Generations

Veterans (1922-1945)

Are the parents of the Baby Boomers

  They are the silent and traditional

The “don’t speak unless you are spoken to” generation

Respect your elders and don’t questions them

Also known as the G.I Generation because they have fought and won WWI and II

Baby Boomers

(1946-1964) Today they would be around 60yrs of

age.

Were born after WWII, a time where there was a significant increase in the birthrate worldwide. This is because their parents grew up in a time of the threat of immediate destruction resulting in a desire to improve the standard of living and to avoid war.

They became known as hippies- valuing free love (sex), fine wine, great food –basically peace and love.

This is the generation that started the trend of parents becoming friends with their children.

The kids did not have to eat properly and they developed even worse exercise habits.

They believed that children should be free of restrictions and were capable of making adult decisions, therefore giving them more room to be creative and individuals.

In 1964 came the introduction of the birth control pill.

So 1965 was the end of the baby boom.(The pill was invented in Oct 15, 1951- but took a while to be introduced in America).

Generation X (1965-

1980)Children of the Baby Boomers

 

They are in their 30’s and 40’s

They were connected to pop culture of the 80’s (MTV and Hip-Hop- Michael Jackson!)

This generation saw the introduction of the home computer and later the internet.

The X refers to a group or category of people who wanted to not be a part of the social hierarchy status (which was about money and social climbing) - wanting to pull away from class, status and money in society.

They had very different values from their parents and new ideas about the way of doing things and communicating. They did not grow up in a time of a major war or and had relative economic stability, revealing a generation of teens who “sleep together before marriage, don’t believe in God, dislike the Queen and don’t respect their parents.”

ME Generation! They grew up in the “me generation”

of the 80’s (full of attitude, drug use, and divorce and now they are able to see that it is not all it was cracked up to be.

They underwent a selfish phase that they do not want to repeat, although this

Received a stereotypical label of frustrated and unmotivated slackers who wore grunge clothing, listened to alternative music and still love at home because they cannot get real jobs.

This group however, statistically holds the highest education levels when looking at an age group (According to the US Census Bureau of 2009).

Generations Y

(1981-2000) The grand children

of the Baby Boomers (AKA Miss. Gaugler)

Also known as the Echo Boomers, the Net Generation or Trophy Generation

This is the largest generation in American history.

They are 95 million strong compared to the 78 million Baby Boomers.

Usually judged by characteristics assigned to them by the media. Ex) Emo, Goth, Preppy, Princess

A consumerist and I generation due to the accessibility of electronic media

Projected to spend 23 years of their lives online (1/3 of their lives).

Known as “Trophy Kids”- reflecting the trend in competitive sports and other aspects of life where “no one loses” and everyone gets a “Thanks for Participating” trophy.

Although it may seem that this educated, technologically advanced, success-driven generation would be ideal workers--- corporate Human Resource departments are reporting the opposite.

Some employers are concerned that the members of this generation have too great of expectations from the workplace and want to shape their jobs to fit their lives rather than adapting their lives to the workplace.

Generation Z (2001-present)

The Millennium Generation

This generations is really yet to be

defined since it has just began.

• Also known as the text generation since they grew up with cell phones.

• They are the new silent generation because of their excessive internet and technological use that prohibits them from social contact or interaction. Ex) playing video games

They are young but active consumers since they have a high degree of influence over their parents’ purchasing decisions.

Are highly connected, having been born in a time of the use of media technologies to communicate, such as DVD’s, the internet, instant messaging, text messaging, MP3 players and cell phones.

• Are growing up in a world with widespread equality of the sexes at work and at home, where single-parent or same sex parent families are/ would be common place.

• Their lives will be full of structured activities

• With the children being exposed to an environment that is heavy on stimuli they might lack in interpersonal relationships and skills.

• This generations is really yet to be defined since it has just began.