11 Cringe-Worthy Phrases That Make People Over 60 Want to Throw Their Phones—And Why Millennials Just Don’t Get It!
Added on January 29, 2026 inASTROLOGY CARDS
Popular
Numerology Meets Netflix: Get Your Daily Dose of Cosmic Cinema Suggestions Powered By Our AI Astrologer. Find The Show Or Movie You Were Meant To See!
Isn’t it funny how each generation practically invents its own secret language — sort of like cosmic codewords shaped by the tech they grew up with, the music blasting through their headphones, and the wild cultural rollercoasters they rode? But here’s the kicker: what sounds perfectly normal to a twenty-something today can feel like nails on a chalkboard to anyone over 60. It’s like Mercury retrograde tossed a cosmic wrench into everyday chats, making simple convos suddenly feel more strained than a drama-filled reality show reunion! People over 60 often find themselves rolling their eyes (or maybe just politely zoning out) when younger folks toss out phrases that, while innocent, come off as totally dismissive or just plain old annoying. What’s the secret to bridging this verbal universe gap without launching a full-blown generational war? Spoiler: it starts with understanding and a little respect that the way Aunt Carol talked in the ’70s isn’t necessarily old-fashioned—it’s just… different. Ready to dive into the 11 phrases that have been driving the over-60 crowd up the wall? Buckle up—it’s gonna be a hoot. LEARN MORE.
Every generation develops its own way of speaking, shaped by the time it grew up in, the technology it used, and the culture it lived through. What sounds normal or harmless to younger generations can easily come across as annoying, dismissive, or even insulting to people over 60. That language gap often makes everyday conversations feel more tense than they need to be.
According to UC Berkeley Executive Education, “The key to collaborating with other generations is to understand, accept, and respect that they are different from your generation.” Of course, this is easier said than done. People over 60, in particular, tend to get worn down by certain phrases they hear repeatedly from younger generations. These aren’t necessarily meant to be rude, but after hearing them enough times, they start to feel frustrating, minimizing, or just plain exhausting.
winnievinzence | Shutterstock
When someone from a younger generation overhears an older person talking about how they did things “back in the day,” their automatic response might be to say “we don’t do that anymore.” While that may be true, it can still be hard for someone over 60 to hear. It implies that because things aren’t done that way anymore, that was obviously the wrong way.
Psychology professor Laura Carstensen, PhD, said, “It’s important not to sleepwalk through this opportunity to put teams of people together that combine the skills of young people, who are ambitious and energetic, with older people — who are experienced and motivated to address societal needs — to solve today’s pressing problems.”
While phrases like this highlight the differences between generations, experts insist that having older and younger people working together would be beneficial. There is so much that people from different generations could accomplish together. That means that both older and younger generations would have to come to see that their way of doing things isn’t the only way, though.
Advertisement
fizkes | Shutterstock
Another phrase younger generations are likely to use is “you wouldn’t understand.” This can be annoying to no end to people over 60 because it means young people aren’t even giving them a chance. Maybe their lives weren’t the same, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t learn many valuable lessons that they could teach youth.
In 2010, author and speaker David Romanelli started holding “Drinks With Your Elders” events so people across generations could connect. He said, “When you talk to older people, you realize that they’ve all been through hard times.” He added this is “a great reminder that you’re going to go through dark winters in your own life, too.”
It may seem natural to think that someone who hasn’t lived through the same things you have wouldn’t understand, but many experiences are universal. People over 60 are tired of younger people brushing them off and assuming they have nothing worthwhile to add to the conversation. They know more than many others think.
Advertisement
fizkes | Shutterstock
There are several reasons why an older person would be frustrated if they heard a younger person say they were protecting their peace. First, it’s really a form of weaponized therapy-speak. Psychiatrist Errika D. Taylor, MD, MPH, explained, “Therapy-speak is when language that is typically used in a therapeutic or psychiatric context is applied to everyday, casual conversations, often in an incorrect or harmful manner.”
People over 60, for whom going to therapy was not a near-universal experience, see saying things like this as ridiculous. Another issue is that it essentially absolves the person saying it of any responsibility for their actions. Maybe they did hurt someone, but it’s alright because they only did it to protect their peace and make sure they were OK.
Author and speaker John-Manuel Andriote said, “So why feel good about my choices? Because I have accepted responsibility for their consequences, both positive and negative.” Older people often have a similar perspective, understanding how important it is to hold yourself accountable, so they can’t stand when young people justify their actions this way.
Advertisement
fizkes | Shutterstock
People over 60 grew up in a time before Google was a thing. It’s not uncommon to hear older people waxing poetic about having to look things up in an actual encyclopedia instead of just being able to type them into a search engine and get answers in milliseconds. This doesn’t mean they don’t use Google now, but being told to use it in all situations could feel frustrating when they know how much work research used to take.
Social psychologist Sara H. Konrath, PhD, explained, “Older generations tend to stereotype recent generations of young people, questioning their intelligence and self-control, and calling them lazy, selfish, and uncaring.” So this isn’t a phenomenon that’s unique to today’s boomers, but rather is common for every older generation.
Of course, it’s not really fair to label young people as lazy just because they do things differently. They aren’t taking the easy route by using Google, but actually just using the resources that they grew up with and are comfortable with. Not knowing how to use the Dewey Decimal System shouldn’t be a mortal sin.
Advertisement
fizkes | Shutterstock
Being told something is offensive isn’t necessarily, well, offensive in general. But young people tend to overuse the word and apply it to pretty much anything that seemed perfectly normal when people over 60 were growing up, which is why they’re tired of hearing it.
In our age of being politically correct, it feels like everything has become offensive in some way. Older generations didn’t grow up that way. People spoke more openly and frankly, which wasn’t always a good thing, but it’s what they got used to. Hearing simple pieces of their childhood called “offensive” can be hard to swallow.
Psychotherapist April Eldemire, LMFT, stated, “When you’re constantly irked, irritated, offended, or upset by others (or even other ‘entities,’ such as a political group), that’s a strong indication that you might benefit from changing your mindset rather than demanding other people change — or even apologize, for that matter.”
This doesn’t mean we should regress to a point where it’s alright to discriminate or engage in hate speech, but it could be helpful for everyone to work a little harder to keep an open mind.
Advertisement
Ground Picture | Shutterstock
The evolution of the word “viral” has been an interesting one. Just a few years ago, it was only used to refer to videos and social media posts that got a ton of reach and engagement. Now, pretty much anything can go viral — a song, a person, even a word. (One could argue that “viral” has gone viral.) This just doesn’t make sense to older generations, who never had anything go viral.
Kevin Driscoll, a media studies professor at the University of Virginia, said, “Going viral is more of a feeling than a number. The mathematical vocabulary is limited because it doesn’t get at the feeling, particularly for someone who made the video or post … There’s not a single number that signifies virality for everybody.”
If going viral is a feeling, it’s one that people over 60 don’t understand. They didn’t grow up alongside social media, so they didn’t really watch anything go viral like that. Some things got popular, but didn’t really meet the standard of virality. It’s exhausting for these older people to hear about absolutely everything going viral when that means virtually nothing to them.
Advertisement
fizkes | Shutterstock
“It’s not that deep” has really become popular slang among younger generations. It’s how they let you know you’re taking something a little too seriously, and maybe overthinking it or worrying about it more than necessary. People over 60 don’t like this phrase because it basically dismisses whatever is being discussed.
Behavioral science professor Nicholas Epley, PhD, shared, “Connecting with others in meaningful ways tends to make people happier, and yet people also seem reluctant to engage in deeper and more meaningful conversation. This struck us as an interesting social paradox: If connecting with others in deep and meaningful ways increased well-being, then why aren’t people doing it more in daily life?”
Older generations are more likely to want to engage in this kind of deep, meaningful conversation. For younger people, it would probably be easier to just text each other. When someone says, “It’s not that deep,” it signals to an older person that the conversation has been shut down and there’s no point in continuing it. They rarely agree with that.
Advertisement
ViDI Studio | Shutterstock
Telling someone that they’re violating your boundaries is really a clearer example of weaponized therapy-speak than it is to say you’re protecting your peace. People over 60 hate self-help buzzwords like “boundaries” because they feel like made-up drivel to placate younger generations.
Clinical psychologist Catherine Aponte, PsyD, said that using therapy-speak really isn’t a new concept, as terms like “hysteria” and “shell-shocked” were once a common part of the vernacular. But things are different now with social media spreading these kinds of words and phrases everywhere.
For a young person to tell someone over 60 that they’re violating their boundaries, it would sound pretty meaningless. Of course, that doesn’t give older people the right to walk all over younger people’s boundaries and completely ignore them either. There must be a happy medium we can find where everyone is satisfied.
Advertisement
fizkes | Shutterstock
“Toxic” is another word that all young people seem to be using nowadays. It’s like absolutely everything is toxic in some way. Of course, when people over 60 were growing up, toxic actually meant something like a chemical that was dangerous to come into contact with. The way younger generations have hijacked this word is annoying to them.
Psychiatrist Dr. Grant Brenner said that this all plays into the idea of illusory truth, which “makes an idea seem true when it is false.” He added, “We hear the word toxic so much, it’s on the tip of our tongues so readily, that it may make it hard to tell what’s what.” In other words, we say so many things are toxic that we can’t even tell what really fits the bill.
Toxic is like a word that has lost its meaning because it’s so overused, and it mainly comes from young people. Dr. Brenner said it is important to point out when things are truly problematic, but the frequency with which “toxic” is used isn’t really warranted. To older people, it just sounds like something young people say when they have no other adjective readily available.
Advertisement
Stock 4you | Shutterstock
Even if someone is retired, they still remember what the workplace was like after devoting years of their life to it. Older people typically had, or still have, a very strong work ethic that meant they did whatever was necessary to keep their families afloat. Hearing a younger person say they don’t get paid enough to complete a certain task can feel like a slap in the face after their years of diligence.
Younger generations, especially Gen Z, are stereotyped as not wanting to work or not being very hard workers. This is just that — a stereotype. Plenty of young people are hard workers who do whatever it takes to maintain their lifestyle and take care of their families. Really, this is a misconception that comes more from where Gen Z’s priorities are at.
According to Deloitte’s 2025 Gen Z and Millennial Survey, Gen Zers care more about achieving a healthy work-life balance, with only 6% saying they considered it their career goal to end up in a leadership role. Things were different for older generations, who didn’t really know much about work-life balance and did anything possible to climb the corporate ladder. The workplace is just vastly different now, and young people aren’t trying to be disrespectful by saying this.
Advertisement
PLotulitStocker | Shutterstock
The greatest transgression a young person might be able to commit against someone over the age of 60 is saying the phrase “OK, boomer.” In all fairness, people from younger generations don’t usually mean this as an insult. Some may use it maliciously, but it’s more commonly meant as a joke that highlights generational differences.
Actual boomers definitely don’t see it that way. To them, “OK, boomer” is like putting up a hand to stop them from talking. It implies that their thoughts don’t matter and aren’t valued in the same way as a young person’s are. It’s like putting them on a shelf as an antique that’s not good for anything but show now.
Bernard Golden, PhD, said, “In general, older adults report less negative and, more often, positive emotions than younger adults … However, some do exhibit anger, at times consistent with their younger selves or even significantly greater than during their younger years.”
This doesn’t mean hearing “OK, boomer” is going to send someone into a rage, but it is important to note that people tend to become more irritable as they age, making things like this that should be a joke a bad idea.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
Advertisement
Auto Amazon Links: No products found.
This will close in 0 seconds
This will close in 0 seconds
){kind=link}