1996 Geo Prizm Do I need boots to cover my new rear struts?

1996 Geo Prizm

I had a pair of rear struts installed and then took my car to Firestone for a wheel alignment because I purchased the lifetime alignment. After Firestone did the alignment the guy told me that whoever did the struts did not put boots on my new struts and that it will significantly decrease the life of the struts. He said if I don't get the boots that I will need new struts by the spring! That's only a few months, albeit winter months. He said the dust, dirt, grime, salt, and other junk will get into the strut and ruin them. Is that true? Will my struts go bad that quickly? Should I look into getting boots or is that snake oil? I mean, what if that dirt, snow, grime, dust, etc get inside the boot? Won't that decrease the life of the strut even more? I have a 1996 geo prizm (same thing as a corolla) and live in a wintry northern climate. It has about 168k miles and I am not sure how long I will keep the car (maybe another couple of years if nothing else goes majorly wrong with it).