07-07-2020, 01:54 PM
I found this comment on a blog post that summarizes generational theory. I feel like I should warn that it's very critical of Boomers.
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"I take it you are a so called millennial? If you are a millennial, it makes perfect sense to me that you wouldn’t “get” the Silent generation. I personally completely do not “get” or like the Boomers, and although I share the same level of tech-usage and similar cultural things with millennials (electronic based music, videogames, Internet, social media hey I was on Friendster and Napster before it was cool) that didn’t exist in previous generations (I’m in the younger half of gen x) I also have a hard time relating to millennials although I do generally like them ok (kind of like having loud, obnoxious, attention seeking, bratty younger siblings who you can’t help but love even though they’re spoiled and annoying).
"I do, however, completely “get” the Silent generation and relate to them very easily on a generational level. Gen X and Silents are both tiny, introverted generations sandwiched between huge, iconic, extroverted, pushy generations. Silents were overshadowed by the big, dominant WWII GI generation that came before and the big, loud, obnoxious, dominant Boomer generation after. About 45 million Silents were born versus 75 million Boomers. Gen X is also about 45 million born (and 20 million aborted after Rowe V) stuck between the 75 million Boomers before and the 80 million millennials after.
"There has never been a Silent generation president – it was GI gen right through the first Bush, then to Clinton a Boomer and all Boomers since (I know Strauss & Howe tweak the end date of Boomers back a bit from 1946-1964 dates. They count Obama as a barely gen Xer, but clearly he behaves as an idealistic Boomer and was born before 1965). We are about to have another Boomer president now (Clinton or Trump) and yeah Cruz the Gen Xer and Bernie the Silent are giving it a try, but good luck with that guys, the Boomers won’t give up their powerful demographic majority until they’re all dead and it will skip directly to the millennials. The Silents just never got their turn as a demographic focus or in power. Neither will gen X.
"The Silents fought Korea by themselves and most of Vietnam, but you only hear about WWII and then skip straight to Vietnam as a totally Boomer war (the oldest boomers born in 1946 were 15 years old when the first American troops went to Vietnam, and the youngest boomers weren’t born for 3 more years. I know older boomers got hit with the draft, but come on no one mentions the Silents – talk about revisionist history). Also THANK YOU for pointing out it was Silents who should get credit for civil rights movement. Again, I guess the Boomers watched it on TV as kids and thought they were there, but seriously how many of their moms were letting them skip elementary and middle school to freedom ride buses and march with MLK? In 1969 the boomers were between 5-23 years old, so again some older ones participated but it wasn’t boomers primarily. But talk about civil rights today and somehow boomers come up like they made the movement happen! This is like Clinton (boomer) versus Sanders (silent) today – Clinton who was a Goldwater Girl in 1964 is somehow winning the black vote and endorsements for being pro civil rights? And yet Bernie actually WAS THERE marching with MLK and getting arrested protesting, and everyone just denies he did anything for civil rights until there is photographic and video evidence? And even then they try to say the photos aren’t him, and support Clinton the boomer civil rights champion? Also, Boomers and their endless self-congratulatory talk about the music of their generation – they name all kinds of greats from the 60s-70s, all that Woodstock, Bob Dylan, Beatles, Rolling Stones type stuff.. Who are all Silent generation musicians! The boomers only consumed that era of music, they didn’t make it – music Boomers made was Disco and Madonna and Michael Jackson. Those are Boomer musicians.
"As a Gen Xer I get it completely. We are between 33-51 years old and should be the dominant adult generation – but we’re not. It’s the oldest congress in U.S. History, boomers will never pass the reigns. Same in corporations, institutions. Our turn is being skipped. But whatever, we were neglected latchkey kids called slackers and losers, when actually we had way lower youth crime & abortion rates, and far higher rates of graduating from college than the boomers did. Everything has been boomer, boomer, boomer since before I was born almost 40 years ago. It was refreshing when I first started hearing millennial, millennial, millennial about 10 years ago. Talk about the mid-east wars? Millennials come up, it’s the millennials’ war. Well, ok – gen x fought the original dessert storm when you guys were in diapers and when 9/11 happened gen x was ages 18-36 which is the majority of the military. I know the wars dragged out so long millennials got dragged in, but like the Silents GenX will not be heralded for their military service. Also I hear all about Millennials with tech and social media – have to laugh, because we were on Napster and Friendster and MySpace, and hell AOL way back in the day before your stuff like Instagram and snapchat and Facebook existed. Gen xers made Google, most of the early social networks and file sharing stuff, apps, etc. you’re welcome. And yes, we were the first gamers and the first to have consoles (nothing will ever beat N64). And we were the first generation to embrace electronic music as our main form of pop (gen x invented rap, hip hop, techno). All your millennial dub step etc. Yawn. We were raving to techno in the late 80s and early 90s. And the millennial snarky hipsters… Ok, we invented snark and subversive cultural things like South Park which hates and makes fun of absolutely everything. We just aren’t so pretentious, or self-promoting. We are ok with being pragmatic, and influencing through art and social commentary rather than having social or demographic power, we can fade into the background. I like millennial culture much more than boomer culture, because it is "derivative of Gen X innovations – like boomer culture was derivative of Silent gen innovations. I get the Silents, I really do.
"But I like you guys (millennials) and feel you have something we gen xers don’t, which is a certain dose of optimism & can-do-it beliefs in yourselves that I find charming. Gen x is pessimistic and resigned ourselves to sarcasm and cynicism long ago. I hope millennials live up to their hype! The boomers are rotting sacks of flesh, and honestly the sooner their cultural influence fizzles out the better. I hope you go get it, kids, make this world a better place."
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Despite reactives and adaptive pretty much being polar opposites in terms of traits, I will admit, Gen Xers are way easier to understand and connect with than Boomers and Millennials. Growing up in a time of turmoil where you aren't praised all that much by older generations? Yeah, I can easily imagine that. Coming of age pessimistic, cynical, and lonely because of your childhood? Super understandable. Squished between 2 enormously huge generations with immense power and and influence? Oh god, I can see that happening to me. I feel that.
Obviously no generation is better than the other, but Gen Xers seem fascinating and special to me in a way Boomers and Millennials aren't. I don't get either of them as much because I simply find it harder to relate to them. They're a motr extroverted, more ambitious, and more focused generation. I also can't imagine growing up in a time when children didn't have to worry about the outside world as much as now. And I can't imagine the media focusing on me as much as it focuses on them, if that makes sense. I think Boomers and Millennials are 2 sides of the same coin, like with Xers with my generation. I can't be the only one that feels this way, right?
I think the whole "Gen Z" thing became huge because the media wants to find more to say about Millennials, so it groups the tail-end ones into another group and focuses on them. I suspect by the end of the decade, late Millennials will still be talked about a ton compared to up-and-coming Homelanders/Quarantines, who would make up the majority of new actors and singers by then, maybe. And then there will be a baby boom and you can fill in the blanks.
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"I take it you are a so called millennial? If you are a millennial, it makes perfect sense to me that you wouldn’t “get” the Silent generation. I personally completely do not “get” or like the Boomers, and although I share the same level of tech-usage and similar cultural things with millennials (electronic based music, videogames, Internet, social media hey I was on Friendster and Napster before it was cool) that didn’t exist in previous generations (I’m in the younger half of gen x) I also have a hard time relating to millennials although I do generally like them ok (kind of like having loud, obnoxious, attention seeking, bratty younger siblings who you can’t help but love even though they’re spoiled and annoying).
"I do, however, completely “get” the Silent generation and relate to them very easily on a generational level. Gen X and Silents are both tiny, introverted generations sandwiched between huge, iconic, extroverted, pushy generations. Silents were overshadowed by the big, dominant WWII GI generation that came before and the big, loud, obnoxious, dominant Boomer generation after. About 45 million Silents were born versus 75 million Boomers. Gen X is also about 45 million born (and 20 million aborted after Rowe V) stuck between the 75 million Boomers before and the 80 million millennials after.
"There has never been a Silent generation president – it was GI gen right through the first Bush, then to Clinton a Boomer and all Boomers since (I know Strauss & Howe tweak the end date of Boomers back a bit from 1946-1964 dates. They count Obama as a barely gen Xer, but clearly he behaves as an idealistic Boomer and was born before 1965). We are about to have another Boomer president now (Clinton or Trump) and yeah Cruz the Gen Xer and Bernie the Silent are giving it a try, but good luck with that guys, the Boomers won’t give up their powerful demographic majority until they’re all dead and it will skip directly to the millennials. The Silents just never got their turn as a demographic focus or in power. Neither will gen X.
"The Silents fought Korea by themselves and most of Vietnam, but you only hear about WWII and then skip straight to Vietnam as a totally Boomer war (the oldest boomers born in 1946 were 15 years old when the first American troops went to Vietnam, and the youngest boomers weren’t born for 3 more years. I know older boomers got hit with the draft, but come on no one mentions the Silents – talk about revisionist history). Also THANK YOU for pointing out it was Silents who should get credit for civil rights movement. Again, I guess the Boomers watched it on TV as kids and thought they were there, but seriously how many of their moms were letting them skip elementary and middle school to freedom ride buses and march with MLK? In 1969 the boomers were between 5-23 years old, so again some older ones participated but it wasn’t boomers primarily. But talk about civil rights today and somehow boomers come up like they made the movement happen! This is like Clinton (boomer) versus Sanders (silent) today – Clinton who was a Goldwater Girl in 1964 is somehow winning the black vote and endorsements for being pro civil rights? And yet Bernie actually WAS THERE marching with MLK and getting arrested protesting, and everyone just denies he did anything for civil rights until there is photographic and video evidence? And even then they try to say the photos aren’t him, and support Clinton the boomer civil rights champion? Also, Boomers and their endless self-congratulatory talk about the music of their generation – they name all kinds of greats from the 60s-70s, all that Woodstock, Bob Dylan, Beatles, Rolling Stones type stuff.. Who are all Silent generation musicians! The boomers only consumed that era of music, they didn’t make it – music Boomers made was Disco and Madonna and Michael Jackson. Those are Boomer musicians.
"As a Gen Xer I get it completely. We are between 33-51 years old and should be the dominant adult generation – but we’re not. It’s the oldest congress in U.S. History, boomers will never pass the reigns. Same in corporations, institutions. Our turn is being skipped. But whatever, we were neglected latchkey kids called slackers and losers, when actually we had way lower youth crime & abortion rates, and far higher rates of graduating from college than the boomers did. Everything has been boomer, boomer, boomer since before I was born almost 40 years ago. It was refreshing when I first started hearing millennial, millennial, millennial about 10 years ago. Talk about the mid-east wars? Millennials come up, it’s the millennials’ war. Well, ok – gen x fought the original dessert storm when you guys were in diapers and when 9/11 happened gen x was ages 18-36 which is the majority of the military. I know the wars dragged out so long millennials got dragged in, but like the Silents GenX will not be heralded for their military service. Also I hear all about Millennials with tech and social media – have to laugh, because we were on Napster and Friendster and MySpace, and hell AOL way back in the day before your stuff like Instagram and snapchat and Facebook existed. Gen xers made Google, most of the early social networks and file sharing stuff, apps, etc. you’re welcome. And yes, we were the first gamers and the first to have consoles (nothing will ever beat N64). And we were the first generation to embrace electronic music as our main form of pop (gen x invented rap, hip hop, techno). All your millennial dub step etc. Yawn. We were raving to techno in the late 80s and early 90s. And the millennial snarky hipsters… Ok, we invented snark and subversive cultural things like South Park which hates and makes fun of absolutely everything. We just aren’t so pretentious, or self-promoting. We are ok with being pragmatic, and influencing through art and social commentary rather than having social or demographic power, we can fade into the background. I like millennial culture much more than boomer culture, because it is "derivative of Gen X innovations – like boomer culture was derivative of Silent gen innovations. I get the Silents, I really do.
"But I like you guys (millennials) and feel you have something we gen xers don’t, which is a certain dose of optimism & can-do-it beliefs in yourselves that I find charming. Gen x is pessimistic and resigned ourselves to sarcasm and cynicism long ago. I hope millennials live up to their hype! The boomers are rotting sacks of flesh, and honestly the sooner their cultural influence fizzles out the better. I hope you go get it, kids, make this world a better place."
---
Despite reactives and adaptive pretty much being polar opposites in terms of traits, I will admit, Gen Xers are way easier to understand and connect with than Boomers and Millennials. Growing up in a time of turmoil where you aren't praised all that much by older generations? Yeah, I can easily imagine that. Coming of age pessimistic, cynical, and lonely because of your childhood? Super understandable. Squished between 2 enormously huge generations with immense power and and influence? Oh god, I can see that happening to me. I feel that.
Obviously no generation is better than the other, but Gen Xers seem fascinating and special to me in a way Boomers and Millennials aren't. I don't get either of them as much because I simply find it harder to relate to them. They're a motr extroverted, more ambitious, and more focused generation. I also can't imagine growing up in a time when children didn't have to worry about the outside world as much as now. And I can't imagine the media focusing on me as much as it focuses on them, if that makes sense. I think Boomers and Millennials are 2 sides of the same coin, like with Xers with my generation. I can't be the only one that feels this way, right?
I think the whole "Gen Z" thing became huge because the media wants to find more to say about Millennials, so it groups the tail-end ones into another group and focuses on them. I suspect by the end of the decade, late Millennials will still be talked about a ton compared to up-and-coming Homelanders/Quarantines, who would make up the majority of new actors and singers by then, maybe. And then there will be a baby boom and you can fill in the blanks.
