Is there really such a thing as the “Millennial Generation”?
There is something peculiarly American in the obsessive need to label generations. This trend began with the decidedly unscientific boom in generational theories of the 50’s and 60’s, culminating in the Strauss-Howe generational theory. These ideas have been taken up by marketers, eager to capitalize on creating a generational identity which can be commodified to sell products (“Pepsi Generation”). The phrase “Generation Gap”, coined by Madison Avenue ad executives, was used to sell cars and clothes, and the name stuck. However, in more traditional, family-oriented societies, the extended family and not the generational cohort are the standard social group, and it has been this way for years. People in those societies live happily together, enjoy the same culture, and grandma will happily dance with her grandkids to the same music.
What are the inherent flaws in generational theory? Well, for one, the cutoff dates are entirely arbitrary. The “boomer” generation was born during or after the world war two, and is cut off around 1964. This date is chosen because this is when the birth rates began to fall off. So that’s thirty years. But people who were born in 1965 or even the late 60’s sometimes identify as “boomers”.
The problem with this pseudo-scientific sociology is that you CANNOT determine when a generation ends or begins, because a woman could typically have children in her teens, 20’s, 30’s or even at 50. So two sisters born in 1950 and 1952 could have their children at 18 and 48, and the cousins (born in 1968 and 1990) would be part of the same generation, despite being 30 years apart in age . Meanwhile, the younger cousin could have a child at 16, the older cousin could have a child at 30, so that the third generation (born in 1984 and 2020) would be 36 years apart in age. Humans don’t all reproduce in similar ways, and with an increase in later fertility, dividing people into tidy little groups like this makes less and less sense. The traditional meaning of the word “generation”, meaning children of the same parents (all first cousins belonging to the same generation), has been perverted to mean everyone who was born within a certain period of time, with absurd results.
For example, people born to older parents (like mine, who were 39 and 51 at my birth) have children who are subject to what I refer to as “generational displacement”, a phenomenon in which they are reacting to a different generation than their generational cohort. While other kids had parents who listened to 50’s or 60’s music, and were liberal Baby Boomers, my parents were part of the Silent Generation, listened to old classical music, and had directly experienced World War Two. I was born 6 years after my sister, which means that she was a Baby Boomer and I was part of “Generation X”! Does it make sense for two sisters to belong to two generations?
Another problem with generational theory is that in some subcultures, postponing childhood is accepted, and women typically marry in their late 20’s or even 30’s. In other subcultures, teen motherhood is commonplace. The generations are much smaller in urban gang areas, for example. But generational theorists seem to overlook the complexity of intercultural and regional differences, because in doing so they could not write bestselling novels that convince you that you are a “Prophet” because of the year of your birth.
Generation X is probably the only generation named after a punk band (Billy Idol later became a solo singer). We were lambasted by the press at the time for being “apathetic, lazy, unpolitical and jaded”. Generation X was supposedly more conservative than the baby boomers. The punk rockers and alternative scene, quite big in the 80’s and including bands such as the Clash, Psychedelic Furs and Dead Kennedys, or the newly formed hip hop scene, were soundly ignored by the press, because that would contradict the edict that the Baby Boomers were the only generation that did something Important. Meanwhile, many of us listened to Classic Rock, lived like hippies, and were politically liberal, despite what the news media claimed.
Nowadays, there is complete hysteria about the so-called Millennial generation. Oh boy, here we go again. The same tired, moth-eaten cliches are dredged up out of the cellar: they are “lazy, spoiled, useless, ignorant”, and either too political or too apathetic, depending on who is talking.
The obsession with labeling people due to their age continues, along with the idiotic memes decrying “Millennials” or “Baby Boomers”. Now it gets even more illogical: memes about so-called “30-year-old boomers”.
Why are people so stupid they think there is such a thing as a “30-year-old boomer”? A 30-year-old in 2018 was born in 1988, and would not “play 80’s music”, but probably listen to 90’s music, as music of their youth. People who were teens in the 80’s are in their 50’s, not 30’s.
Doesn’t this prove that the concept of dividing people into arbitrary classifications based on their age is meaningless at best?
Birth date is arbitrary, like your eye color, skin color or birth place. It says something about your origins, but nothing about your human worth, the color of your soul, the meaning of your existence or your humanity. So let’s just focus on being human, not an age or number.