, John Wayne’s westerns, and sci-fi movies like 2001: A
Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes, and Westworld.
Later, Boomers who worked in film, music, and TV reshaped those
mediums with their approach to their work. Oprah Winfrey made
over the daytime talk genre by focusing on personal development
and empathy rather than scandal. Ellen DeGeneres, another Boomer,
later broke a longstanding taboo in television by coming out as a
lesbian. In film, Boomers like Meryl Streep and George Clooney have
built decades-long careers as actors and second careers as
philanthropists. Boomer musicians like Bruce Springsteen, Madonna,
Billy Joel, and Michael and Janet Jackson influenced not only their
peers but younger Generation X listeners with their work.