Ok Boomer

BY SASHA STOGINY – Why do we think in terms of generations? 

People are born continuously.So why do we sort them into groups by birth year and set arbitrary cutoffs? This could easily be attributed to the human tendency toward perceiving patterns in everything, even where no meaningful connections exist. However, there is merit to grouping people by culturally-defined generations because people within the same cohort tend to behave more similarly to each other than to those of a different cohort. These behavioral similarities can often shed more light on the nature of generational identity than generalizations, such as “millennials are killing X industry” or “baby boomers refuse to leave the workforce.” 

For example, millennial and gen Z Republicans are more than twice as likely as their Republican elders to agree that human activity contributes to climate change. Additionally, millennial and Gen Z individuals of all affiliations are more inclined to prioritize developing alternative energy over fossil fuel production in the U.S. Generational effects are significant because they can sometimes be stronger predictors of behavior than people’s partisan affiliation. But the question remains: how do we group birth years to make the resulting generational cutoffs significant?

How are generations defined?

A generation is often defined as “people within a delineated population who experience the same significant events within a given period of time.” These significant events are decided culturally and are usually associated with societal change. 

This means that generations are not the same across countries. Two people can be born at the exact same time across the world yet belong to different social cohorts. In South Korea, generations are defined around the country’s process of democratization. Examples of South Korean generations include “Generation 386” (named after the Intel 386 computer), members of which attended school in the 1980s and were very politically active, and the “Shin-se-dae (New) Generation,” which is most analogous to the western “Generation Z” and characterized by lack of political bias. 

It is easy to understand that unique historical circumstances create specific generational divides, the nature and span of which vary. 

What are the generations in the U.S.? 

There are more than just boomers, millennials, and Gen Z – though these do tend to hold the media spotlight. In the Western world (here taken to include the Americas, Western Europe, and Australia) there are 6 commonly recognized generational cohorts with surviving members. 

The Greatest Generation aka GI Generation, aka Swing Generation

(1901 – 1924)

·     Lived through the Great Depression and fought in WWII

·     Includes all presidents between JFK and HW Bush 

The Silent Generation aka the Lucky Few

(1925 – 1942/1945)

·     More cautious than their parents 

·     Includes no presidents to date

Baby Boomers aka “Me” Generation, aka Generation W 

(1943/1946-1964) 

·     Named for the post-WWII spike in birth rate

·     Fought in/protested the Vietnam War and participated in the Civil Rights Movement

·     Economic boom led to prioritization of self-realization over social responsibility 

Generation X aka Baby Bust 

(1965 – 1979/1980) 

·     Drop in birth rates following Baby Boom 

·     “X” comes from the desire of the generation to remain unnamed, which ironically led to the creation of lettered naming categories for subsequent (and previous) generations  

Millennials aka Generation Y 

(1980/1981 – 1996/2000) 

·     Named for the turn of the century 

·     Experienced the rise of the Internet 

·     Now exceed Baby Boomers in number 

Generation Z aka iGeneration

(1996/2000 – present) 

·     Born with the Internet 

·     Most racially and ethnically diverse (in the US)

Are you a Millennial or Gen Z?

Where do the millennials end, and where does Generation Z begin? Various sources put the defining date anywhere between 1996 and 2001 – unfortunate for those born within that window, who may feel out of place identifying with both and/or neither. There is no definitive answer. Generations are generalizations. However, the easiest litmus test seems to be one’s perception of the biggest societally-defining event of the era: 9/11. If you are old enough to remember 9/11 and how your life changed in the aftermath, you are a millennial. If the only world you have ever known is post-9/11, you are Gen Z. 

Editor: Allison Williams

Photography Source: http://theconversation.com/why-we-keep-playing-the-generation-blame-game-and-why-we-need-to-stop-82219