boomerasking

/BOO-mər-ask-ing/

noun

Meaning

A conversational habit in which someone asks another person a question, allows or appears to allow an answer, and then quickly answers the same question about themselves instead of engaging with the other person’s response. The question may be a setup for bragging, complaining, or sharing a personal anecdote.

1. The general practice of using a seemingly interested question to redirect attention back to oneself.
2. An individual exchange or question sequence in which the asker pivots to their own experience immediately after the other person responds.
3. In conversation research, an umbrella term covering ask-bragging, ask-complaining, and ask-sharing.

Examples

“You boomerasking me just to tell me about your beach house?”

“That was pure boomerasking: you asked about my weekend, then ignored my answer.”

“Is this boomerasking or do you actually want my opinion?”

“She hit me with a boomerasking question and launched into a 10-minute story.”

“The group chat was one long boomerasking session.”

Origin and spread

Boomerasking is a blend of boomerang and asking: the question travels toward another speaker, then comes back to the person who asked it. The modern term is associated with Harvard Business School professor Alison Wood Brooks and researcher Michael Yeomans. A presentation titled “Boomerasking: Answering Your Own Questions” was listed for the 2023 IACM conference, while the researchers’ formal article appeared online on January 9, 2025. The available record establishes circulation by 2023 but does not establish the first spoken or written use. The word has no connection to baby boomers, despite the misleading first part of its spelling.

How to use it

Boomerasking is informal and usually mildly mocking or critical. It can describe an accidental conversational habit, not only deliberate self-promotion, so calling someone a boomerasker may sound harsher than pointing out that they boomerasked. The term is useful in texts, group chats, workplace discussions, and social commentary, but it may be misunderstood as referring to older adults.