What is the meaning of the song the boy in the bubble?

Answer 1

It's meant to be about the difficulties in coming to terms with the realities and advances of the world in the face of someone who is used to a past era.

Paul Simon recorded the song in 1986- by then, much had changed in the world both politically, socially and technolocically from his heyday with Art Garfunkle in the '60s. He found it hard to come to terms with some of the changes that had taken place in the 15-odd years of his most succesful period- the abandonment of the idealism and philosophy of the late '60s, new political movements and motives, certain technological advances that he may have found disturbing, and so on.

It was a song that was meant to reflect the hardship that many people of his age found at the time in adapting to a new world and a new society- he had been living in a metaphorical 'bubble' of the past, and found himself having to confront an entirely new sort of society when he emerged from it.