4 ms·

First, we get articles blaming Millennials for things. Then, as people start to push back (prior to this article), we have off-hand mentions that every generat

First, we get articles blaming Millennials for things. Then, as people start to push back (prior to this article), we have off-hand mentions that every generation blames the younger/older generation. But is this really equivalent? My (limited) understanding is that the Boomers were themselves quite exceptional - we're in the longest era of global-level peace, the Boomers themselves WERE a "boom" of population, the extended middle class of the 50s was an anomaly, etc. Add to this that Millennials face new issues in ways that other generations haven't: climate change is literally a sea-level change, education is more costly, communication is more global, and of course, for the US and many other countries, the next generation that will support them is much smaller rather than larger. Certainly there are parallels to previous generational conflicts, but I don't see a reason to shrug this off as just normal. I'm GenX, and the articles when I was hitting the workforce were dismissive and condescending, but in a "aw, they're young and naive" as opposed to "they are failures as human beings" that I read in a lot of the Millennial coverage. Does anyone know of studies into whether this IS just normal inter-generational gripes?

FiveSquared 8y ago
Alination by technolgy and a massive cluture chabnge. Show dank memes to a 30 something parent and watch them react.
notStoicEnough 8y ago
I suspect that it's "normal intergenerational gripes" except amplified by our modern super inflammatory media... It seems like every generation can be viewed as heroic or decadent, depending on which lens you use - the Boomers lived through the Civil Rights mivement, stagflation and the end of the Cold War, but then the hippies ran up enormous debts and turned into greedy 80's business men. Their parents (the "Greatest Generation") survived the Great Depression and turned the US into an economic powerhouse for WW2, but also were horrifically racist and sexist by modern standards. Now Millenials are shifting to this modern world where you need to be hyper educated to get a job, they've been somewhat helicopter-parented (so they have all the anti-fragile problems) but on the other hand they tend to save more, they're better educated and more culturally sensitive...
- ergothus 8y ago
  I appreciate the response, but this is exactly the viewpoint I'm trying to evaluate. Yes, every generation has good/bad. That in no way means that each generational conflict is roughly equivalent. I mean, I don't think MY generation faced this level of hostility and blame from the older generations, so at least one example is subjectively/anecdotally different. But ultimately, anecdotes != data. I want data.
  - WorldMaker 8y ago
    I remember the 90s when GenX could do no right and worse things were blamed on GenX than Millenials have had to deal with.
    - ergothus 8y ago
      Those are not my recollections. Yes, we GenXers had "oh, what will we do with them" articles, but the tone and acrimony were different, and faded quickly once GenXers hit 30, whereas the Millenials are definitely into their 30s and the tone is only getting more bitter, not less. YMMV, of course.
WorldMaker 8y ago
The whole generations thing was made up by the Boomers in ad agencies trying to sell more products through demographic targeting. Just as many other Boomers were fascinated by astrology/horoscopes and "Ages", they latched on to a lot of weird pseudo-science that stuck and says a lot more about them anything else. They venerated their parents and placed them on a pedestal "The Greatest Generation". They hated a lot of their earliest kids, "GenX". They doted and spoiled their later kids and early grandkids, "Millennial", then decided it was fun to blame them for how much they were doted upon/spoiled. Boomers aren't even that special in that way that they've named themselves the "Baby Boomers", sure they were a massive population boom following a couple huge wars, but demographically speaking they mostly just put the planet back into the usual Malthusian cycle. There are more GenX and Millennials than Baby Boomers, because human birthrates trend towards the exponential. The Boomers aren't some big peak in the graph of human birthrates versus deathrates, they are a rise back towards "normalcy" after a giant trough. The next generations that are supporting the Baby Boomers as they head into retirement and senescence aren't much "smaller", they are just less equipped, due to erosions in social contracts that the Boomers inherited, and overall a larger trend back towards greed than their parents. (In those cases, they are largely right that their parents were better them in general.) (Also, the Boomers have been aware of climate change since the 70s. Yet another thing they've left to their kids and grandkids rather than tackle themselves.)
- adwn 8y ago
  > The whole generations thing was made up by the Boomers in ad agencies trying to sell more products through demographic targeting. Just as many other Boomers were fascinated by astrology/horoscopes and "Ages", they latched on to a lot of weird pseudo-science that stuck and says a lot more about them anything else. And yet you're making copious use of those labels and assign traits and actions to the subsets of people labeled thus. So what is it now – made-up or real?
  - WorldMaker 8y ago
    Still made up. Broad swath generalizations remain broad swath generalizations. I can't claim to great satire in the writing above, but certainly there is an intentional frisson of irony.
dragonwriter 8y ago
> My (limited) understanding is that the Boomers were themselves quite exceptional - we're in the longest era of global-level peace What does “global level peace” mean? > the Boomers themselves WERE a "boom" of population, True, but that hardly makes them exceptional. > the extended middle class of the 50s was an anomaly But, again, not one that makes the Boomers, who had nothing to do with cresting that, exceptional.
- ergothus 8y ago
  > What does “global level peace” mean? I've often read that we're at an extended level of peace between major powers that is basically unprecedented. While we still have too much violent conflict all over the place, it's nonetheless _different_ from previous eras. That said, I'm not a student of history. > True, but that hardly makes them exceptional. (RE: boomers and population) Not exceptional in the sense of being special, but yes, exceptional in the sense that the economic burdens of previous generations are easier to shoulder when each person has less to shoulder per capita. Ditto my statement about the extended middle class - I'm not saying Boomers are special people who did things differently, I'm saying their opportunities and perspectives are not representational of previous generations, so their interactions with other generations (past and future) may not be either. Exceptional in the sense of "being an exception", not in the sense of "being an exception through virtue"

FiveSquared 8y ago

Alination by technolgy and a massive cluture chabnge. Show dank memes to a 30 something parent and watch them react.

notStoicEnough 8y ago

I suspect that it's "normal intergenerational gripes" except amplified by our modern super inflammatory media... It seems like every generation can be viewed as heroic or decadent, depending on which lens you use - the Boomers lived through the Civil Rights mivement, stagflation and the end of the Cold War, but then the hippies ran up enormous debts and turned into greedy 80's business men. Their parents (the "Greatest Generation") survived the Great Depression and turned the US into an economic powerhouse for WW2, but also were horrifically racist and sexist by modern standards. Now Millenials are shifting to this modern world where you need to be hyper educated to get a job, they've been somewhat helicopter-parented (so they have all the anti-fragile problems) but on the other hand they tend to save more, they're better educated and more culturally sensitive...

ergothus 8y ago
I appreciate the response, but this is exactly the viewpoint I'm trying to evaluate. Yes, every generation has good/bad. That in no way means that each generational conflict is roughly equivalent. I mean, I don't think MY generation faced this level of hostility and blame from the older generations, so at least one example is subjectively/anecdotally different. But ultimately, anecdotes != data. I want data.
- WorldMaker 8y ago
  I remember the 90s when GenX could do no right and worse things were blamed on GenX than Millenials have had to deal with.
  - ergothus 8y ago
    Those are not my recollections. Yes, we GenXers had "oh, what will we do with them" articles, but the tone and acrimony were different, and faded quickly once GenXers hit 30, whereas the Millenials are definitely into their 30s and the tone is only getting more bitter, not less. YMMV, of course.

WorldMaker 8y ago

The whole generations thing was made up by the Boomers in ad agencies trying to sell more products through demographic targeting. Just as many other Boomers were fascinated by astrology/horoscopes and "Ages", they latched on to a lot of weird pseudo-science that stuck and says a lot more about them anything else. They venerated their parents and placed them on a pedestal "The Greatest Generation". They hated a lot of their earliest kids, "GenX". They doted and spoiled their later kids and early grandkids, "Millennial", then decided it was fun to blame them for how much they were doted upon/spoiled. Boomers aren't even that special in that way that they've named themselves the "Baby Boomers", sure they were a massive population boom following a couple huge wars, but demographically speaking they mostly just put the planet back into the usual Malthusian cycle. There are more GenX and Millennials than Baby Boomers, because human birthrates trend towards the exponential. The Boomers aren't some big peak in the graph of human birthrates versus deathrates, they are a rise back towards "normalcy" after a giant trough. The next generations that are supporting the Baby Boomers as they head into retirement and senescence aren't much "smaller", they are just less equipped, due to erosions in social contracts that the Boomers inherited, and overall a larger trend back towards greed than their parents. (In those cases, they are largely right that their parents were better them in general.) (Also, the Boomers have been aware of climate change since the 70s. Yet another thing they've left to their kids and grandkids rather than tackle themselves.)

adwn 8y ago
> The whole generations thing was made up by the Boomers in ad agencies trying to sell more products through demographic targeting. Just as many other Boomers were fascinated by astrology/horoscopes and "Ages", they latched on to a lot of weird pseudo-science that stuck and says a lot more about them anything else. And yet you're making copious use of those labels and assign traits and actions to the subsets of people labeled thus. So what is it now – made-up or real?
- WorldMaker 8y ago
  Still made up. Broad swath generalizations remain broad swath generalizations. I can't claim to great satire in the writing above, but certainly there is an intentional frisson of irony.

dragonwriter 8y ago

> My (limited) understanding is that the Boomers were themselves quite exceptional - we're in the longest era of global-level peace What does “global level peace” mean? > the Boomers themselves WERE a "boom" of population, True, but that hardly makes them exceptional. > the extended middle class of the 50s was an anomaly But, again, not one that makes the Boomers, who had nothing to do with cresting that, exceptional.

ergothus 8y ago
> What does “global level peace” mean? I've often read that we're at an extended level of peace between major powers that is basically unprecedented. While we still have too much violent conflict all over the place, it's nonetheless _different_ from previous eras. That said, I'm not a student of history. > True, but that hardly makes them exceptional. (RE: boomers and population) Not exceptional in the sense of being special, but yes, exceptional in the sense that the economic burdens of previous generations are easier to shoulder when each person has less to shoulder per capita. Ditto my statement about the extended middle class - I'm not saying Boomers are special people who did things differently, I'm saying their opportunities and perspectives are not representational of previous generations, so their interactions with other generations (past and future) may not be either. Exceptional in the sense of "being an exception", not in the sense of "being an exception through virtue"