Generations Explained

An easy to follow explanation of the cycle of generations in the US. Go to http://www.thegenxfiles.com for more information on the impact of generations.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• generation x
• gen x
• boomer
• baby boomer
• millennials
• gen y
• silent
• howe
• strauss
• fourth turning
• generations
• thegenxfiles

[MegaBrooke98]

im born in 1998 what generation am i ?

[dsohigian]

@MegaBrooke98 You are part of the Millennial generation

[Ishkur23]

No discussion of generations is adequate without a thorough explanation and understanding of demographics and social inertia. This video was heavy on exposition but light on content. It would have been much more interesting to explain WHY these generations are the way they are rather than make unsubstantiated assertions about their core nature without giving any basis in sociological fact.

[dsohigian]

@Ishkur23 This is not meant as a full explanation. For that you should consider reading Strauss and Howe's "Fourth Turning". This is merely a synopsis of part of that work. You can also see further info on my blog

[dsohigian]

@ogicabp4u - Although you may not feel like an X'er (and may not act like one), it is likely that many of your peers of the same age do. That is the point of the generational boundaries: although some people may feel out of sync with their generation, they still have to relate to many people that are part of that generation in their world view.

[tonighttonight17]

Wouldn't half of Millenials have gen X parents? How does that affect things?

[dsohigian]

@tonighttonight17 Although many of the Mills have X parents, it is not nearly half of them. I have two Mill kids, but many of my friends have kids in the next generation (Homelanders). If you look in Middle school right now (say 8th grade) there is about a 50/50 split of parents (X and Boomer) but in 1st grade it is almost all X'ers (those are the Homelander kids). The shift from one generation is gradual but the lines them are firm mainly so that we can describe the character of the group.

[Qdude10]

Millennials for the win. 

[wepollock]

The new ideal will be born of crisis (major crisis)..

[esmaelooo]

@dsohigian

is this only related to western cultures or is this world wide

[MegaBrooke98]

@dsohigian ok thanx :)

[brittanyverjes1]

A few months ago, I had no idea what we wanted until now. Gen Y would love the government to get out of our lives. We need our individual rights, the government should not tell us what to do in our own houses, that is not freedom, that is not okay. We are battling the oppressive government for our freedom and rights!

[chroniclerofthe70s]

@dubified89 I think you may be right. There a few randomly distributed examples of U.S. gen Y disliking celebrity media hype and ridiculous high salaries of celebrities and athletes who they believe have little to contribute to the future well being of the society.

It seems gen Y is maturing a bit. Only time will tell.

[dubified89]

@chroniclerofthe70s I wouldn't count them out yet, there's a lot of young men who have been left behind by the P.C. pro-woman/anti-male biased system that we have today. But they're redefining themselves and working out what their course will be and I think there will be innovations to come.

[dubified89]

The ideal of the millenials in my opinion should be freedom and individual liberty as preached by Ron Paul and the libertarian movement. And from what I've seen it's catching on in this age group especially, probably a lot of gen x'ers as well.

I was born in '84 but I often feel like I relate to gen x more, possibly because my parents were born in '41 and '45.