I'd say folks who come into threads about vtubers and act all confused or unreasonably angry at the entire concept are boomers. It's fine if vtubers aren't for you, but you can also keep your opinion to yourself and move on with your day.
I'm not saying you in particular are doing this and I'm not trying to call you out, this is more of a frustration that I've had with this site in general when it comes to threads about vtubers. There are many reasons why someone would choose to become a vtuber, but a lot of people on Era just don't want to understand and write off the entire concept without doing any further research.
Like, the vtuber industry isn't all sunshine and rainbows. I think there are important discussions to be had about how corporations like Hololive control their talent's personal lives and how vtubers often suffer from mental strain and burnout since they are expected to constantly churn out content. And you also have the threat of stalkers and harassers constantly looming over many vtubers and how too often they are left to fend for themselves against them. But, I just don't think a lot of folks on Era are willing to have those kinds of conversations when they can't even get past the most basic layer of "Yo, this shit is CRINGE!"
But anyways, I just wrote an embarrassingly long post in a thread about eating Mike Tyson's ass, so I'll just leave it at that.
I actually agree with pretty much everything in your post. I'm 43; most of the friends that I grew up with (and even younger ones) find even much more widespread concepts (like youtubers in general, or watching a video of someone playing a game) incomprehensible. I try to keep an open mind, and to understand the appeal of things even when they're not for me. Vtubers is one of these things; I do understand the appeal, even if they're not for me, but I can't fault anyone for finding them weird, regardless of age.
Every generation baffles the one that came behind with something new. Whether rock, rap, comics, videogames, youtubers or vtubers, there will always be something that the generation before will find incomprehensible strange. The most boomer thought of it all is thinking this won't happen to you when you grow older, because it will. Your kids or whatever generation comes after you will popularize something you find utterly impenetrable.
My only objection in all of this is with the use of "boomer" to describe this essential, perennial component of human nature. Even separating "boomer" from its strict meaning of "baby boomer", it was originally used to describe a very baby boomer, out-of-touch line of thought, believing the younger generation is defective in some way (and thus at fault for the widespread struggles and hardships they face) while failing to acknowledge how their own generation simply had it much easier. It's the generational equivalent of privilege and "lift yourself by your bootstraps", which is why it has a very definite
political meaning.
When we use boomer to describe "anyone weirded out by some new thing", and do so even regardless of age (again, anyone believing that only the older general public would be mystified by vtubers is living in a really secluded bubble), we're dilluting its meaning, and entirely defanging it as a criticism. When everyone can say "OK boomer" as a zinger for not liking something new that we like, it really has no meaning anymore. Which is a shame, because the original meaning managed to encapsulate a very valid criticism, and acknowledged an important rift between generations that's crucial to understanding modern-day left/right politics.
