Aging Baby Boomer Consumer Behavior

The final stage is the “family in later life”. During this stage, individuals must accept the shifting of generational roles, as they become the grandparents. They must be able to let go of some power to their offspring as they find their new place in the family system. Dealing with this change while facing potential decline in health, financial security, and loss of spouse can be stressful. Grandparenthood can be a reward substitute (Carter & McGoldrick, 1988, p. 20).

This generational gap was what altered the development of real learning, for it allowed Generation Me children to assume that hard work was not needed to succeed and to learn. Due to the different mindset that was developed through the gap, self-esteem was not lacking in GenMe. So, it is understandable why Boomers felt that an individual should be more important than society. They had to go through life fighting for what they believed in, causing what Tannen calls the “human spirit” to take the blow (Tannen, 419). She states, “contentious public discourse becomes a model for behavior and sets the tone for how individuals experience their relationship to others and the society we live in” (Tannen, 419). Baby Boomers did not have self-esteem so they enforced it on their children, keeping them from ever feeling that way. The cause of them feeling this way is that “the human brain is almost infinitely malleable” (Carr, 70). That malleability was used by Baby Boomer parents in order for them to set a sense of self-esteem and individualism in their children. This alteration of their children’s minds was Boomer parents’ first mistake, for it did not allow children to discover their own worth. Rather, it supplied them with false encouragement, and prevented the possibility of engaging themselves in a society where everyone works together and is confident, but not individualistic.

Most baby boomers grew up watching their traditionalist parents work very hard to make ends meet and take care of the family unit. As a result of their upbringing many boomers have adopted their parent’s strong work ethics; working hard, long hours trying to climb the corporate ladder. Baby boomers still enjoy personal face to face interactions and building rapport with people

Economic factors will play a role in baby boomers working beyond the age of 50. Due

Throughout the 60s, new cultural factors begin to appear, as the country divides from just the liberal ideas awakened in the 50s, to the “New Left.” The new ideology went extremely far with their views. This is most evident through student groups, such as the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). This extremely active group, and many others like it began to cause waves by taking protests too far and disrupting universities. So much so, the University of California at Berkeley had to prohibit some protests (Hewitt 876). Photographs capture how disruptive these groups can be, like the one taken on December 3rd, 1964, which shows a college protests of students literally cramming a building so full, hallways become impassible (Hewitt 876). This idea within the young generation that they can make a change is referred to as “baby boomer power.” They were told they were important economically their entire lives, so they believed they could also have political power. Additionally, the Civil Rights Movement reached its full potential in the 60s with leaders like Malcom X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., even though King was about integrating peacefully, Malcom X’s Black Power aggressive movement was an extremely far left

The baby boomer generation can put a strain on everything from money to the healthcare industry. Who are the baby boomer generation that 's a real

Consisting of 77.2 million people, baby boomers — people born between 1946 and 1964 — represent a prized, yet often misunderstood, demographic for online marketers. In fact, they represent the largest group within the U.S. Internet population at 56.7 million users, a full 29.4 percent of all Internet users. So why is there such confusion about how to effectively market to them? A recent report from the online market research firm eMarketer, Boomers Online: Attitude Is Everything, addresses this issue.

While the “Greatest Generation” is a title often given to those Americans who lived and died during the era of the Great Depression and World War II, their offspring, the “Baby Boom” generation, significantly shaped and improved the American landscape as well if for no greater reason than the sheer number of people who make up this population (Steinhorn, 2006). Today, based predominantly on that very same reason, the baby boomer population is now making a very different, yet equally as profound impact on American society. More

Nearly 3.7 million American babies born in 1982 were the first members of the new Generation Y, or more affectionately known as millenials (Thompson, par. 1). Many things play into whether a generation is considered to be faring ‘better’ than another one; job opportunities, the state of the environment, whether the U.S. is at peace or at war, income vs. living expenses, the general happiness of the people, and the list goes on. Millenials are part of a special generation because

Taking care of a grandchild may put the grandparent’s future in jeopardy. Some grandparents have to make job related sacrifices while grandparents who were comfortably retired deplete their savings to take help support their grandchildren. Taking on a parental roll has effects on a person’s lifestyle and his or her relationship with friends and family. The extent of the effects depends upon the extent of child-care that is provided by the grandparent. Grandparents who are raising their grandchildren assume that when their children were grown, it would relinquish the role of raising children but now they are raising their grandchildren. Sometimes it makes the grandparent resentful (Driver et. al, 1997).

Recently around the “developed world”, “66% of young men in Portugal are living with their parents.” “In Japan, around 2003, close to 12 million unmarried people between the ages of 20 and 34 were living with their parents.” It is worth mentioning that the hardship for independence started happening around the 1980’s as young people, who were new job seekers, had to carry the weight of the “loosening labor market regulations due to global competition.” Newman explains that the Generation Y is “not necessarily a problem.” By helping their children out, parents are “creating multigenerational “accordion families” as a way of investing in the human capital of next generation.”

During the sixties, there was a huge generation gap between the parents, who became adults around World War II, and the children, baby-boomers, who came of age in the 1950s and 1960s. Due to the generation gap, the younger generation grew farther apart from their parents and the older age group. The younger people believed that the older generation was too inhibited and too materialistic. For the most part, the baby boomers simply refused to accept the world-view of the older generation without questioning it. They broke with the political persuasions of their

In many families in our society today, the parents are a part of the sandwich generation and now are raising kids that are growing up to take part in the boomerang generation. The sandwich generation makes up of people who are in their thirties or forties that are trying to raise their own children while looking after their elderly parents. On the other hand, the boomerang generation consists of young adults who graduate high school and college to only come back and live with their parent and rely on their support. As a result of this, there comes many challenges for both the parents and the child since the sandwich generation is stuck in the conflicting nature of taking care of their elderly parents while providing for their children by meeting their needs of emotional love and providing tangible needs. However, many realize that their kids are entering into adulthood and now these parents face the challenge of pushing their children to be independent and take on responsibility while trying to secure a stable retirement.

“Generation X” (“Gen-Xers”), born from about 1960 – 1980, maintained some attributes typical of the “Baby Boomer” generation, but feel that their upbringing was too strict. They added an emphasis on work/life

Begins with first child leaving home, continues until all kids left, ends with retirement. Middle generation take on a more active role in the family. The elderly generation are faced with major challenges of retirement, widowhood, becoming grandparents, loss of independence. Elderly couples are more martially then parentally oriented as they spend more time with one another and less time being responsible for children. With adequate leisure time, income, good health – the couple can enjoy each other as much as the honeymoon phase. Illness and pending degeneration due to age – cause depression; middle generation left to decide if parent can still care for themselves; financial burden