Boomers v. Millenials (and hey, did you know there's a Gen X too?)

[Rimbo 25933]

3 hours ago, cactusflinthead said:

My mom is a Boomer and my dad is a Silent. 44 and 36. I'm early Gen X 67. I think there's a range for us. Later X might be mostly Boomer spawn. 

1944 isn't Boomer. It's the trailing edge of Silent.

But yeah, Bama Chick's parents at 1950 are definitely Boomers. But they're on the young side. Though 1972-1973 is the time where the birth rate hit its absolute nadir.

We '72/'73 folks are the rarest of the rare breeds.

[Fudge Nuggets 19190]

2 hours ago, Rimbo said:

1944 isn't Boomer. It's the trailing edge of Silent.

But yeah, Bama Chick's parents at 1950 are definitely Boomers. But they're on the young side. Though 1972-1973 is the time where the birth rate hit its absolute nadir.

We '72/'73 folks are the rarest of the rare breeds.

'72 checking in and my parents were born in 1947 and 1948... so your original idea that Gen X are children of the Silent Generation doesn't hold up.  The leading edge of Gen X will fit that bill, but not the biggest portion.  From what I gather, Gen X are people born from mid to late 1960's through the late 1970's.  Boomers were doing most of the fucking back then.

Edited March 2, 2019 by Fudge Nuggets

[Ted Lange 16085]

The boomers are the absolute trash of American generations. 

I used to be solidly against term limits, but I can see a real value of voting against anyone over 60.  This country needs new ideas. 

[Rimbo 25933]

4 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

'72 checking in and my parents were born in 1947 and 1948... so your original idea that Gen X are children of the Silent Generation doesn't hold up.  The leading edge of Gen X will fit that bill, but not the biggest portion.  From what I gather, Gen X are people born from mid to late 1960's through the late 1970's.  Boomers were doing most of the fucking back then.

Nobody was doing most of the fucking back then, which is why so few of us were born.

And yes, you're right, two posters having Boomer parents completely determines what is a both vague and debated topic with no clear lines. 

These are extreme generalizations we're talking about, here. A generation lasts 25 years, but a woman's fertility can last that long, and a man's even longer, so both multiple generations can produce the kids of a given generation, and siblings can belong to multiple generations.

 

[Rimbo 25933]

Put it another way for you. In 1972, a good bit of the Boomers hadn't even hit puberty. Only the oldest leading edge of Boomers (Oldest age: 27) were having kids then.

Then the youngest Silents were 28. Which shows you how fuzzy those lines get.

[DaysOff 7951]

Never knew we were a small group numbers wise. Sure seemed to be a lot of us roaming Astroworld unsupervised in the early 80s.

[Bama Chick 28596]

Well my Boomer parents were 22 years old in 1972.

People got married and has children A LOT younger back then than people do now.

Look at the average age for parents in 1972 -



Men - 23.3 years old
Women - 20.9 years old

The oldest of The Silent Generation (1925) would have been 47 years old and the youngest (1945) would have been 27 years old.

Most of that generation would have had kids - according to the historical averages - between 1945 and 1968.




Even the youngest Boomers, born in 1946 - going by average historical age of first child birth - puts their children in Generation X.

The parents of Gen X overlap with Silent a bit on the very early end but there are more Boomer parents than people think because we forget how much younger people used to be when they had their first child.

I think Boomers first kids are X and their last kids are Millennials.

There are also quite a few Gen X parents with tail end Millennial kids, although most have Gen Y kids because we got married and had kids later than our parents.

I had my first kid at 16 years old in 1998. Depending on which timetable you use, he’s either one of the last millennials or first Gen Ys.

That’s why I think the whole “Blame the Boomers for how awful Millennials are! They’re their parents after all!” is crap.

First, not accurate. Second, I actually think Millennials get a bad rap - I think they’re going to be a great generation once they gain control.

The culture and personality of a generation is developed through what they experience socially and culturally and the events that shape them. Much more than what generation spawned them.

Plus, there’s hundreds of concrete legitimate reasons that provide Boomers are awful. No need to stretch and blame the for a subsequent generation that is actually looking like they’re on the right track. Not to mention when you look at the data, there are fewer Boomers who actually produced Millennials than most people assume.

[Rimbo 25933]

Yeah, it's blurry; the point is, it has to do with acceleration curves. The reason the nadir of births is around '72-'73 is because -- as you point out -- the Silents were just about done that time (the youngest edge of them being 27-28), but at the same time:

Figure puberty hits, on average, around age 13, right? So that leads to the years 1959-1963, about 4 years' worth out of 18 (1945-1963) -- or basically 20% of the entire Boomer generation isn't even capable of having kids then. Then you figure most people don't have kids until after high school, you're looking at nearly half of the Boomers haven't even started yet.

So yes, you've got Boomers having kids around '72, but these are generally the oldest Boomers, and you've got an entire half of that generation who haven't even got it on yet.

Then once you hit '82, the Millennials start up. Now your Boomer age range is between 19 and 37. Pretty much all the babies are Boomer babies at that point on, and there's going to be a shitfuckton of them.

Anyhow, in the years leading up to '72-'73, most of the Boomers aren't even out of high school yet, while the Silents are finishing off their families. Then as Boomers graduate high school and college and start families, the birth rate starts climbing again. Now draw a circle with a nine-year radius around that point, right around the time Nixon was re-elected -- call it the least sexy point of the 20th century if you will -- and you've got Gen X.

The main reason I call them the children of the Silents is because that, by and large, is what Gen X is. Yes, a great many Boomers were parents of Gen Xers, and at least part of that is because there were so many more goddamned Boomers than there were Silents, but it's mostly because these lines define points on acceleration curves, not because some point in '82 an announcement was made: All right, Silents, y'all get snipped; Boomers, drop your trousers and get to fuckin'! or something like that.

I think we're agreeing more than disagreeing, I just love to yap about shit

[burntorangebongos 10710]

16 minutes ago, Bama Chick said:

Even the youngest Boomers, born in 1946 - going by average historical age of first child birth - puts their children in Generation X.

I am the youngest boomer, born December 1964. If I had a kid in my mid 20s, that would put their bday year in late 80's or early 90's. I think that would make them millennials.

[Guest]

Remove financial cushioning and stop removing consequences for financial missteps and things are better for everybody( allegedly.).

But socially, there should not be consequences for anything. Accountability for personal conduct/ behavior is just way too destructive( allegedly.)

[52-80 19157]

9 hours ago, Rimbo said:

Gen X aren't the children of Boomers, though. We're the children of the "Silent Generation," those born during the Depression and leading up to WW2. We are notable by being basically nonexistent.

Basically, if you were old enough to see Return of the Jedi when it first came out in theaters -- even as a baby -- you're Gen X. If you're not, you're at the leading edge of Millennials or younger.

 

Yeah, the oldest Millennials are in their late 30s.

Fuck you don't call me that

[52-80 19157]

9 hours ago, Rimbo said:

Gen X aren't the children of Boomers, though. We're the children of the "Silent Generation," those born during the Depression and leading up to WW2. We are notable by being basically nonexistent.

Basically, if you were old enough to see Return of the Jedi when it first came out in theaters -- even as a baby -- you're Gen X. If you're not, you're at the leading edge of Millennials or younger.

 

Yeah, the oldest Millennials are in their late 30s.

Fuck you don't call me that

[52-80 19157]

9 hours ago, Rimbo said:

Gen X aren't the children of Boomers, though. We're the children of the "Silent Generation," those born during the Depression and leading up to WW2. We are notable by being basically nonexistent.

Basically, if you were old enough to see Return of the Jedi when it first came out in theaters -- even as a baby -- you're Gen X. If you're not, you're at the leading edge of Millennials or younger.

 

Yeah, the oldest Millennials are in their late 30s.

Fuck you don't call me that

[JimmyJames 12271]

17 hours ago, Rimbo said:

Yeah, it's blurry; the point is, it has to do with acceleration curves. The reason the nadir of births is around '72-'73 is because -- as you point out -- the Silents were just about done that time (the youngest edge of them being 27-28), but at the same time:

Figure puberty hits, on average, around age 13, right? So that leads to the years 1959-1963, about 4 years' worth out of 18 (1945-1963) -- or basically 20% of the entire Boomer generation isn't even capable of having kids then. Then you figure most people don't have kids until after high school, you're looking at nearly half of the Boomers haven't even started yet.

So yes, you've got Boomers having kids around '72, but these are generally the oldest Boomers, and you've got an entire half of that generation who haven't even got it on yet.

Then once you hit '82, the Millennials start up. Now your Boomer age range is between 19 and 37. Pretty much all the babies are Boomer babies at that point on, and there's going to be a shitfuckton of them.

Anyhow, in the years leading up to '72-'73, most of the Boomers aren't even out of high school yet, while the Silents are finishing off their families. Then as Boomers graduate high school and college and start families, the birth rate starts climbing again. Now draw a circle with a nine-year radius around that point, right around the time Nixon was re-elected -- call it the least sexy point of the 20th century if you will -- and you've got Gen X.

The main reason I call them the children of the Silents is because that, by and large, is what Gen X is. Yes, a great many Boomers were parents of Gen Xers, and at least part of that is because there were so many more goddamned Boomers than there were Silents, but it's mostly because these lines define points on acceleration curves, not because some point in '82 an announcement was made: All right, Silents, y'all get snipped; Boomers, drop your trousers and get to fuckin'! or something like that.

I think we're agreeing more than disagreeing, I just love to yap about shit

To make it simple, any particular generation’s parents are either the youngest half of two generations before them or the oldest half of the generation right before them.

For example, the vast majority of generation X’s parents were either the younger silent generation or the older boomer generation. 

For the millenials, their parents were either the younger boomer generation or the older generation x. 

Obviously a few discrepancies can occur here or there but what I said above is generally the case. 

[TDunk 590]

Fuck the stupid generational names.  Boom my X in your millennial and ask Y.  

[Mole 4333]

23 hours ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

Boomers were doing most of the fucking back then.

 

To be fair, that hasn't really changed much even if the object of their affection has.

[NBMisha 224]

On 3/2/2019 at 5:40 AM, slorch said:

Remove financial cushioning and stop removing consequences for financial missteps and things are better for everybody( allegedly.).

But socially, there should not be consequences for anything. Accountability for personal conduct/ behavior is just way too destructive( allegedly.)

I get what you are saying, of course, and the normal system of accountability based motivation works for most reasonably intelligent or better people, assuming they are also mentally healthy.  But, 40% of the population are way short of normal intelligence or have mental health issues that make competing, in the way you and I hold dear, very difficult.  This hard ass boomer is very much in favor of much more help for this group.

[David Dennison 18856]

On 3/2/2019 at 2:45 AM, DaysOff said:

Never knew we were a small group numbers wise. Sure seemed to be a lot of us roaming Astroworld unsupervised in the early 80s.

Was there.

[ShaggyBevo RIP 3868]

Where GenX does matter is they are starting to take over the C suite and board rooms thus the purse strings for corporate money in politics  

They are more social policy aligned with Millennials because the 80s’ recession and Desert Storm greatly impacted them as teens and young adults. Add in it is when gays started coming out of the closet in large numbers.  They also started the new tribalism tattoos and piercings. 

Edited March 3, 2019 by ShaggyBevo RIP

[Larry T. Spider 1746]

I’ve never cared much about the generation battles. I think mostly because I’m technically a millennial (1983) but identify more with gen x. Many of my friends that are the same age feel the same way. We didn’t have internet until high school or phones until college. Main difference is that our “coming of age” was more in the 90s than the 80s. 

I know they have created a sub group for us but it doesn’t make the tribalism any more fun. 

 

[Macanudo 12978]

On 3/1/2019 at 4:25 PM, Iconoclast Texan said:

The 90s rivals the 70s as the greatest decade ever for music and movies.

What the FUCK?

[staboner 4969]

not sure if mentioned yet, but i bet lots of us are Generation Star Wars. http://www.bodahub.com/the-star-wars-generation/

early 40s ish. 

grew up with old shit, raised on new shit. caught right in the middle. interesting read.

and to echo many of the sentiments on this thread - yeah, boomers need to shit and get off the pot

[XYZ 2154]

I prefer the “cynical motherfucker” generation rather than “gen X”

[David Dennison 18856]

Just now, XYZ said:

I prefer the “cynical motherfucker” generation rather than “gen X”

The "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me" generation is also acceptable.

[JimmyJames 12271]

3 hours ago, David Dennison said:

The "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me" generation is also acceptable.

Killing in the name of...

[Aqua Buddha 14596]

On 3/1/2019 at 8:36 PM, Bama Chick said:

 

I’m Gen X, born in 1972, and my parents are Boomers, both born in 1950.

And Gen X aren’t “whiners”.

We’re cynical and jaded.

We bitch about whatever is fucking us over to our friends, keep our rage internal, and then shrug our shoulders, mutter “Fine, whatever dude.” and go about our business.

All we want is for the idiot Boomers is for them to retire/die/just go the fuck away, so we can be left alone to do our thing.

Most of us are looking to Millennials to be on our team and be our energetic allies in fixing what the Boomers fucked up.

We know y’all are more technologically savvy and have more energy than us - we’re middle aged and tired, dude.

Just let us finally get to those jobs we’ve been eternally waiting for and we’ll be more than happy to have you join us in changing the world.

Don’t expect us to let you jump the line to be fully in charge just yet but we aren’t ego freaks like the Boomers. We’ll allow you to try new ideas and methods and totally share the credit and praise with y’all.

Just let us finally get to the top of the food chain and leave us to our peace and quiet. We don’t have the desire or energy to micromanage you or make you conform to some bullshit.

Do your job, do it well, and we don’t give a crap about the rest.

The Boomers are your overbearing parents telling you that you have no idea how the real world works and if you do things their way, you’ll be better off.

Gen X is your cool aunt or uncle telling you life is hard and sucks sometimes so live it your way. Your job isn’t all you are, so do it your way as long as you get it done and fuck all that other crap.

 

Pretty accurate all around.

[F250 28774]

13 hours ago, ShaggyBevo RIP said:

Where GenX does matter is they are starting to take over the C suite and board rooms thus the purse strings for corporate money in politics   

Somewhat but there are still a lot of Boomers sitting in those positions. There are a lot of old fucks still running things even though they are retirement age and have the money to retire.

[Bama Chick 28596]

Somewhat but there are still a lot of Boomers sitting in those positions. There are a lot of old fucks still running things even though they are retirement age and have the money to retire.

And getting Gen Xers and Millenials to do 60% of their work because they cannot be assed to figure out how to send an Outlook invite or enter their information into an Excel spreadsheet because they “can’t figure out that chart thing program”.

Companies should require a technology literacy test at age 60.

Flunk it? Enjoy retirement, ya old fuck.

[gmr548 16580]

Gen Z has mostly grown up post 9/11 and mass school shootings. These kids will effect change when they come to power.
Boomers can't get off the pot soon enough.

I believe the boomers refusal to do anything about gun violence will result in the millennials and gen z going way further than they otherwise would have on that issue in particular. Most millenials and all of gen z have grown up with school shootings and mass shootings being normal, and are aware of how fucked up that is.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[hpslugga 4058]

9 hours ago, F250 said:

Somewhat but there are still a lot of Boomers sitting in those positions. There are a lot of old fucks still running things even though they are retirement age and have the money to retire.

They are the Hulk Hogan of generations: their "greatness" is well over 75% media creation, and in their very advanced years, maintain their reputation as being the old guy who absolutely refuses to put over the young talent.

[Anastasis 23469]

Ageism is one of the last broadly socially acceptable bigotry and prejudice. 

[SuingToGetAMessageBoard? 3861]

13 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Ageism is one of the last broadly socially acceptable bigotry and prejudice. 

at least it is based in science.

 

c

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[wildcat09 29354]

17 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Ageism is one of the last broadly socially acceptable bigotry and prejudice. 

Retire, you old fuck.

[Pescado_Rojo 19416]

GenX with Boomer parents here, but raised largely by my Greatest Generation grandparents who had already realized they fucked up raising my parents. 

[Huckleberry 32859]

Naming generations is fucking stupid and always has been. Then everyone acts like it's their team in the generation wars, which is entirely created by the stupidity of naming them in the first place.

The entire conversation is dumb.

[Js1 85334]

21 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Ageism is one of the last broadly socially acceptable bigotry and prejudice. 

Is this supposed to be some sort of....idk, argument calling Gen X and millennials ageists? 

Have you seen a millennial thread? It turns into every old fuck bitching about entitlement/laziness/phones/hipster coffee/avocado toast/MILLENIALS ARE KILLING THINGS I LOVE

[Coors yellow belly 105]

A Millennial is just someone younger than you 

[Anastasis 23469]

12 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

Retire, you old fuck.

Lulz. I’m a man! 

[Anastasis 23469]

12 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Is this supposed to be some sort of....idk, argument calling Gen X and millennials ageists? 

Not everything is about you and your avocado toast JS. It’s not an argument, it’s an observation. And not a particularly novel one. 

 

https://www.who.int/ageing/ageism/en/

 

Ageism is the stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination against people on the basis of their age. Ageism is widespread and an insidious practice which has harmful effects on the health of older adults. For older people, ageism is an everyday challenge. Overlooked for employment, restricted from social services and stereotyped in the media, ageism marginalises and excludes older people in their communities.

Ageism is everywhere, yet it is the most socially “normalized” of any prejudice, and is not widely countered – like racism or sexism. These attitudes lead to the marginalisation of older people within our communities and have negative impacts on their health and well-being.

• Frequently Asked Questions on ageism
• 10 misconceptions about ageing

Edited March 4, 2019 by Anastasis

[Hugo Stiglitz 23367]

The olds get their reparations through early bird specials and senior citizen discounts.

[ShaggyBevo RIP 3868]

11 hours ago, F250 said:

Somewhat but there are still a lot of Boomers sitting in those positions. There are a lot of old fucks still running things even though they are retirement age and have the money to retire.

Hence the wording, starting to.

[Bat Guano 359]

45 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

Naming generations is fucking stupid and always has been. Then everyone acts like it's their team in the generation wars, which is entirely created by the stupidity of naming them in the first place.

The entire conversation is dumb.

This, exactly. Talkin' bout my generation is as vapid as basing conclusions about someone on the color or their eyes or hair (although to be completely honest, most blondes are, in fact, dumb). There are broad generalizations to be made over the millions of individuals comprising a generation, but that says nothing about any one individual in the group, and the dividing lines between generations are completely arbitrary and equally meaningless.

[hayden_horn 11362]

16 hours ago, staboner said:

not sure if mentioned yet, but i bet lots of us are Generation Star Wars. http://www.bodahub.com/the-star-wars-generation/

early 40s ish. 

grew up with old shit, raised on new shit. caught right in the middle. interesting read.

and to echo many of the sentiments on this thread - yeah, boomers need to shit and get off the pot

that is a really interesting point of view.

i really like this article, explaining us as the oregon trail generation:

https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2015/04/oregon-trail-generation/

this part stands out to me:

Quote

A big part of what makes us the square peg in the round hole of named generations is our strange relationship with technology and the internet.  We came of age just as the very essence of communication was experiencing a seismic shift, and it’s given us a unique perspective that’s half analog old school and half digital new school.

this is in line with your article. 

we grew up learning BASIC. we had to explain to our parents why we wanted a computer. we had dial up internet. we had VCRs that our parents couldn't figure out.  we bought cassette tapes. we used walkmans with foam headphones. anyways, i think that we are a unique generation kind of stuck in the middle, but i don't know that i know what that means.

but i also think that defining generations solely by year of birth is a bit of a mistake. i think that your parents' years of birth are also important. i was born to old parents, my dad was born in 1931 and my ma in 1941. my parents could technically been my friends' grandparents, and it made for some interesting cultural clashes in my household. 

[Brisketexan 105139]

HOW we define generations is somewhat arbitrary and never entirely accurate.  There are folks born on the cusp either way who may relate more to the generation before/after theirs, for example.

But THAT we define generations, and embed biases in our evaluations (ageism, as Anastasis points out) is NOT invalid.  We are all a product of our times -- that's a pretty rock-solid truth.  Who we are, how we think, how we relate to others, and how we problem-solve are heavily influenced by our times -- with "our times" consisting of the social trends/mores of the day, the influential technology, the overall social and economic dynamics, etc.

For example, the Boomers are very different than the previous generation because of universal access to reliable birth control, higher family incomes (parents had great and well-paying employment in the post-war era), increasingly urban population (pre-war, we were still heavily rural and agrarian, post-war, not so much), etc.  Hell, their parents went through the Great Depression -- any of us with family members of that generation know how much that experience shaped them compared to those that followed.

So, generational divides are very relevant and make sense.  Applying them universally, without any room for individual exception, is of course inaccurate.  But the GENERALITIES are reasonably correct.

And as for the thesis of the original article I posted, what we are seeing happen economically is very much a product of the generational characteristics of the generations at issue.  We are seeing generational economic warfare, and it ain't gonna end up good for any of us.  As Generation X standing in that divide, I think it's incumbent on our generation to do all we can to mitigate the damage caused by the Boomers, so as to head off some of the potential over-reaction of the Millenials when they take the wheel.

[Anastasis 23469]

7 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

we grew up learning BASIC. we had to explain to our parents why we wanted a computer. we had dial up internet. we had VCRs that our parents couldn't figure out.  we bought cassette tapes. we used walkmans with foam headphones. anyways, i think that we are a unique generation kind of stuck in the middle, but i don't know that i know what that means.

Cassette tapes. Like not to listen to in the Walkman. My first fucking computer used them as the storage media. Lol. 

[Captainant 27667]

4 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Cassette tapes. Like not to listen to in the Walkman. My first fucking computer used them as the storage media. Lol. 

Using both side of the tape, I hope

[NameAlreadyInUse 5112]

Gen X here, with a boomer and silent parent.  Dad was 30 when I was born and mom was 20.  Both of them act like boomers when it comes to politics, though,  but my dad is more racist than my mom.  I'm not a fan of either of them when it comes to their commentary on current events, and I've instituted a rule that they won't share their opinions or commentary and I'll keep coming to visit.  

I will plug again the book Generations (Amazon Link)

These authors basically worked out that there is a 4 generation cycle at play in the US, and Gen X will be the fixers, while Boomers are the ones that finally break everything.  They have shown that cycle repeating through 4 times so far.  Also, they didn't call us Gen X in the book when I read it, mainly because there wasn't really a name for us back then.  They called us the 13th generation, as at the time we were the 13th generation of mostly white people that was born in North America.  I think back then it was either that or Slacker generation, Gen X didn't come around until a year or 2 after this book was released.  Not sure if they subsequently updated it.

[hayden_horn 11362]

16 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Cassette tapes. Like not to listen to in the Walkman. My first fucking computer used them as the storage media. Lol. 

ha. yup.

we also had floppy disks, and would have ambitious games and programs that required us to have possibly ten or more floppy disks. if you managed to touch the tape disk inside, it could ruin your game forever.

[Brisketexan 105139]

18 minutes ago, Captainant said:

Using both side of the tape, I hope

[Anastasis 23469]

23 minutes ago, Captainant said:

Using both side of the tape, I hope