Why We’re Not Talking About Your Generation

Photo by Kaboompics.com

In 1983 I turned twenty-one years of age, and my mother took me to a local Casino so that I could have a look at a hefty gold bar that was on display. We didn’t even have to go into the actual casino floor because the gold was in the lobby. But the security guard wouldn’t let me in.

He blocked the way and mumbled something like, “She’s too young, only eighteen and older are allowed in.” Well, Mum drew herself up to her full height and said majestically, “I’ll have you know she’s nearly twenty-one years old.”

The gob-smacked guard let us in! I felt that I must look a lot younger than my age, and it stayed that way for decades. It wasn’t until I was in my late forties that people stopped saying to me “you look younger than your age.”

But I, declared a “Baby Boomer” by the analysts, didn’t like being constantly asked for identification and being overlooked because people thought that I was half my age.

On top of this, I started to hear about the division of people into “generations,” with some amazing stereotypes. Baby Boomer or not today in 2025, I have remained essentially “me.”

The term “generation” refers to an artificial construction that results from combining multiple birth cohorts together.

Do we really need to generalize and pit generation against generation, especially egoistically, in terms of which one is better at what?

People generalize generations for several reasons, as follows, despite the diversity within each group:

• Cultural Trends: Generational labels help identify and discuss shared cultural experiences, values, and behaviors influenced by significant historical events, technological advancements, and social changes that shape a generation’s worldview.

• Marketing and Research: Businesses and researchers use generational categories to analyze consumer behavior, preferences, and trends. This helps them tailor products and services to specific demographic groups.

• Sociological Analysis: Social scientists study generational characteristics to understand shifts in attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors over time. This can reveal patterns related to economic conditions, education, and social norms.

• Identity and Community: Generational labels can foster a sense of identity and community among individuals who share similar experiences and challenges, helping them connect with others who have navigated similar life stages.

• Simplification: Generalizing can simplify complex social dynamics. While it doesn’t capture every individual’s experience, it provides a framework for discussing broad trends and issues affecting a large group.

While these generalizations can be useful, they can also lead to stereotypes and oversimplifications.

It’s important to recognize the diversity within each generation and not assume that all individuals within a cohort share the same views or experiences.

Talking about me

I grew up in Australia in the seventies and eighties. I was a strong part of the peace movement and I engaged in a lot of voluntary work for Community Aid Abroad, environmental, and other organisations.

The burgeoning use of computers was a source of great satisfaction for me. I started my own blogs on animals, anti-ticket scalping, and other issues.

Born in the sixties, I was privy to the early online bulletin systems and discussion boards or forums, using dial-up connections. I saw the change from floppy discs to CD drives and digital products.

I was one of those who used TT25 and other transactional forms for online data entry. Windows 1.0, released in 1985 replaced using programmable function or PF keys. I still remember my work colleagues worrying over the introduction of a new system. But I embraced it with enthusiasm for change and for learning new software.

Ask me what generation I’m from, and I will tell you the above. I am internet or online savvy, even if I was born in 1963.

And I can report that, like some Gen Ys, I love my mobile phone and am glued to it. You’ll see me panicking if my phone and I are separated for more than a few minutes!

Talk about people

There are billions of people in this world. If you are curious about the effects of outer world events upon someone’s life, ask someone what decade or what year they were born in. And ask them how events at the time they grew up and matured affected them personally.

Don’t guess what generation they are supposedly from or ask what generation they’re from. They may not even know. It’s bad form to brand or label someone as a member of a certain generation just from what they look like or from hearing a bit about them.

Talk about people, not about generations!

Okay, Boomer

“OK Boomer” is a phrase used to dismiss or mock older people in response to their perceived out-of-touch beliefs. It is sometimes used by younger generations, such as Millennials and Gen Z-ers. It is often used humorously or sarcastically but is still offensive to many “Baby Boomers.”

The phrase gained popularity in 2019 and became widely used on social media platforms, such as TikTok and Twitter. The exact origin of the phrase is not clear, but it appears to have spread in reaction to a a viral audio clip on TikTok.

If I want to counteract or debate a perspective that I disagree with, I try to do so while being polite and not disparaging or disrespectful. The trouble with the phrase, “OK Boomer,” is that it is sometimes wrongly used or misused.

If you want to gratefully acknowledge someone, there’s no need to add the label for their supposed generation.

Of course, not all Millennials and Generation Z-ers use “OK boomer.” But if I were an outraged, wounded “Baby Boomer,” I could huff and puff and say, “It’s just like Gen Z who have got things easy, to mock and disrespect their elders.”

And this would pull me into a war with those born from 1997 to 2010, about who’s better or more valued than the other.

However, I think that many in the Generation Z cohort don’t have things easy at all. We can’t assume that people in the more recent generations have it easy just because technology has changed.

We are all gifts to each other in the present, which is really all there is.

Pride in being oneself

I don’t like to call myself a “Baby Boomer” because I don’t pride myself on being born between 1946 and 1964 and I don’t label people.

How can you have pride in being born in a certain year when it’s out of your control when you were born?

I don’t feel pride in being “a harbinger of social justice,” or “a bridge between analogue and digital technology”, the latter which has been espoused as the prerogative of the Generation X cohort, and overlaps the Baby Boomer group.

Labeling people as belonging to a “generation” is a very crude way of trying to understand cross sections of populations by means of segregation by fairly arbitrary age ranges.

Ascribing certain characteristics or achievements to people simply because of the year they were born in can be misleading, even damaging.

With labels like “Generation X” or “Millennial” or “Baby Boomer,” come emotional attachments, insults, arguments, assumptions, expectations, accusations, and nuances that are not helpful.

Being called a “Millennial Snowflake” is just as hurtful as someone disparagingly saying “Okay Boomer” to an older person.

For the reasons of sovereignty over oneself and that there are negative impacts of generationalism, we need not be talking about my or your generation. When learning how to work and live together well, we are called to look at every person as an individual.

Let’s talk about being human instead.

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By Grace Hanna - all rights reserved. No part of this post or the whole of this post can be reproduced or broadcast without permission of the author. Your Likes and Comments will help my articles be more visible, thank you!