The number of Texas school districts with esports programs has exploded this school year, growing from about 20 to more than 300 in the span of a few months, according to the Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA). “It’s been in colleges for the last few years, and now it’s starting to move down into the high schools and in the middle schools,” said TCEA’s executive director, Lori Gracey. “Teamwork, cooperation, planning, problem-solving, thinking quickly,” Gracey explained, “all of those are things we want our kids to be able to do. And you can do that through video games.”

And, for the collegiate perspective on this:

“High school is a really, really exciting place for esports to take root,” said Austin Espinoza, president of Longhorn Gaming at the University of Texas at Austin. “Eventually, that’s just going to trickle upwards into the college world.”

In recent months, the phrase “OK boomer” has become a common retort in the parts of the internet inhabited by teenage and young adult users. On Instagram, the phrase appears as a hashtag alongside memes and artwork mocking the older generation. On Twitter, the phrase is hurled at someone for making an outdated statement. And on TikTok, where it is arguably the most prolific, it appears in artwork, audios and makeup tutorials as a way to mock an older generation, and the hashtag has been viewed on the platform 18 million times.

The phrase is a culmination of annoyance and frustration at a generation young people perceive to be worsening issues like climate change, political polarization and economic hardship.