Boomers vs Millennials

Magnus Staar wrote:

Kyrin Wyldstar wrote: Any distinction in generational lines having any different priorities is ridiculous and i would think any one of us should find it insulting that such distinctions are even suggested.

Feel insulted? How very millennial of you. :whistle:

I'm kidding, of course.

I'm with Akkarin on this one. Though, put together Leah and musical and I'm down for that.

LOL well were I to ascribe to any such nonsense, I would not be a millennial in any case, thus proving my point that you can't pidgin hole any individual.

I had to look it up, according to the Strauss–Howe generational theory;
Baby Boom Generation (born 1943–1960)
Generation X (born 1961–1981)
Millennial Generation (born 1982–2004) {Gen Y?}
Homeland Generation (born 2005–present) {Gen Z?}

So in terms of age we'd be looking at right now @ 2017
Boomers; 57->74 years old
Gen X; 36->56 years old
Gen Y; 13->35 years old
Gen Z; 0->12 years old

Boomers; 57->74 years old
Gen X; 36->56 years old
Gen Y; 13->35 years old
Gen Z; 0->12 years old

If you don't want to ask someone's birthday, you can use other questions to work it out!

"do you remember Leaded petrol?"
"is the idea of owning an apple macintosh hilarious to you?"
"vhs or betamax?"
"are terrorists from the middle east, or ireland?"

I don't know who strauss or howe are, but I suspect the...spirit of times is more of a generational division than.

By the numbers, I'm a millennial (I remember when it was called "gen y") but my brother is a Gen X, and my parents are Boomers. We all spent around 17 years in the same house together, so we can't be all that different.

I'm not convinced that it is particularly helpful to point out characteristics of particular generations ; people don't get manufactured in lots, after all.

It is interesting to regard aspects of hegemony over several generation, but even for as rapidly as things can change in the information age, noteworthy differences are only remarkable across generations that couldn't have had contact with one another -- say, five or more...

I can bear witness to what Akkarin and Eden have said.

Alexandre Orion wrote: I'm not convinced that it is particularly helpful to point out characteristics of particular generations ; people don't get manufactured in lots, after all.

Pft! Typical Boomer response! Telling us what we can and can't generalise, and how 'people don't get manufactured in lots'! :laugh:

Leah Starspectre wrote:

Magnus Staar wrote:
I'm with Akkarin on this one. Though, put together Leah and musical and I'm down for that.

I would 100% take a role in a modern Hair. Can the Temple fund this with our non-existent riches? LOL!

I am going to donate especially for this , because this we need in our lifes , a good musical and a big smile , i am in !!

And guess what generation i am from ....

My `87 Mac ran circles around PC's until about `94, just sayin`

Getting away from musicals and so on here,

"Generational differences" such as they are, are a real thing, and working with people across 30-40 year age difference is interesting - Aside from the different needs of their current point-in-life (ie, home ownership, fridays at the club, kids, whatever) - their expectations of the workplace vary greatly from language used, how they should be treated, how they treat their colleagues/supervisors, remuneration expectations and so on.

For example (some sweeping generalisations here, it's okay, I'm ready to duck and dodge the boos and rotten vegetables)

the 45+ crowd print their emails (okay that was a cheap shot) - what I mean is they don't necessarily embrace some of the new methods of doing things and have a hard time giving up old habits/the way things were for whatever the new business processes are.

the 35+ crowd are far more willing to work back a half hour or whatever needs to be done to complete the job (they probably remember what it was like before you couldn't get sacked for anything)

the 25+ crowd are (reasonably?) good workers, but certainly prefer the easy way and will spend longer finding technology to do their job for them that it would take to do the job, they also seem to think they know everything and can be dismissive of experience of people in the field.

the 18-25 year old crowd are a pack of insufferable ingrates who should be thrown into a [strike]slapchop[/strike] [strike]thermomix[/strike] ninjabullet to release their nutrients.


The other interesting difference is in customers - What a 60 year old expects when they do business with you and what an 18 year old expects can be wildly different. (Sometimes they can be the same, these arn't hard rules obviously, I'm just musing that, over time, I've noted, I don't know if I'd call them "trends" - but what certain demographics value?)

I'm just glad someone (ADDER) finally mentioned Gen X. The "Greatest Generation" is retiring/retired and "Millennials" are entering the workforce with expectations they learned from Google. It's the people in between that bridge the gap and are doing the heavy lifting in society right now, but this group of "in betweens" often gets overlooked. This is the "Middle Management" of the world right now. We remember life before the internet, but were also the first to really exploit it to accomplish some amazing things. We remember having only five channels and answering phones hanging from the wall, but we also ushered in the cellular age and mass communications.

If you're looking for a job or having trouble in your current job, you might want to learn more about how Gen X grew up and how it impacts our work ethic and expectations.

I may be mistaken, but I think I am the only boomer to respond in this thread so far.

I remember when the original stage play of "Hair" appeared. The hippy culture then was prominent; it was common to see segments on the evening news showing hippies protesting. The semi-spontaneous gathering of (mostly) hippies at Woodstock drew national attention. Then-governor of California Ronald Reagan publicly disparaged hippies, and conservatives in general denounced their values, sexual mores, drug use, and even their music (claiming it channeled the devil). But even grandmas in floral print dresses flashed the peace sign in the 1960's, and the personal reflections of people from all walks of life danced at least occasionally with hippy-esque ideas affirming that perhaps materialism wasn't all it was cracked up to be, that the construction of nuclear weapons was madness, and that peace is available to us as soon as we would commit ourselves to it.

In hindsight, the hippies probably were not sufficiently numerous to actually typify a generation, but they had a potent means of expressing their thoughts and access to mass communication - and they used those tools to challenge the prevailing culture. We can see firsthand right now that this culture did not crumble, but its cracks have probably been more visible than would have otherwise been the case ever since the '60s.

Take away the bell bottom pants, long hair, beads, incense, and frequent use of the word "groovy", and we might begin to see that there are hippies with us always - at least in terms of shared values and the courage to give them voice. They were the abolitionists of the pre-Civil War era, the New Dealers of the Great Depression, the participants in Occupy Wall Street movement, and the supporters of the indigenous peoples at Standing Rock. They are boomers, gen X-ers, millienials - people of every age. They are people who see the folly of war and know the hopes and the vulnerability we share as human beings - and hold in their visions of the future the possibility of a world that knows a lasting peace.

Hope, personified, perceives no difference between age groups, technological savvy, or artistic preference. She only recognizes the welcoming presence of a tender heart holding big dreams. And those hearts, despite the most strident efforts of those who lust after dominance, have been with humanity since our first ancestor stood up, and will appear until the last of us lies down for the final rest.