7 ms·

That's pretty typical, because the "generational" stereotypes are nearly entirely nonsense. What percentage of "Generation X" actually went around wearing flann

That's pretty typical, because the "generational" stereotypes are nearly entirely nonsense. What percentage of "Generation X" actually went around wearing flannel and rolling their eyes all day? How many Boomers actually wore tie dye every day, smoked pot, and lived in free love communes? Generational characterizations exist solely to sell books, write silly columns, and make older people feel justified when they dismiss and disrespect the younger people.

asveikau 7y ago
> and make older people feel justified I think it's mostly this. Let's not forget though that the generational dismissal sometimes happens in both directions, eg. those tie-dyed boomers cut their hair and voted for Reagan, now they sit around and complain about the young types for not affording a home, unaware of how easy they had it and their role in wrecking the system. (These are a few of the stereotypes anyway.)
- m0zg 7y ago
  It cuts both ways. When I was younger (I'm in my 40s now) I did plenty of my own complaining. It's pretty natural for younger people to be poorer: they had less time to accumulate wealth. It's also pretty natural for generations to complain about each other. Other people pretty much universally see 20-somethings as total shitheads, because that's what they mostly are. I say this with full understanding that I too was a shithead in my 20's, and I'm still a shithead to an older, wiser person.
caprese 7y ago
"hey look how prideful I am in being out of touch!" Senators feel the same way when they brag about never having sent an email
rjf72 7y ago
Stereotypes in general exist because a 'sufficiently large' percent of a population abide them. What sufficiently large means is not easy to define, but it's not like they're completely arbitrary. Look at one important thing you're doing, perhaps not consciously, in your comment. You chose to focus on physical expressions (wearing flannel, wearing tie dye, smoking pot, etc) as opposed to ideological views or values and characteristics. Reality can often get in the way of expression so by referencing it alone you substantially undercount 'adherents.' For instance one of the stereotypes of millennials is extreme narcissism, but this doesn't necessarily manifest in everybody having some social media account where they endlessly post selfies of themselves. Though, at least in this case, the number engaged in that behavior alone probably justifies the stereotype. And by contrast boomers were most well known for, in general, a rejection of traditional views and values. The success of the civil rights movement alone testifies to the widespread nature of this change in the zeitgeist. Really though you can perhaps see this even more clearly by looking how much the US changes its zeitgeist just about every 20 years: - Roaring 20s - Warring 40s - Peace and Love 60s - Corporate 80s - Identity Politic 2000s - ?? 2020s Of course there are many exceptions to these sort of characterizations - but that's what stereotypes tend to be: things that hold true, for a 'sufficiently large' chunk of a population. That of course does not preclude many people not abiding the stereotypes.
- CPLX 7y ago
  > one of the stereotypes of millennials is extreme narcissism... And by contrast boomers were most well known for... You gotta be kidding. Narcissism was the defining characteristic of Boomers and still is. They can’t stop taking about a music festival 50 years later for god sakes, there are literal museums[0] devoted to their nostalgic youth fashion and lifestyle choices. And don’t get me started on their “everything has to stay the way it was when I had a young family” approach to urban planning. [0] https://www.bethelwoodscenter.org/the-museum https://www.bethelwoodscenter.org/the-museum
paganel 7y ago
> What percentage of "Generation X" actually went around wearing flannel and rolling their eyes all day I was born in 1980 so I’m not sure I’m gen-X-er (I’m pretty sure I’m not a millennial) but I’d say that for my generation wearing a checkered shirt at some point in their youth/adolescence was a rite of passage.
- berbec 7y ago
  I recall two flannel phases in my (1979) life - grunge and hipster
- jobigoud 7y ago
  > I was born in 1980 so I’m not sure I’m gen-X-er (I’m pretty sure I’m not a millennial) So there is the "Xennials" micro-generation, so we can be a little bit of both :-)
orthoxerox 7y ago
> How many Boomers actually wore tie dye every day, smoked pot, and lived in free love communes? I thought they hung out at burger joints and necked in large finned cars in drive-in theaters. (Think Grease, Back to the Future and Happy Days). Or is that the silent generation?
- dmurray 7y ago
  All those were set in the 50s, the boomers were born after the war in 1945 at the earliest (this one is fairly well delineated, compared to the other generations). So that's a previous generation.
  - orthoxerox 7y ago
    Who are the most well-known boomer characters in the media? John Rambo and the cast of FMJ?
    - dmurray 7y ago
      You might have a different taste in media from the American public, but it's surely Oprah and Trump. For fictional characters, maybe the cast of Cheers? Or Seinfeld?
      - orthoxerox 7y ago
        Seinfeld is a boomer?! Holy crap, he is 64 years old, I thought he was an early Xer.
bonoboTP 7y ago
It's an American thing. Many countries don't have such named generations and corresponding stereotypes. I'm Hungarian and we do have "old people" stereotypes but no named list of generations. When I hear this Gen X etc stuff from the US, it feels a bit like horoscopes...
- StavrosK 7y ago
  As a non-American, I'll second this. We do have older people talking about how promiscuous the new generation is (for any age "older people" and "new generation"), but that's about it. There's no generation labeling, and it does feel a lot like horoscopes.
- Izkata 7y ago
  For the recent generations, with some limited exceptions, it pretty much is. The early named ones were based around major social/economic issues that influenced them as they grew up - WWI, Great Depression, WWII - and then Baby Boomers created a sort of wave pattern in the population that made for easy groupings into the future. That wave pattern has since become much flatter, if not disappeared completely, but the idea is pretty appealing so it persists. You will occasionally see it start to break down though, for example with "Millennial" being split into young and old.
  - adrianratnapala 7y ago
    But then it would be surprising if the emergence of a new medium for everyday social interaction doesn't count as "major social/economic issue" that creates just such a wave. So yes, I'd expect the "millenials" to be different. I agree with you though that "Gen X" etc. are just a smooth and unremarkable cultural evolution from what began with "Boomer" parents.
  - lenocinor 7y ago
    I used to be able to roughly group American pop music trends by decade. It was never perfect (the '60s and '70s weren't THAT different from each other, compared to all the other decades) but it was useful. In the 2000s and 2010s it really seems to have broken down though, which is evidence for your theory.
CPLX 7y ago
> What percentage of "Generation X" actually went around wearing flannel and rolling their eyes all day? Um, basically all of us?
samatman 7y ago
Heck I’m wearing flannel right now Here, have an eye roll ;-) and get off the lawn i don’t have because the Boomers are hogging all the housing...

asveikau 7y ago

> and make older people feel justified I think it's mostly this. Let's not forget though that the generational dismissal sometimes happens in both directions, eg. those tie-dyed boomers cut their hair and voted for Reagan, now they sit around and complain about the young types for not affording a home, unaware of how easy they had it and their role in wrecking the system. (These are a few of the stereotypes anyway.)

m0zg 7y ago
It cuts both ways. When I was younger (I'm in my 40s now) I did plenty of my own complaining. It's pretty natural for younger people to be poorer: they had less time to accumulate wealth. It's also pretty natural for generations to complain about each other. Other people pretty much universally see 20-somethings as total shitheads, because that's what they mostly are. I say this with full understanding that I too was a shithead in my 20's, and I'm still a shithead to an older, wiser person.

caprese 7y ago

"hey look how prideful I am in being out of touch!" Senators feel the same way when they brag about never having sent an email

rjf72 7y ago

Stereotypes in general exist because a 'sufficiently large' percent of a population abide them. What sufficiently large means is not easy to define, but it's not like they're completely arbitrary. Look at one important thing you're doing, perhaps not consciously, in your comment. You chose to focus on physical expressions (wearing flannel, wearing tie dye, smoking pot, etc) as opposed to ideological views or values and characteristics. Reality can often get in the way of expression so by referencing it alone you substantially undercount 'adherents.' For instance one of the stereotypes of millennials is extreme narcissism, but this doesn't necessarily manifest in everybody having some social media account where they endlessly post selfies of themselves. Though, at least in this case, the number engaged in that behavior alone probably justifies the stereotype. And by contrast boomers were most well known for, in general, a rejection of traditional views and values. The success of the civil rights movement alone testifies to the widespread nature of this change in the zeitgeist. Really though you can perhaps see this even more clearly by looking how much the US changes its zeitgeist just about every 20 years: - Roaring 20s - Warring 40s - Peace and Love 60s - Corporate 80s - Identity Politic 2000s - ?? 2020s Of course there are many exceptions to these sort of characterizations - but that's what stereotypes tend to be: things that hold true, for a 'sufficiently large' chunk of a population. That of course does not preclude many people not abiding the stereotypes.

CPLX 7y ago
> one of the stereotypes of millennials is extreme narcissism... And by contrast boomers were most well known for... You gotta be kidding. Narcissism was the defining characteristic of Boomers and still is. They can’t stop taking about a music festival 50 years later for god sakes, there are literal museums[0] devoted to their nostalgic youth fashion and lifestyle choices. And don’t get me started on their “everything has to stay the way it was when I had a young family” approach to urban planning. [0] https://www.bethelwoodscenter.org/the-museum https://www.bethelwoodscenter.org/the-museum

paganel 7y ago

> What percentage of "Generation X" actually went around wearing flannel and rolling their eyes all day I was born in 1980 so I’m not sure I’m gen-X-er (I’m pretty sure I’m not a millennial) but I’d say that for my generation wearing a checkered shirt at some point in their youth/adolescence was a rite of passage.

berbec 7y ago
I recall two flannel phases in my (1979) life - grunge and hipster
jobigoud 7y ago
> I was born in 1980 so I’m not sure I’m gen-X-er (I’m pretty sure I’m not a millennial) So there is the "Xennials" micro-generation, so we can be a little bit of both :-)

orthoxerox 7y ago

> How many Boomers actually wore tie dye every day, smoked pot, and lived in free love communes? I thought they hung out at burger joints and necked in large finned cars in drive-in theaters. (Think Grease, Back to the Future and Happy Days). Or is that the silent generation?

dmurray 7y ago
All those were set in the 50s, the boomers were born after the war in 1945 at the earliest (this one is fairly well delineated, compared to the other generations). So that's a previous generation.
- orthoxerox 7y ago
  Who are the most well-known boomer characters in the media? John Rambo and the cast of FMJ?
  - dmurray 7y ago
    You might have a different taste in media from the American public, but it's surely Oprah and Trump. For fictional characters, maybe the cast of Cheers? Or Seinfeld?
    - orthoxerox 7y ago
      Seinfeld is a boomer?! Holy crap, he is 64 years old, I thought he was an early Xer.

bonoboTP 7y ago

It's an American thing. Many countries don't have such named generations and corresponding stereotypes. I'm Hungarian and we do have "old people" stereotypes but no named list of generations. When I hear this Gen X etc stuff from the US, it feels a bit like horoscopes...

StavrosK 7y ago
As a non-American, I'll second this. We do have older people talking about how promiscuous the new generation is (for any age "older people" and "new generation"), but that's about it. There's no generation labeling, and it does feel a lot like horoscopes.
Izkata 7y ago
For the recent generations, with some limited exceptions, it pretty much is. The early named ones were based around major social/economic issues that influenced them as they grew up - WWI, Great Depression, WWII - and then Baby Boomers created a sort of wave pattern in the population that made for easy groupings into the future. That wave pattern has since become much flatter, if not disappeared completely, but the idea is pretty appealing so it persists. You will occasionally see it start to break down though, for example with "Millennial" being split into young and old.
- adrianratnapala 7y ago
  But then it would be surprising if the emergence of a new medium for everyday social interaction doesn't count as "major social/economic issue" that creates just such a wave. So yes, I'd expect the "millenials" to be different. I agree with you though that "Gen X" etc. are just a smooth and unremarkable cultural evolution from what began with "Boomer" parents.
- lenocinor 7y ago
  I used to be able to roughly group American pop music trends by decade. It was never perfect (the '60s and '70s weren't THAT different from each other, compared to all the other decades) but it was useful. In the 2000s and 2010s it really seems to have broken down though, which is evidence for your theory.

CPLX 7y ago

> What percentage of "Generation X" actually went around wearing flannel and rolling their eyes all day? Um, basically all of us?

samatman 7y ago

Heck I’m wearing flannel right now Here, have an eye roll ;-) and get off the lawn i don’t have because the Boomers are hogging all the housing...