Humanity peaked with the Boomers – and it has been downhill ever since - Kate Copstick

And it may well be no bad thing.

After much measured thought, research and contemplative consideration -which does not, as you might have noticed, come easily to me – I can say, without hesitation, that humanity pretty much peaked with the Boomers and has been coasting, gently, all downhill from there.

In 2000, the average Gen X attention span was 12 seconds, according to Harvard Business School historian Nancy Koehn. In 2013, Millennials could generally focus for around 8 seconds.

And a current study by Yahoo and OMD Worldwide shows that Gen Z will lose interest after 1.3 seconds. 1.3 seconds.

Even more alarming when you consider that the average attention span of a goldfish is nine seconds.

I do realise that this might make Gen Z readers 'feel' threatened. But, trigger warning, there is more coming. And all with full length words and accurate punctuation. Should they be too Boomerish for you, do feel free to get a grown up to explain.

From 1946 to 1964 a generation was born that changed the world for the better in so many ways.

I realise the huge debt we owe to, and apologise for passing over, those that fought and died in the wars that gave Boomers our freedom to Boom: The Silent Generation, as the Americans called them.

But at least we Boomers took all the privileges we were handed by our fathers and did great things with them.

Boom! Tim Berners-Lee gave you the internet

Boom! Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak gave you Personal Computers.

Incredible inventions which are a perfect microcosm of the way post-Boomer generations have taken what was given to them and brought them – in this case - to a place where an estimated 92 million selfies are uploaded every day.

We – contrary to what Kiss would have you believe, not God - gave you rock'n'roll and The Beatles and The Stones and most of Elvis. If you look at the 2024 list of inductees to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, they are still Boomers... like Cher, Peter Frampton and Mary J Blige.

In the aftermath of the 1954 Wolfenden Report (Boom!) and the creation of the Homosexual Law Reform Society (Boom!), Boomers fought tirelessly to get gay sex decriminalised in England and Wales in 1967, although, shamefully, not in Scotland till 1980.

We were the brave Mums and Dads and Grannies and Grandads of all the LGBTQIA+ babies who think that sticking a pastel flag and an “I stand with currently trending people” headline on their social media profiles is tantamount to running the gamut of New York police in 1969 at the Stonewall Riots.

For those who think that 1999's Queer as Folk was edgy, in 1959, Boomer ITV broadcast South, a gay love story starring Peter Wyngarde. 1959. ITV. Boom. Long way from today's Love Island.

Through the Sixties and early Seventies Boomers fought for equality for women.

In America, alongside Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem and many other intellectual and political heavyweight activists, we got iconic protesting like the burning of a rubbish bin of 'objects of female torture' outside the 1968 Miss America pageant – no bras actually included, incidentally, but that's what it became eternally famous for.

In Australia, Germaine Greer and her Female Eunuch was braver than most younger feminists give her credit for. Or, I believe, could be.

Here, the fight made unlikely bedfellows (as it were) of Margaret Thatcher and Willie Hamilton, but they won. We got equal pay, and the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975.

Since then, in all areas of equality, younger generations have basically been deciding on the soft furnishings in houses that Baby Boomers built.

And we gave you so much fun.

We made a mere 'night at the pictures' a Big Event. Let's face it, it was only after Boomer Spielberg's Jaws in 1975 that the industry decided “we're going to need a bigger cinema”. And we are still talking about it. He and Lucas changed the cinematic experience.

We gave you politically subversive television like 1975's Saturday Night Live. Still an iconic name, which spawned Saturday Live here in the UK. OK, so Ben Elton didn't live up to expectations but you can't win 'em all. We even gave the world Spitting Image.

Boomers famously enjoyed the various Summers of Love, and if it had not been that the contraceptive pill was also a Boomer Bonus, Gen X might have been much more densely populated than it was.

So how did we get from there to here... where 'Boomer' is a term of derision?

Where 70 per cent (according to Medical News Today) of 13-17 year olds claim to have problems with 'anxiety and depression'?

Where 59 per cent of Gen Z say they trust AI-generated information a lot – even completely.

From a generation who were all about liberation and equality for humanity to one in which 87 per cent of marketers and 85 per cent of communications professionals have integrated AI into their work.

As I feel I might have hinted – it’s been all downhill from the Boomers. Treasure us while you have us.