To inspire our paper, we briefly observe the following five US generations (age cohorts): the ’greatest generation’, ‘baby boomers’, and generations ‘X’, ‘Y’, and ‘Z’. Each generation is understood to share common political, social, economic, and historic characteristics. Each generation presents a different set of needs and behaviors.
Classifying individuals into subgroups partitioned by year of birth (age cohorts) is a practice that has a long history of being used to simplify idiosyncrasies into broad similar experiences and characteristics (Biggs, 2007). Generation classification is generally meant to help individuals, institutions, and firms to better target and understand individual’s needs and behaviors. (We will use an understanding
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The greatest generation has experienced both the depravity of the Great Depression and the brute of each World War (passively or actively); their outlook and approach to life reflects their unique experiences. The Greatest can be recognized as an American coming of age generation. They helped rebuild America and redefined global industry. They generally have fatalistic outlooks, expect disappointment, posses shambolic morals, but desire faith and lite equality for women (Williams and Page, 2011). This generation pioneered the idea of the working mother (Williams and Page, 2011). Their consumption and investment behavior reflects their outlook and expectations. The Greatest Generation gave birth to the Baby Boomer …show more content…
They are children of baby boomers and as of last year have surpassed their parents as the most populous generation on the face of the earth. Individuals in generation Y are self-sufficient and are extremely wise for their age (Howe and Strauss, 2000). They are conditioned for fast-paced changes and expect diversity in their households, schools, work, and social environments (Williams and Page, 2011). Perhaps this is resultant of the fact they grew up in a constantly changing technological environment that has transparent global boundaries as a result of eased connectedness due to the Internet and the reduced cost of transportation.
Generally recognized within the commercial marketing space, eight key values have been accepted to describe Gen Y: choice, customization, scrutiny, integrity, collaboration, speed, entertainment, and innovation (Williams and Page, 2011).
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Since both authors can relate to both age groups, they have written this article to describe the reasons behind Gen Y’s characteristics and allow older generations a chance to understand their younger counterparts. The article is written not towards Gen Y but instead is written for their critics. Since the article allows readers inside the lives of Gen Y members, it is directed at people who do not already understand this generation and all it has to offer to the world. The authors’ knowledge of the criticisms that Gen Y faces allows them to portray their purpose to intended audiences. They do all of this while remaining mindful of older generations that work full time and live busy lives by breaking the article up with headings and subheadings that allow readers to read only sections at a
By 2025, about 75% of the American workforce will be made up of Generation Y workers, said Emily Matchar, author of “Why Your Office Needs More Bratty Millennials.” Generation Y, also known as millennials, are those who were born within the years 1982 and 1999. Time management has become a persistent issue for people in the United States because of the lack of flexibility in the workforce. Work is taking over people’s lives. The current generation of workers tend not to demand because of the fear of unemployment; jobs are scarce these days. Generation Y workers have shown that they will not accept today’s hierarchical workplace, on the contrary, they will begin to change the workplace to their likings.
Socrates, a famous Greek philosopher, once said, “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in the place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households . . .” (Has Child Behavior Worsened? 3). This quote often represents the logic that is passed from generation to generation. The generation that is most prominent today, the Millennials, is often compared to the other generations, as the Millennials were brought up with much more technological advances and thus behave differently. Some people may use this in a bad way, and others in a good way. Although multiple generations set the two generations apart, the Millennials can be considered
Rubin’s research shows that a lot can happen in just one generation. Much has been spoken lately of what Tom Brokaw has declared “The Greatest Generation;” those who fought in WWII. These Americans came back from the war, started families, and worked hard to achieve “The All American Dream.” But somewhere they must have missed something because this generation is the generation that produced the “pot smoking, free love hippies” who then produced the adults in Rubin’s study. What changed so much with a generation that was the epitome of hard work, discipline, and structure? Stephanie Coontz’s article, “What We Really Miss about the 1950’s” addresses that. The world between 1920-1950 is not what we think. There was a high murder rate, a substantial divorce rate, and “an older generation of neighbors or relatives who tried to tell them how to run their lives and raise their kids.” (Skolnick 33) It’s this sense that their children see the world so differently that’s so hard for working-class parents. “For it seems to say that now, along with ...
1) Common characteristics of “The Greatest Generation” that Brokaw mentioned are a sense of personal responsibility and a commitment to honesty. Among them, personal responsibility was the defining characteristic of the WWII generation. It is like endeavoring to get what a person wants or has to do, preserving what the person gets, and overcoming hardships if there’s any in the process. I think the current generation has less personal responsibility than the WWII generation. People tend to depend on their parents, other family members, or guardians, and easily give up; increasing suicide rates is an extreme example of giving up a life.
Workers are often pitted against each other in the work place as a form of competition. One division that is commonly seen is gender and race, but there is also a divide concerning age that isn’t discussed as frequently. Baby Boomers are those who was born between 1946-1964, when WWII soldiers came back home, settled down and started the “Baby Boom”. While Millennials are those born around 1981-2000, and have a similar population size as Baby Boomers. In the workplace, Millennials are categorized as being bad workers due to how they were raised in sheltered lifestyles and require a different environment than the previous generation, but that is not accurate. Even though the two generations view work different, sometimes to the point of conflict,
Every person belongs to a generation: you associate yourselves with a particular set of people usually based on age such as “Baby Boomers” from 1946 to 1964, “Generation X” from 1965 to 1979, and “Millennials” from 1980 to 2000, (Smola, 364). Parents’ generations differ from their children, and sometimes within their significant other. My parents, separated by two years, are both considered “Baby Boomers”, and my sister and I, also separated by two years are both considered “Millennials”. “Generation X” separates our generations, and as you can assume there are many differences between the two: “Baby Boomers” experienced the immense development of the economy and education (Kupperschmidt, 4).
Blaising, Craig A., Kenneth L. Gentry, and Robert B. Strimple. Three Views On the Millennial and Beyond. Counterpoints. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1999.
Baby Boomers are the most powerful demographic group in history. Businesses thrives or fails based on their ability to keep pace with the likes and dislikes of this economic powerhouse known as the baby boomers. At 76 million strong, boomers have the influence to rule the marketplace and make sure they keep a place set just for them as the
Generation X is a group of individuals that was born in the years of 1964-1980. This very interesting generation is a generation that is often forgotten. Reasoning being is because of how small this group is. During the time that this group of people was growing up their parents, the Baby Boomers were at large in the workplace. Layoffs were on the rise and the job market was very competitive. This led to one of the nicknames of this generation which is, “Latchkey Kids” (Zemke 2013). This term was instituted in order to define what was happening in the home of this generation. Due to their parents having to work hard in order to keep their jobs as well as food on the table, the children were often given keys in order to come home from school and take care of their siblings. Surely this type of parenting was not pleasant to either the parent or the child; however the money had to be made.
There are many generations in society such as Traditionalist, Baby Boomer, Generation X, Y, and Z. Generation Z is the youngest generation in the list. However, in any work place, Generation Y, which is known as an Echo Boomers or Millenniums, is the youngest. No one knows how it emerged, but it began in 1998 and ended in 2006. The people in this era were born between 1977 and 1994, which is my generation. In the United States, there are seventy one million Generation Y-ers, which takes up the largest part of population. Unlike other generations, Generation Y has very outstanding abilities and environments to success. Those abilities and characteristics are efficient in business and companies. Also, Generation Y’s remarkable characteristics affect their social lives a lot. The Generation Y is very family centric, and able to catch up the trends. Their general cultures are pop-music, iPods, social websites, like Facebook and Twitter, and anything that relates to technology. In principle, Generation Y-ers are optimistic, social, and have high self-esteem. Those characteristics bring many pros and cons to hire them. Pros are general mostly, but cons are not true mostly because of misconceptions.
There are many social problems plaguing the world, including the issue of aging inequality and elders. This social problem is significant because the baby boomers of the 1946-64s are now starting to be the youngest old. Our society is starting to, and needs to, change to accommodate the needs of the elderly. There are many different problems coming with this making people have many political viewpoints, theoretical perspectives, and solutions for this social problem. Baby boomers are a group of people that were born between the years of 1946 and 1964. Just nine months after WW II ended people were having babies at rates higher than ever before. In the year 1946 there were 3.4 million babies were born, nearly 20% more than the prior year. This
Everyone sees the future in a different way; some see greater technological advances while others might see a more peaceful mankind. This indecisiveness leads to the ongoing debate as to whether or not this generation, Generation Y, has a role in America’s future. Considering our teenagers and children are the adults of tomorrow, I would argue that, in fact, they do have an impact. Every new generation has a role in the future of our country, as they fill the gaps of other people that can’t work anymore or have passed away. It just becomes a matter of how we use this power to impact society. Although the generation is very capable of producing great leaders, politicians, and a hands-on community, we cannot predict how those will choose to fill the gaps.
The generation that I was born into can sometimes be easily misunderstood by those in earlier generations. The individuals in my generation get thrown many different labels such as those that Rosie Evans (n.d.) listed in her article, “Millennials, Generation Y, the Lost Generation, boomerang kids, the Peter Pan generation…” and more. This can impact us as a whole because some will begin to live by the labels, in some cases that can be negative but in others it may be beneficial. Many people in this generation believe that they can’t reach their full potential due to labels and prejudgment, while there are others believe nothing can hold them back. When we get labeled all together that is also what may drive some to try to stand out from the
As the largest generation on the planet (Jenkins), the Millennials (otherwise known as generation Y) have faced plenty of scrutiny from the previous generations. A Millennial is the demographic group made up of anyone who was born between the years 1980 and 2000. This group of young people has proved to be a great contribution to society and also to the advancement of technology. They do things in their own ways and on their own terms, always approaching a problem in the most efficient way possible for everyone. Millennials have settled numerous issues in our society and they are expected to change our world exponentially. Millennials adapt to new technologies very quickly, however, while Millennials see themselves in generally positive terms such as ‘tech-savvy’ and ‘up to date’, many people from the older generations see them as ‘spoiled’ and ‘lazy’. The new technologies do make living everyday life easier and more functional, however, Millennials are not at all ‘lazy’ for taking advantage of them. Millennials use these new tools in incredibly innovative ways and they see the world in a completely different light.