Look, I’ll admit it: I have my mom’s Facebook posts set to “see first” purely for anthropological reasons.
Last week she posted a sunset photo with the caption “God’s beautiful creation… share if you agree!!!” followed by seventeen praying hands emojis. The only comment was from her friend Linda: “Amen sister!”
This is the same woman who taught me never to discuss religion at dinner parties.
The disconnect between who our parents are offline and their Facebook personas has created a generational cringe fest that nobody wants to talk about.
Your dad who values privacy suddenly shares medical updates. Your reserved mother posts motivational quotes in Comic Sans. The uncle who mocks participation trophies congratulates himself for “reaching level 47 in Candy Crush.”
They genuinely don’t understand why their posts get fewer likes than they used to. Why their kids stopped commenting. Why that photo of their breakfast only got three reactions, all from people their own age.
After tracking comment sections with the fascination of someone watching a slow-motion social car crash, I’ve identified the eight most common boomer Facebook behaviors that make their adult children retreat into mortified silence.
1) The oversharing medical update
“Just got back from the dermatologist. That weird mole on my back is benign! Here’s a photo the doctor took for monitoring purposes.”
Every adult child reading this just felt their soul leave their body.
Boomers treat Facebook like a family group chat, except it’s broadcasting to their high school classmates, former coworkers, and that random person they met on vacation in 2015.
They post colonoscopy prep updates. Photos of suspicious rashes. Play-by-play commentary of their root canal.
The generation that taught us not to air dirty laundry somehow doesn’t realize that medical details fall into that category.
They think they’re keeping everyone informed. They don’t see that posting “Having that procedure tomorrow, prayers appreciated” makes their kids field twenty concerned texts from relatives who suddenly became WebMD experts.
2) The chain letter resurrection
“Facebook is going to start charging unless you copy and paste this message. I do not give Facebook permission to use my photos or information. Copy and paste, don’t share!”
Nothing says “I don’t understand how the internet works” quite like posting a legal disclaimer that has the binding power of a wish on a birthday candle.
These are the same people who taught us to be skeptical of chain letters.
Now they’re sharing posts about Facebook’s “new algorithm” that only shows you 25 friends unless you comment with a giraffe emoji. They believe Mark Zuckerberg personally monitors who copies and pastes versus who shares.
The brutal irony? They’re demonstrating exactly the kind of gullibility they warned us about when we were kids trading Pokemon cards with strangers.
3) The public birthday message to someone sitting next to them
“Happy birthday to my wonderful husband who probably won’t see this because he never checks Facebook! Love you honey!”
He’s literally in the same room. You could turn your head fifteen degrees and tell him directly.
Boomers use Facebook like a performance of relationship success, writing love letters to spouses who don’t have accounts, birthday wishes to grandchildren too young for social media, and anniversary tributes to each other while sharing a couch.
It’s sweet but desperately performative in a way that makes their kids wonder what they’re trying to prove.
The subtext reads like anxiety: “Look, we’re still happy! Our marriage is strong! We remember birthdays!” Meanwhile, their adult children just text “HBD” and call it good.
4) The aggressive positivity with subtle judgment
“So blessed to have a job I LOVE! Some people complain about Mondays but I thank God for another opportunity to serve! #Blessed #GratefulHeart #MondayMotivation #RiseAndGrind”
Translation: I’m better than you because I don’t complain about work.
Boomers weaponize positivity on Facebook, turning gratitude into a competitive sport. Every post about their blessings carries an undercurrent of judgment about people who aren’t equally #blessed.
They share inspirational quotes about not complaining while simultaneously complaining about people who complain.
Their kids watch this performance and think about their own relationship with work—how they’d never post about loving their job because it would seem desperate, try-hard, or worse, like corporate propaganda.
5) The comment that should have been a private message
Under a photo of someone’s new haircut: “Looks great! BTW did you get my email about Tom’s colonoscopy? Call me about Thanksgiving. Is Brad still divorced?”
Boomers treat Facebook comments like phone calls, having full conversations under completely unrelated posts. They’ll hijack a graduation photo to ask about mortgage rates. They’ll use someone’s vacation album to coordinate a dentist appointment.
They don’t understand that comments are performances for an audience. That asking “Is your mother still drinking?” under a Mother’s Day post creates a digital record of family drama.
Their adult children have learned to preemptively text: “Please don’t comment on my posts about personal stuff.”
6) The random acquaintance photo tag
“Great seeing everyone at the grocery store!”
*Tags fourteen people in a blurry photo where you can identify exactly no one*
Boomers tag people in photos like they’re creating a legal document. They tag you in pictures of sunsets because you “would appreciate this.”
They tag you in photos from events you didn’t attend because you “were there in spirit.” They tag you in memes about wine because you mentioned liking Pinot Grigio once in 2019.
Their tagging strategy violates the unspoken rules their kids learned through painful trial and error: Only tag people who look good, who were actually there, and who won’t be embarrassed by the association.
Parenthood taught me that privacy has value—I choose carefully what I reveal online. Boomers seem to have missed that memo entirely.
7) The political meme from a questionable source
*Shares article from FreedomEaglePatriotNews.net*
“Makes you think!”
They don’t check sources. They don’t recognize satire. They share articles from sites that look like news but are actually registered in Macedonia.
Then they get defensive when their kids point out the article they shared about Congress voting to ban birthdays is from a humor site.
The same generation that taught us not to believe everything we read now shares every inflammatory headline that confirms their worldview. They don’t see the irony in posting “DO YOUR RESEARCH” under an article they didn’t read past the headline.
8) The vague dramatic status
- “Can’t believe some people… You know who you are…”
- “Prayers needed. Can’t say more right now.”
- “Some days you learn who your real friends are.”
Boomers have mastered the art of vaguebooking—posting cryptic, dramatic statuses that beg for concerned comments without providing any actual information.
They create anxiety spirals in family group chats. Their kids have to call other relatives to decode whether someone’s dying or dad’s just mad about the neighbors’ fence.
They think they’re being discrete while being dramatically public. It’s the digital equivalent of sighing loudly until someone asks what’s wrong.
Final thoughts
Here’s what makes this whole dynamic fascinating: Boomers aren’t posting wrong—they’re posting for a different game entirely.
They still think Facebook is about genuine connection and staying in touch. They haven’t internalized that social media is actually about identity management and status signaling. They post like nobody’s watching while their kids post knowing everyone’s judging.
The truth is, their kids stopped commenting not because they don’t care, but because they care too much about the wrong things—about looking cool, about not seeming too earnest, about maintaining careful distance from anything that might be cringe.
Maybe boomers are onto something with their unfiltered enthusiasm and aggressive sincerity. But until the rest of us evolve past our performative detachment, we’ll keep cringing in silence, watching our parents post sunset photos with seventeen praying hands emojis.
And honestly? Part of me envies their ability to just… post. Without irony. Without calculation. Without the exhausting self-awareness that makes the rest of us treat every status update like a doctoral thesis on personal branding.
Even if they do tag me in every single one.
