Characteristics Of People Born In Different Generations

Baby boomers and millennials, are they oil & water or two peas in a pod? There have been large shifts in society and culture between when the baby boomers were born (1946-1964) and when the millennials were born (1981-1996). There are many factors that have influenced and molded each of these two generations such as technology, trends, debt and economy. Who exactly are millennials and baby boomers? What I know emphatically is that they both have strong opinions of one another. The Baby Boomers were promised the American Dream; they worked hard and are perceived as greedy and ambitious. Baby Boomers are “Perhaps the most influential generation in history, this “flower power” generation is known for their pivotal roles in the civil

People naturally like to generalise over a large group, it puts less stress on our brain. One such generalisation is the generations that people talk about, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millenials, and Gen Z. In “Move Over, Millennials, Here Comes Generation Z” Alex Williams discusses a possible outcome of what Gen Z is to be as compared to the Millennials.

People my age are often referred to as the Lost Generation, Generation Y, and the Millennial’s. Among these titles we also get ‘lazy’, ‘directionless’, and ‘entitled’. It seems like half of these names were given to us before we were even born, being grouped together with those who came before us. While reading the article “Boomerang Kids: What Are the Causes of Generation Y’s Growing Pains?” by Rosie Evans, she touched on the many reasons why we ‘Millennial’s’ might be the way we are.

There are currently six living generations in the United States, each with different characteristics, beliefs, and values. The things that define each generation’s culture are derived from their history, upbringing, and the lifestyle of their time. Our generation was born between 1980 and 2000. We are called Millennials. More specifically, we grew up in the South, which typically lends itself to being more conservative and religious. These characteristics, along with our instant gratification attitude, define who we are, what we believe, and how we view other generations. For example, we might have differing views with the Silent Generation. Some Millennials may feel the Silent Generation’s social, religious, and economic conservatism is outdated.

In Eric Hoover’s article, The Millennial Muddle, he describes how stereotyping and trying to understand students has become a major industry, especially with Millennials, since there are different adaptations and interpretations of this generation. It contains the different opinions from people who have studied this generation. Researchers try to figure out who Millennials are, how they think, why they always do what they do, and in those propositions and findings find them to contradict one another. Hoover then states that “in other words, they’re all different. But just for fun, let’s stereotype them as smart, successful, and lull of shakeable opinions.” Hoover does not deny these findings to be contradictory of what Millennials truly are.

A generation that perceives themselves as being incompetent to fulfill societal norms. A generation that settles for what they get and does not fight for something better.

A generation can be defined as the period, cohort or age of a group of people. Age is seen as the age that the persons were when particular transitions or events in life take place. Period can be defined as the overall experience of a person’s lifetime. Lastly, cohort can be seen as the overall grouping of people who have shared events during their formative years that more than likely contribute to like-minded behavior throughout the duration of their lives. There are currently four generations in United States society: Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X and The Millennials. The silent generation was born between the years of 1930 and 1945. Significant events during this time period include but are not limited to World War II and the Great Depression. The baby boomer generation was born between the years of 1946 and 1964. Significant events for this generation include the substantial growth of the middle class as well as economic prosperity. Generation X is born in the time period of 1965-1979, this generation was brought together by the big energy issue as well as the Vietnam War. Lastly the final generation that is currently in the workforce are the Millennials. This generation was born between the years 1980 and 2001, this group is brought together by the 9/11 terrorist attacks as well as the internet

As the baby-boomer generation entered their teen years, the seeds of rebellion were planted into their brains. Rejecting the social normalities portrayed by parents became a common scenario. These obstreperous youth could not be contained, and this lead to the revamping of the American society. The culture was changing rapidly in a variety of ways. Music, clothing, and even morals changed drastically.

It is important to understand our current generations and previous generations. Understanding generations’ differences can help us when serving the clients. Human service workers will be meeting clients not only from different cultures but also from different generation cohorts. Generation cohorts usually define as grouping people together who born 12-15 years apart and have common experiences. There are five generational cohort groupings: Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennial Generation (Generation Y) (The University of Iowa [UIOWA], 2009), and Generation Z. “Each generation has unique experiences that shape their behaviors and attitudes” (Kilber, Barclay, & Ohmer, 2014, p. 80).

Each generation has gone through multilevel conflicts that would come to define them in the annals of time. For example, in the fifties there was WWII and with the crystallization of the American Dream and our moral identity as a nation. Then in the sixties there was the Vietnam Conflict, Watergate and the Civil Rights Movement that began to peel away the façade. The eighties rose from the ashes of the seventies with a second attempt at a American Dream but created a Cold War and a very real wall that would fall before today with the War on Terror which eludes any comparison to the past. These conflict and consequences had a moral level that would defined what justice, morality and culture was. These fluid concepts ended up spurring real evolution in all aspects of life for each member in an increasingly global culture each generation. These evolving aspects of culture were often transgressive and therefor created unique and novel challenges for each individual who existed independently within the generation. This crisis of morality was a duty each member faced up to in a different way. Some students rebelled against their parents and grandparents moral perspectives in favor of one crafted in the molten passion of the present during the sixties. This was not an isolated incident, no freak occurrence. The seventies would see unpresented environmental revolution and an ensuing social revolution during the eighties. But going another level deeper in these moral

A generation is all of the people who were born about a certain time and living about a certain time, collectively experiencing the same time period. Since each generation is born in different times it can cause issues on the features of the american life such as Social Security. As the United States government set up the Social Security program in 1937, it has been very aged since then. At that time, the Social Security system was able to pay its retirees a five hundred yield on the money they contributed. The Social Security program now, in todays time, is not able to say the same for itself. Because of generational conflicts, those who retire in the next few years will not be able to have the same benefits. Generational gaps can be shown

Generations are influenced by their parents’ political attitudes and party affiliations and through what is going on in the world during the youth-stage of their life - social movements, wars, and other big world events. Generations also are influenced by who the president is at the time they come of age and the decisions they see made by other generations. Millennials distrust in the policies of Bush lead to a higher distrust of Republican party. However, their trust rose in the Democratic party because of their loyalty to Obama. Trust in political parties varies in different generations because they all experienced different social change and heard different policies growing

Generations can be loosely defined as bodies of individuals born and living at about the same time. “Each generation is molded by distinctive experiences during their critical developmental periods” (Twenge, 2008). The

Each generation has certain characteristics and values with which the members of it can identify. Members of Generation X highly value their job and family time; so they try to find a balance between these two aspects of their lives. Generation X are hardworking people, but they are

In any generation, from the Greatest Generation to Generation Alpha, you have your outdoorsy people, your video gamers, your pushovers, your leaders, your cooks and the people who can’t even make microwave popcorn. While certain things are supposed to affect a generation’s behavior, some will affect certain people and other’s won’t. Just like we all have a different code of DNA, different fingerprints or hairs on our heads, our personalities also differ. Maybe some people from Generation Z will fall apart without their devices, but others could care less about modern technology. One cannot address a generation and using the traits given to the age group, decide their capability in different scenarios. One thing that can be done, is understanding that everyone was made to have different skills for the exact purpose of being the yin to someone’s yang. To fill the empty spaces others cannot. Whether any group of people is thought of as deadbeats or not, humans were made to succeed. I choose to believe that we are all capable of surviving with a group of other people and Generation Z is included in that.