"Generation" Has No Meaning Any More?

[Deleted]

I am supposedly a baby boomer.  My husband was born in 1943, and he is not.  I was born in 1954, and I am an "early" BB.  That's just a reference.  I think 1964 is the end.

You would think my children (I had a child at 23 and 25 so not exactly late in life) would be the next generation.  But they aren't;  the generation between me and them is Generation X, and they aren't doing so hot.  My daughter and son are apparently Generation Y.  Then there is Generation Millennium.  And I am guessing that my grandkids are another generation.

That is so silly.  Or does it serve a purpose that I don't know of?  I do know that my kids didn't have computers and cellphones growing up, but is that now the great divider?  I do know that many of the younger kids, including my grandkids, have never known what it is like not to have cellphones, computers, etc.

But is that the new definition of "generation" ?  If so, it will quickly become every ten and then every five years.  Sort of like the generations for cellphones.

How is that helpful from a sociological point of view?  Or an economic one?

Should Generation X, who never got the BB's job, be rolling over and playing dead so that Generation Y can have the jobs they never got?

It just all sounds so silly.

[Apple]

To me the whole thing is over-generalized anyway.  I'm Generation X depending on which years you go by (I've seen some year spans that put me in Gen-X, some in Gen-Y).  I'm doing fine.  A lot of people I went to school with are doing fine.

Same thing with baby boomers--some went to war, some protested, some saved up for retirement, some didn't save anything.  About the only thing the whole group has in common are the years they were born and the events that happened in their life-time.  Where they were and what side they were on for those events vary.

The "Greatest Generation" seems to be a little different because most the US population had to suffer to some degree with rationing, war effort, etc.  Some were better off than others, some went to war, some stayed home, but it seems they all had to suffer a little bit.

To me, Generation whatever pretty much means nothing except you're all born around the same time and you start retiring, collecting SS, and dying around the same time.  Last thing I'd listen to is someone complaining that they couldn't get a job because they were part of "fill in the blank" generation.  There are too many choices you have to take as an individual to blame everything on being part of a generation.  So yeah, I guess it's all silly to me too.

[Peace Of Mind]

From what I've read here Boomers are sucking up all the resources and have contributed nothing.  <<gives Dark the stink eye>>


Yes, I'm a late boomer.  <<runs to suck up the rest of the resources>> 

[Opti]

Generation is used for two different purposes. The one that makes sense is generations in a family and the other is this made up by concensus Generation birth year stuff. The latter makes me not so happy most of the time as I haven't found the generalizations all that helpful and they seem to do a fair amount of harm. These consensus generations used for marketing and social purposes probably will never span less than 10 years. The Boomer generation finally colesced on a span of 18 years which pretty much makes IMO the generalizations not all that useful.


I recently read the novel Viagra Diaries written by a early Boomer who writes on Boomer issues. If her book is anything her column in truth she probably only writes about the 60 to 70 plus set which is part early Boomers and part not. I was getting a bit angry at the novel while I was reading it as she wrote about all these problems dating Boomer men which appeared in truth more to be issues with the 64 into 70s set. Not aware of lots of Boomers in their early 50s for example carrying around pics of their dead wives, etc.  Perhaps I travel in the wrong circles?



I would like to suck up more resources, but I think Dark is doing a far better job than I am.

[Phoenix84]

My understainding is that sociologists don't agree exactly on when generations start and end.  Some say generation Y started in 1975 while someone else might say it was 1985.

But I also thought millenials is another name for generation Y.  I don't think they're a separate generation but I could be wrong. 

I can see the need to break things up into "mini generations."  Even for the baby boomers, there's a big difference in outlook between someone born in 1948 and someone born in 1964. 

I'm part of generation Y (at least I think so) but a bit on the "older" side of it.  I've noticed a big difference in outlook regarding technology between me and even people a few years younger than me.  I can remember a time without the internet, many of my younger generational cohorts cannot. 

I know I'm going all over the place with this post.  But my main points are that.

1. Even among generations, you can find vast differences

2. Generations are hard to define anyway, with many different definitions. 

[Phoenix84]

By the way, I always hated that term "greatest generation."  That seems to imply there were the greatest generation there ever was, and I think that's a pretty bold and arrogent statement to make.  For all we know there might be a WWIII that will require even more sacrifice.

I prefer to the term "WWII" generation.

[marvholly]

Southern
With 1953 you are NOT an early baby boomer. Iam having been born in june 1946 (10 months after the end of WWII). Brother born in 1952 (comparable to you) is a LATE boomer.

[bean29]

Marv holly how can someone born in 1952 be a late babyboomer when I was born in 1964 and am considered a baby boomer. DH was born in 1965 and is Gen X I believe.

Sent from my MB855 using proboards

[NoNamePerson]

I was born in 43 and we were called "war babies" They just have to put a label on everything now these days. "They" are getting millions in grant money for all these dumb studies. But then again if they didn't have the studies/monies they would be on umemployment and getting food stamps and such.

[busymom]

(Yes, I'm a late boomer.) 


There's resources to suck up?!?  Where, where? 

[Deleted]

You are right.  I am a mid-boomer.  My understanding is that Baby Boomers are 1944-1964.  Those dates are fairly consistent although not engraved in stone.

Then the dates get really slippery.  Whoever said millennial was another name for Generation Y, though, is right. 

[MarleyKeezy78]

I'm a Gen Xer... Cool!   

[Tennesseer]

Jun 3, 2013 0:05:58 GMT -5 Peace Of Mind said:

From what I've read here Boomers are sucking up all the resources and have contributed nothing.  <<gives Dark the stink eye>>


Yes, I'm a late boomer.  <<runs to suck up the rest of the resources>> 

My first SS check will arrive in 45 days. It's all about me, me, me and I don't care.

[sesfw]

I'm in the OF generation.  Born before WWII in 1941.       

[midjd]

I don't think the generation designations are completely useless... it's easier to say "Boomers" than "people born between 1944 and 1964." Mostly though, I think they exist for people of one generation to lord their superiority over either those old fogeys sucking up the resources, or those arrogant kids who wouldn't know a hard day's work if it bit them in the ass.

[973beachbum]

Some of these definations have changed over the years. I was born in 1965. Up until about the 80's I was a baby boomer. then it was a fluid line and now supposedly I'm not.

But since my father went off to war and came home and started his family which included me, although I was at the end of it. I have no idea how I am suddenly not a baby boomer now.

[busymom]

Aw Beachbum, you're one of us! 



(My Dad was in the war too.)

[thyme4change]

I don't think the confusion surrounding which label you get is new, and I don't think you are the only one that might not feel a "connection" to your label either.  I'm Gen X, and I can't find too much that I have in common with them.  Apparently, we were all raised by boomers who supposedly all acted the same way - like hippies.  Well, no, my parents are war babies, and no, not all boomers think like hippies.  I find my experience neither common nor uncommon, as in, I know as many people my age who had a childhood/parents similar to mine as people that had a childhood/parents quite different from mine.  

The whole thing is a way to generalize and short-hand stuff.  It really isn't anything to get worked up about.

[973beachbum]

Jun 3, 2013 9:46:21 GMT -5 busymom said:

Aw Beachbum, you're one of us! 



(My Dad was in the war too.)

So I can start sucking up all those resources?  

[Deleted]

Trying to classify generations by years doesn't make sense to me. My grandparents went through the war. It is logical to me that any kids they had after the war are baby boomers. The kids the baby boomers had are Gen X, Gen X's kids are Gen Y. And you can actually only do this after some really significant global event in order to have a starting generation with something in common. I'm not sure what the next one would be.

[thyme4change]

Jun 3, 2013 12:51:22 GMT -5 @justaposter said:

Trying to classify generations by years doesn't make sense to me. My grandparents went through the war. It is logical to me that any kids they had after the war are baby boomers. The kids the baby boomers had are Gen X, Gen X's kids are Gen Y. And you can actually only do this after some really significant global event in order to have a starting generation with something in common. I'm not sure what the next one would be.

So, Tony Randall's kids are teenagers today, but they would be considered pre-baby-boomers, because their father was born in 1920?

[Deleted]

Hey! Nothing is flawless

But they would probably be Millenial Babies cause of being born at the turn of the century. That might be the next big event.

[thyme4change]

I don't see the turn of the century any more of an "event" than living in any other time frame.  I think at some point, most of us are shaped partially by our parents, and partially by the times we live in.  So, having "my generation" be the ones that grew up in the 80's, it makes sense.  Sure, I had parents who were old-school, SAHM, dinner on the table, etc.  And my friend had parents who danced at woodstock, and now were doing the power-couple thing, with the shoulder pads, and they didn't ever eat a meal together.  But, we are of the same generation.  

[Sum Dum Gai]

Generational markers are based on people all being around the same age when some big life event happened.  The baby boomers aren't all clones of each other, but they were all raised by people who were seriously affected by WWII.  Their parents may have fought in it, they may have taken a prison sentence as conscientious objectors, they may just remember war rationing and working in factories for the war effort, whatever, WWII had a serious impact on their lives.  At least that's true for the early boomers.  The problem is they usually put the boomers as a 22 year age range, and people used to have children a lot younger, so some of the earliest boomers had kids that would also be considered boomers, and those later boomers obviously weren't raised by people who were seriously affected by the war.  It almost makes more sense to make generations 10 year spans.

Generation Y is supposedly the first generation to have the internet available to them their entire lives.  Unlike previous generations it's not a new thing to them.  It's something they take for granted.  Like the interstate highway system.  The internet has changed society just as much as WWII did, so it's easily a significant generational touchstone.  I'm a super early Y, by most of the generational ranges I've seen anyway, so I actually remember a time before the internet although we did get a computer and rocking 14k modem when I was 12.

[Sum Dum Gai]

Oh, and I don't think millennials and Y are the same generation.  Y started in 1980 and ended in 2000, according to most definitions I've seen.  The millennials are the kids born from 2000 to today, and sometime around 2020 they'll decide what the next generation will be called, and stick that label on every kid born after that point.

[thyme4change]

The millennials are the kids born from 2000 to today, and sometime around 2020 they'll decide what the next generation will be called

Let's create some cool names now for Gen 2020...

   The hindsight generation

[alabamagal]

I am a late baby boomer by birthdate (1963), but I don't really fit into a lot of the things that are generally associate with baby boomers. My parent were born at the start of WW2 (1939 and 1940) so they were very young and don't recall the war. When I think of baby boomers, I think of the generations that protested during the 60s and 70s and then lived the good life in the 80s. I kind of recall that but was certainly too young to be involved. I was in college in the 80s, so I missed out on all the materialistic things then. But I don't consider myself Gen X either, I guest I am just a tweener.

[thyme4change]

Jun 3, 2013 13:35:42 GMT -5 alabamagal said:

I am a late baby boomer by birthdate (1963), but I don't really fit into a lot of the things that are generally associate with baby boomers. My parent were born at the start of WW2 (1939 and 1940) so they were very young and don't recall the war. When I think of baby boomers, I think of the generations that protested during the 60s and 70s and then lived the good life in the 80s. I kind of recall that but was certainly too young to be involved. I was in college in the 80s, so I missed out on all the materialistic things then. But I don't consider myself Gen X either, I guest I am just a tweener.

My sister is the same - born in '62.  She says "How could I possibly be a boomer!!!!"  She doesn't seem to associate with any of that - the music, or the events or anything.  I guess everyone on the fringe gets left off.  

[Phoenix84]

Jun 3, 2013 12:51:22 GMT -5 @justaposter said:

Trying to classify generations by years doesn't make sense to me. My grandparents went through the war. It is logical to me that any kids they had after the war are baby boomers. The kids the baby boomers had are Gen X, Gen X's kids are Gen Y. And you can actually only do this after some really significant global event in order to have a starting generation with something in common. I'm not sure what the next one would be.

That's not necessarily true.  With parents giving birth later sometimes you skip a generation.  That's what happened with me.  My parents were born in 1950 and 1951.  Smack in the middle of the baby boomers.  But I wasn't born until the mid 80's because my mother didn't have children until her mid 30's.

So the generation x aren't necessarily the children of baby boomers and the generation Y isn't necessarily the children of x.  The lines are fluid. 

[Deleted]

So the generation x aren't necessarily the children of baby boomers and the generation Y isn't necessarily the children of x.

That is the way it is done now. I said my way was more logical to me.