#generational theory

[whatbigotspost]

(Source: Instagram)

Gen Z…Have I mentioned lately how much I love you?

[theeholytrinity]

Me- Gen Z: born 2002, post-9/11, so all my life I've been hearing about war in the Middle East and war on Terrorism, grew up during the Internet Age and homegrown on technology. They taught us how to use computers and tablets when we were still in elementary school. Saw the Obama Era, the Trump Era, and now the Biden Era. Graduated during the Pandemic, reached adulthood during the Pandemic. Saw the peak of BLM movement and the 2020 summer riots. The last casualties of Afghanistan and the war on Terror were from my generation, the youngest being 20 years old I believe.

Parents- Millennial and Gen X: born between 1970s to 1980s. Mom turned 18 yrs old around the new Millennium. Dad born in 70s, so grew up during the 80s making him apart of the MTV generation. Mom saw the harsh affects of the Clinton's harsh crime bills that locked up a lot of her peers (who were labeled "Super Predators"), the harsh after affects of the AIDs epidemic and the War on Drugs within black communities, saw 9/11, War on Terror and the Bush administration, Obama presidency, the great recession, Trump Era, the Pandemic and Biden Administration.

Grandparents- Baby Boomers: born in 50s and 60s, grew up during the American golden age, but because they were black it wasn't so golden for them. Saw the rise of the Black Panthers, saw the Civil Rights Movement and the end of Segregation and Jim Crow, saw and fought in the war in Vietnam. My grandad actually visited one of the meetings held by Jim Jones and his followers before they left to Jonestown. Obviously my grandad didn't follow but his step-mother and half-brother did. They did not make it, sadly.

Great Grandparents -Greatest Generation and Silent Generation: Obviously, my great grandfathers on both sides were drafted and sent to fight in WW2, though one of them was 18 years old and it was 1945, so I guess he could also count as the Silent Generation. My paternal grandfather would have been 17 years old when America entered the war in 1941. Looking at his draft card shows that he was drafted a year later when he turned 18. Returned from the war against fascism only to be met with Jim Crow laws. Saw the rise of MLK and Malcolm X, the Civil Rights Movement and the Nation of Islam. On both sides of family, they were apart of the Great Migration and left the South to live in California.

Great great Grandparents- the Lost Generation and Missionary Generation: my great-great grandfather Will was born in 1896 and my great-great grandmother Alberta was born in 1900. I'm still trying to find out more about them but considering what generation they were born into a I can make a few guesses. I'm sure my great-great grandfather fought in WWI, he wouldn't have had any choice really. He was born 31 years after the Civil War, the end of slavery, and Reconstruction. Lived through the Black Codes which prohibited black people from voting, carrying guns, owning property, etc. They lived in Texas so more likely than not my great great grandparents had to deal with this. They were probably sharecroopers as well, though it's not impossible that they could have had a different occupation. My other great great grandparents, Charlie (born 1879) and Bessie (born 1885) probably had a similar experience in Georgia. They all more likely than not saw the rise of the Ku Kux Klan and Jim Crow. Alberta would at least live to see the Civil Rights Movement and the passing of the Civil Rights Act, though she’d also live to see the AIDS epidemic, the War on Drugs, the assassination of MLK and Malcolm X, and the downfall of the Black Panthers.

3rd great grandparents- the Progressive Generation: Hezekiah Jr. was born 1851 and Easter was born 1853. Not much is known about them save the plantation they came from and the family who owned them. They grew up as slaves but after the Civil War, were emancipated.

4th great grandparents - Gilded Generation: Hezekiah (also a Jr.) was born 1822 and died 1879. Born a slave and lived most of his life as one until the Civil War.

5th great grandparents - Transcendental Generation: Hezekiah Sr. born 1793. Born as a slave, but if he lived to 72 he would have seen the end of slavery. The same for Anachy, born 1800. If she lived to 65, then she would have seen it as well.

6th great grandparent - the Compromise Generation: Fanny was born in 1775 in Wilkes Georgia. She had one daughter, Anachy. Fanny was born a slave and died one.

[callingallcars]

strauss-howe generational theory???

strauss-howe generational theory!!!!!! This is my favourite sociological theory, and actually one of my ongoing hyperfixations which means this is gonna be a hella long answer.

it asserts that there are four main generations each lasting about 20 years (but can be around 22 if the global sociopolitical/economic field permits) as a part of a larger scale of one average human life span of 80ish years. Each generation has its own archetype and its based off the sociopolitical/ economic climate that is occurring, which tends to be the same roughly every 80-90 years, or 4 generations, or roughly one generational cycle. its how we know millennials are defined as those who were born between 1980 and 1999, how gen x is 1960-1979, and boomers are the baby boom that occurred after-ish WWII from 1940-1959, hence why theyre called boomers. Gen X has no defining name for some reason, because technically every generation has a lettered association, millennials are gen Y, “zoomers” are actually called Generation Z etc.

The four archetypes are the Hero (civic); The Artist (adaptive); The Prophet (idealist); and The Nomad (reactive).

The theory itself states that every 80ish years, or “full saecula” there is a crisis, followed by a recovery, where communal values amongst generations are strong enough that the sentiments shared amongst the succeeding generational archetypes boils over into a fight for individualism, attacking state systems, and eventually topples the institutions, which ultimately creates another really awful political climate that, you guessed it, ends in a crisis!

(a fun way to look at it is boomers are responsible for the political climate that lead to the 2008 financial crises, which is technically the Actual crisis that defines the zoomers generation).

Now, while crises and global historical political events are inherently important to the definition of these archetypes, the other big thing thats been super important since the industrial revolution is the evolution of technology!!!!! Boomers had sliced bread and the polio vaccine (same year go figure) and the microwave, Gen X actually had a pretty big uptick in musical technology (rock n roll, anyone?) (also the punk and hip hop fanbase, MTV, the invention of portable music players like tape decks, the eventual grunge scene, etc). Millennials are the ones who actually have claim to the internet since it took on the first internety form in 1990, which allowed millennials to grow up with the technology, and since we know children are more adaptable to new technology than adults because they can include it in their developmental processes, we can just pretty much give the internet to mid millennials.

But this is where it gets interesting, and a bit muddled, and where my own research and extended research beyond strauss and howe comes in.

There are a few important things to consider:

Between each generation, since time and development and the global climate is not split evenly since thats not how the world works, there’s usually some overlap in those born within the 5 ish year gap between generations.

Another thing that defines generations is their upbringing, and until about the late Gen x/ early millennial generations with a few exceptions (my parents included because they were older than average when my sister and i were born) have defined the new generations every 20 yrs bc well, that’s typically when it was the social norm to have kids in the cishet nuclear family “norm”.

Another thing is that children tend to be the opposite archetype from their parents (think of how the artist archetype comes immediately after the hero archetype) but thats more of a fun fact that just gets sprinkled into every discussion

So, if we know that there’s always some generational overlap, and technology and political crises play equally important roles in defining a generation, and we know that tech blew tf up around 2008 All Of A Sudden (faster than it ever really had, seriously the exponential growth of tech after apple and amazon cornered the market is nuts) and we know millennials have claim to the early internet, and Zoomers have claim to smart technology after the tech boom, and are defined as usually being born post-9/11 and their defining crises is the 2008 financial crisis, then where does that leave the overlapping kids in the middle, born too late to really have claim to the early internet (1997/8) but born before/during/Just After 9/11 making That their defining crisis (because even if u were only 4, u had enough time to develop and be raised by ur parents both in a pre And post 9/11 world) That my friends is what people often refer to as “the lost generation” “Xennials” “dark millennials” etc. There’s examples of it all over the internet. “if you were born between 1995 and 2000 youre the maroon 5 generation” (personal fave) “music/ technology/ stores/ toys etc only dark millennials will remember” (and itll be a photo or list of something so very 2004-2010 that only someone born during that time would have ever experienced, since tech didnt last that long in this time period re the smart tech boom) (music and music tech is also actually super important to generations, because it defines whole cultures, and you can just Tell when music is from, and all those dumb born in the wrong generation things often focus heavily on music and music-influenced scenes)

All this is to say that if you were born ill say at the earliest 1995 and latest beginning of 2002 and you feel like you dont have a claim to a generation, if u relate to those “dark millennials” posts, if you remember going from overhead projectors to smartboards instead of one or the other, if your first social media was late myspace or facebook instead of AOL or snapchat, if you spent your childhood playing outside but then vividly remember when everyone became smartphone obsessed and when that became The Thing to do (idk about u but like it was Cool in middle school to bring ur iphone 3G or 4 to class or parties and let people use it) then its because there really is a weird middle “lost” generation that doesn’t belong to either side, where the generational overlap is more significant than any before due to the swift development of tech during this period, and where the people inside of it often have traits and interests from both sides, but also their own defining pieces of middle-ness (like marianas trench, or taio cruz, or all those weird ytv/nick/disney shows that only ever lasted 2 seasons like danny phantom).

[franz-iohann]

Mr World: I will fucking make you apologize, you little brat. Tech Boy: ok boomer Shadow, in tears already: What’s going on?.. Mr Wednesday: Idgaf I’m gonna die soon anyway Media: Knock it off, all of you, I can’t hear the TV

[elbiotipo]

But really did you ever know the original “”“work”““ that first proposed the baby boomers, millenials, etc.? The guys are crackpots who think history is cyclical and that every generation has some sort of spirit or character

Look at this bullshit:

this is just astrology with extra steps

[nathanhsantos]

The Silents: It’s Our Time!

“The air is humming, and something great is coming” is how composer/playwright Stephen Sondheim and his generation saw the future in 1956.  Their world was rapidly moving forward and they were sensitively adapting to the post-War institutions established by their victorious elders of the Greatest Generation.  The economic and totalitarian crises were steadfastly engaged in their youth for their protection, and the subsequent resolutions facilitated a new age of affluence. This new dynamic witnessed innovations in technology, communication, and interconnectivity, and this new cohort of young people who began to earnestly probe their own potential were the catalysts of the many individual movements that would ultimately widen the seemingly unbridgeable fissures of our current culture by the generations that followed.

The youth of the 1930s-40s were bestowed with the label “teenagers” and were personified in 1950s film, television, radio, magazines, and other new media representing popular culture as a group with leisure time, extra spending money, and a growing restlessness with the accepted rules and expectations established for them. Their collective yearning for their own voice, a sentimental urge to feel, a desire to explore the taboo, an instinct to open previously closed doors characterized this Silent generation’s manner and in turn, their mores became the essential facilitators of Baby Boomer self-exploration.  

High-achieving technicians and specialists in their chosen fields, this pluralistic cohort worked to establish a new language and zeitgeist to help the world deal with the Cold War tensions looming globally and even in space, and the domestic antipathy that was coming to a boil. Naturally, the humanities provided a mirror reflecting a world adjusting to new opportunities, more choices to consider, and perhaps a previously unachieved level of operational convenience resulting from the availability of appliances, air conditioning, mass transit, highway systems, artificial intelligence, and advances in science and medicine.  

Issuing the challenge to perceive the world in new ways were thinkers such as Jean-Francois Lyotard, Michel Foucault, Jean-Francois Lyotard, Jacques Derrida, and Umberto Eco.  Their radical ideas in questioning language, symbols, context, narrative and process would become known as Postmodernism. Among the most cosmopolitan of all artists reflecting postmodernist ideas was Andy Warhol, whose bohemian lifestyle was channeled through a wide range of projects and ventures.

Music moved from mass-produced, collective sounds of Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman to the cool, mesmerizing approach of Miles Davis and his various chamber groups. Mentored in the subversive movement known as Bebop, his voice modified the elite, insular, bombastic hipster language of Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, and Dizzy Gillespie into an accessible, sensual, subtle, muted and mild tones associated with casual pace of the Pacific Coast or the beaches of Brazil. This accessibility likewise was the motivating principal with Barry Gordy as he established Motown Record Company, opening a way for his artists to reach a much larger audience.

Above all, the theological training, charismatic delivery, and willingness to adopt Gandhian non-violent methods of challenging the lingering Jim Crow-era Southern Segregationist culture, Martin Luther King Jr. served as the driving force of plurality.  Culminating with his words, “I Have A Dream,” his approach combined Biblical and Constitutional ideals thus opening the door to a place where many colors combine to form rich harmony, and individual voices explore the potential of unique timbres.

Sondheim’s 1982 piece, Merrily We Roll Along, in postmodern fashion tells the story moving time in reverse: beginning in a dour, present-day moment as the lead characters have witnessed their friendship fragment due to individual circumstances, and ending in 1956, when their youthful friendship fueled their vigor to experience life.  Sondheim, capturing the spirit of 1956 eloquently, ends with these nostalgic words:

“It's our time, breathe it in:

Worlds to change and worlds to win

Our turn, we're what's new

Me and you, pal, me and you!

Feel the flow, hear what's happening:

We're what's happening!”

[nitrosplicer]

A Study of 600,000 People Shows the Secret to Managing Millennials Is to Quit Thinking of Them as Millennials

The researchers studied over 600,000 people across an eight-year span. (How's that for establishing a statistically significant sample size?)

What did they find?

"The magnitude of generational differences is small to near-zero."