Baby Boomers vs. Generation X vs. Millennials

yeah boomers need a subgeneration because it's demographically viable to say there was this continuous baby boom through the mid 60s but you end up with a twenty-year span for the "generation," such that first-round boomers could have kids that would also qualify as baby boomers. and then culturally, yeah, there's very little affinity between ppl who graduated high school in 1967 and in 1985 or what have you.

hence the "generation jones" concept

yeah boomers need a subgeneration because it's demographically viable to say there was this continuous baby boom through the mid 60s but you end up with a twenty-year span for the "generation,"

I feel like the fact that people feel the need to subdivide these 'generations' to spans far shorter than actual human generations points to a flaw in the original theory.

otm. so so tired of people talking about generation whatever.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/05/sally-rooney-millennials-normal-people

I feel this could have been written about so many books of the last 40 years. "[...] her characters use irony to dilute their existential anxiety about being over-educated and aimless in a time when the very world order seems up in the air."

Sund4r, my point is just that if a parent and child can belong to the same "generation" then either that generation has been too widely drawn or we should stop talking about "generations." i agree with the latter in principle but it can be a nice pointless diversion and if one doesn't want to engage in it one can just avoid this thread, idk.

I do want to engage in it!: I'm pointing out that I think the theory is deeply flawed.

The thread started out mocking generational theory don’f forget 🌈⭐️

Either you have to draw the generations widely enough that a parent and child can be part of the same generation or you have to draw them so narrowly that their spans have nothing to do with generations in the biological sense.

(That's not the only flaw, though.)

But the theory has nothing to do with biology and everything to do with culture, I assume

the gilmore girls seem like the same generation

X'ers. rory is technically a millennial though, i believe.

“It’s stupid to measure position by a bunch of lines that all intersect at the top and bottom! If they all intersect, it’s meaningless!”

“Measuring position by continuous lines that just go around in circles doesn’t tell you anything!”

This isn’t a nerd forum please use a different analogy using cultural touchstones that millennials can relate to

back in the 90s, when generational theory was also popular, people born in the early 60s were considered Gen-X!!

Kinda feel like people who weren't born/were too young to remember Cuban Missile Crisis/Kennedy Assassination aren't boomers.

similarly, people who weren't born/were too young to remember Reagan's presidency aren't really Gen-X

born too early to explore the universe, born too late to boom a baby

that sounds right. i think my parents are more like Gen X. they seem like they were too old to like MTV, nirvana, etc. but really they were just too lame

Here's my rubric and the only one I'll accept

If you were around for the 60s but not world war 2 you're a baby boomer

Gen Xers think Ghostbusters and Back to the Future are really good and important movies

Millennials were in school on 9/11 and remember it

Gen Zers have no memory of 9/11

If you were in school on 9/11 and also care about Ghostbusters and Back to the Future, you're a cusp millennial, probably you were born in exactly 1981.

37 year olds are millennials. they are all over tinder and they have stupid media and tech start up jobs.

"stupid" is disparaging. they have the new york kind of jobs that everyone in my milieu seems to have.

more like peedia and tech fart up jobs

Gen Xers think Ghostbusters and Back to the Future are really good and important movies

yr obviously a millennial. i saw those movies in the theater. they were fun, but not really "good" or "important" -- kinda like the cherry coke of movies, and I do like Cherry Coke, but if I were to make a list of "good and important" things, cherry coke would not be on it.

It's more like, Gen Xers grew up with the shitty, corrupt leadership of Nixon (early X) and Reagan (later X) -- the "just say no to drugs" era

Anyone can be a millennial if they want to be.

is that why so many dudes in their 40s are dating/trying to date ppl in their 20s?

I feel like over my life I've continually dropped into and out of Gen X. For a while I'm pretty sure I was in Gen Y, which no longer exists.

That’s right sarahell—Idealism

back in the 90s, when generational theory was also popular, people born in the early 60s were considered Gen-X!!

I remember this. In fact that was how Douglas Coupland defined the term in his book Generation X which is where all this started. Somehow Gen X leaped forward five years at some point in the '90s.

I’m not sure if I’d choose to be a millennial if I was allowed to pick tbh

I’m not sure if I’d choose to be a millennial if I was allowed to pick tbh

ancient millennial proverb

Somehow Gen X leaped forward five years at some point in the '90s.

Yes!! I remember it used to end in 1975 or 1976.

(but this is what I was getting at, at least in my cohort there seems to be this near-universal feeling that millennials are in fact a doomed generation and the generation after them is like them but better in every single way)

They cant be better off though as they’ll live through more decades of climate change

yeah, I was born in 77 and definitely remember not being in Gen X as a teenager. I got recruited later on.

xpost

To me the 1959-1964 babies have always seemed like an in-between generation, just as the babies of the late '70s seem neither Gen-X nor Millennial.

And I'm another Gen-Xer who thought Ghostbusters and Back to the Future were fine but nothing super special and am very surprised people still talk about them.

millennials are in fact a doomed generation and the generation after them is like them but better in every single way

this was the Gen-X zeitgeist in the 90s iirc: we were born and raised during a time of decay, but things started getting better after we were already doomed, like public education funding started increasing when millennials started going to school.

otoh, it was easier to get into good colleges because there weren't as many of us.

we were born and raised during a time of decay

Think about it: Steve Winwood albums!

I feel like the prognostic for millenials used to be much better than it is currently. We'll see in a couple of years how it goes for the post-millenials, I'm pretty sure society as a whole will continue fucking up.

this was the Gen-X zeitgeist in the 90s iirc: we were born and raised during a time of decay, but things started getting better after we were already doomed, like public education funding started increasing when millennials started going to school.

how quickly that sentiment faded on their part

(from what I can tell the people who hate millennials most aren't boomers at all but gen x)

I'm in the Pepsi generation

It is probably tedious of me to point this out, but the Baby Boom earned its nickname early on from sheer amazement over the numbers of infants flooding the post-war world. It was bestowed on them by newspaper journalists.

The designators for all subsequent generations have been bestowed by marketers, because the sheer weight of boomers taught corporations that selling to young people was hugely lucrative. Soon marketers learned that labeling generations made them sound like they knew arcane lore that would help corporations sell stuff. Now all this marketing hokum has become so mainstreamed that young people actually believe in it and find personal meaning and identity in their generational label.

Breaking news: being a Gen X or Millennial is about the equivalent of being a Sagittarius or a Gemini. You'll learn as much about yourself by reading your daily horoscope as you will by reading about what marketers say about 'your generation'.

It’s almost as if people say extremely similar things about each generation as its members pass certain age milestones.

And yet, each generation also has distinct cultural experiences growing up which mark them as distinct from every other spawning of humans.

yesterday at work i was listening to a youtube playlist of hair metal from the 80s, and i think i like it more now than I did at the time? (not sure if that would work for Steve Winwood)

being a Gen X or Millennial is about the equivalent of being a Sagittarius or a Gemini. You'll learn as much about yourself by reading your daily horoscope as you will by reading about what marketers say about 'your generation'.

well, you'd need to do your whole natal chart. Sagittarius is way better than Gemini, so I'll claim Sag for Gen X thanks!

Now all this marketing hokum has become so mainstreamed that young people actually believe in it and find personal meaning and identity in their generational label.

oh fuck right off, older people also believe in it

(this is however an excellent demonstration of my last post!)

But the theory has nothing to do with biology and everything to do with culture, I assume

I'll admit to not having read the whole book but my understanding is that Strauss and Howe did intend for their 'generations' to be the span of a 'season of life' (as per Ch 3: https://books.google.ca/books?id=d8bBFGJq79sC&printsec=frontcover&dq=strauss+howe+fourth+turning&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiNy5LgpaTdAhUBwFkKHT1BBhkQuwUILTAA#v=onepage&q=strauss%20howe%20fourth%20turning&f=false)