The Rise of the Doomer
If you’ve spent much time online, you’ve likely encountered memes featuring the character “Doomer” alongside counterparts like “Boomer,” “Zoomer,” and “Bloomer.” These characters symbolize distinct personalities tied to generational experiences. The Doomer, in particular, resonates with many today and will be the focus here.
The Doomer represents a young adult, typically in their twenties and often male, though anyone experiencing feelings of hopelessness and detachment could embody this persona. This individual perceives life as devoid of meaning, with humanity doomed by its own ignorance, greed, and futile pursuits. As a result, the Doomer disengages from traditional societal norms, retreating into apathy and isolation.
This character frequently appears in memes or videos that highlight relatable experiences tied to this worldview, such as dead-end jobs, romantic disillusionment, substance abuse, and feelings of alienation from friends or family. The widespread appeal of the Doomer is a telling reflection of modern existential dread, particularly among today’s youth. It highlights an overwhelming sense of pessimism and nihilism, a fear that life holds little hope or purpose, both in the present and the future.
One of the Doomer’s counter-characters is the “Boomer,” a term originally referring to individuals born between 1946 and 1964. However, in the context of memes, it isn’t necessarily about age. The Boomer character symbolizes an overly optimistic, naive worldview — someone blissfully unaware of the world’s harsh realities. While the Doomer is hyper-aware of society’s flaws and suffers because of them, the Boomer strolls through life in a state of deluded contentment.
Unlike the Boomers, the Doomer generation, typically born around the 1990s, grew up in a world where technology advanced rapidly. The rise of the internet brought unprecedented access to information, shrinking the world to fit into the palm of your hand. This unrestricted flow of information allowed the Doomer to see firsthand the chaos and absurdity of life, realizing early on that things weren’t as rosy as the optimistic “Boomer” worldview suggested.
With the decline of traditional narratives like religion, and the growing realization that the optimistic attitudes of previous generations no longer applied, many young people began to feel lost, disillusioned, and disconnected — often identifying with the Doomer outlook. But does this mean we are doomed to oscillate between ignorant bliss or melancholic despair?
To better understand and cope with these modern feelings of pessimism, it helps to turn to the philosophies of 19th-century thinkers like Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche. Schopenhauer, often labeled the philosopher of pessimism, shares much with the Doomer’s outlook. For Schopenhauer, life is inherently filled with pain, absurdity, and lack of purpose. He argued that human existence is driven by an irrational force, our will to survive, which leads us to endless, futile pursuits for happiness. His stark conclusion: life wasn’t designed to make us happy.
Despite this bleak outlook, Schopenhauer offered ways to cope with life’s suffering. One method was asceticism, which involves resisting materialistic desires such as wealth, fame, or vanity. However, he acknowledged that achieving such discipline is nearly impossible for most people. His other solution was immersion in art and philosophy. By engaging with creative expressions of pain and absurdity, one could momentarily escape life’s suffering. In this way, art provides solace, giving people a chance to find fleeting meaning and beauty in the chaos.
Interestingly, the Doomer meme itself reflects Schopenhauer’s idea. By creating and sharing Doomer content, individuals express their existential angst, transforming it into something meaningful, if only temporarily.
Friedrich Nietzsche also tackled themes of nihilism, the belief that life has no inherent meaning. However, Nietzsche took a different approach. While he acknowledged the futility of searching for universal meaning, he believed that individuals could — and should — create their own. For Nietzsche, the realization that life is meaningless should not lead to despair, but rather to a form of liberation. Without the weight of external expectations, individuals are free to define their purpose and identity.
Nietzsche’s perspective suggests that the modern Doomer may feel heightened alienation due to the pressure of societal norms amplified by the internet. Yet, he argued that the struggle to resist conformity, though painful, is essential for true self-ownership and personal growth. Instead of avoiding suffering, Nietzsche advocated for embracing it as an opportunity to develop resilience, wisdom, and strength.
This philosophy urges us to use suffering as a tool for growth, transforming despair into something productive. For Nietzsche, the true measure of a person’s strength is their ability to endure hardship and turn it into an advantage.
Both Schopenhauer and Nietzsche emphasize the importance of finding meaning within oneself. Whether through self-discipline or creative expression, they advocate for an active engagement with life’s inevitable suffering. It is not enough to simply withdraw or give in to despair; instead, we must confront life’s absurdities head-on and strive to create meaning in the chaos.
In this light, the hopeful counterpart to the Doomer is the “Bloomer,” a character who, despite being aware of life’s pain and futility, still finds purpose and joy in it. The Bloomer sees the potential for wonder, meaning, and fulfillment, however messy life may be. By embracing life’s challenges and using them as fuel for personal growth, we, too, can live a life worth experiencing, even amidst the uncertainty.
