Generation Names in America (Lost, G.I., Silent, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z)
Generation names in America like Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation Y, Millennials, Gen Z(Founders) have become very important to classify people. Every generation has a distinct set of characteristics, traits, attributes etc which differentiate them from the other generations over different years. The generation names have become important from Business (marketing, strategy) point of view too. Why? Let us see.
Humans live in different cultures, societies, groups and in various setups and countries. Humans keep evolving and a set of humans go and new one comes. To simplify the process, people call it one generation comes and new one comes. Generations are basically group of people who share similar values and cultures. People born in a particular time period share certain attributes in personality which may be different from the previous generation and the coming generations. The world’s political and social status at the time determines the current generations’ attributes and behavior. Generations who have seen war may be different from the ones which have seen only prosperous times. Because of this, generations have been classified over the years. In this article we will talk about the Western World (American mainly) classification of generation names.
This article covers the various Generation names in America (Western World) which are now used for referring to a certain group of people around the world. The generation names mainly started from early 20th century.
The Lost Generation(late 1880's-1900)
This generation also referred to as the 1914 generation was the generation which was born between late 1800’s and early 1900s( i.e. b/w 1880’s and 1900s). This generation consists of people who fought in World War 1. The Great Depression (1929-1930) is also attributed to this generation in particular. These people saw the great Depression through their 30s and 40s.
(image:flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/)
Specific Characteristics & Attributes of the Generation:
1) Women took over jobs to men at factories and assembly lines
2) Women focused on saving food and natural resources
3) Men were a part of armies and battles and had little time for businesses or jobs
4) No access to modern amenities
5) More value for food and money because of war and insecurity
Timeline
Lost Generation (1880-1900)>G.I. Generation (1900-1924)>Silent Generation (1925-1945)>Baby Boomers (1946-1964)>Gen X (1961-1981)>Millennials (1982-2000)>Gen Z (2000 +)
Greatest Generation (G.I.Generation) (1900-1924)
This generation was born between 1900 and 1924. This generation includes people who actually fought in the World War 2. This people were growing up when the Great Depression happened. This generation was named after a book of the same name by Tom Brokaw. This generation currently includes people who are quite old currently.
(image:flickr.com/photos/seattlemunicipalarchives/)
Specific Characteristics & Attributes of the Generation:
1) As they have seen Great Depression as Children, they value money.
2) Less Materialistic
3) More proud of themselves as this generations includes War veterans and their family members/relatives
4) Value relationships more than current generations
5) Reusability and Repair can be attributed to this generation more than the subsequent ones
Timeline
Lost Generation (1880-1900)>G.I. Generation (1900-1924)>Silent Generation (1925-1945)>Baby Boomers (1946-1964)>Gen X (1961-1981)>Millennials (1982-2000)>Gen Z (2000 +)
Silent Generation (1925-1945)
This generation comes after the Greatest Generation and includes people born between 1925 and 1945. These people saw the time after the World War 2, Korean War, Vietnam i.e. Peace and Prosperity but with a certain caution.
(image:flickr.com/photos/tom-margie/)
Specific Characteristics & Attributes of the Generation:
1) Small families as learnt a lot from War and the great depression
2) More close knit families with Father and Mother
3) Mothers mainly were housewives with responsibility of raising Children
4) Concept of Civil Rights started to emerge
5) The concept of Retirement started to emerge with this generation
Timeline
Lost Generation (1880-1900)>G.I. Generation (1900-1924)>Silent Generation (1925-1945)>Baby Boomers (1946-1964)>Gen X (1961-1981)>Millennials (1982-2000)>Gen Z (2000 +)
Baby Boomers (1946-1964)
Baby Boomers is infact one of the most popular generation names of all times. Baby Boomers is referred to the people who were born immediately after the World War 2’s end i.e. 1946 to 1964. They are referred by the name because of increased birth rate in this generation.
This generation is currently still active in society and are fathers and grandfathers of the next generation (Gen X)
(image:flickr.com/photos/dok1/)
Specific Characteristics & Attributes of the Generation:
1) Access to modern amenities like TV, Refrigerator etc
2) Still active in society as active decision makers
3) Woman started to work outside the house
4) Modern Valueset started to emerge with this generations
5) Society became more acceptable
6) People started to become more career oriented with specific goals and retirement plans
7) Total Size: 70 Million+ (America)
8) Businesses started to take notice of specific generation as a potential target market as Baby Boomers accumulated wealth and acquired assets
9) Experimental, Individual and more oriented
10) Also referred to as ‘Me Generation’
Timeline
Lost Generation(1880-1900)>G.I. Generation (1900-1924)>Silent Generation (1925-1945)>Baby Boomers (1946-1964)>Gen X (1961-1981)>Millennials (1982-2000)>Gen Z (2000 +)
Generation X (1961-1981)
Generation X (or Gen X) comes after the more popular Baby Boomers. It refers to people born between mid-1960s to early 1980s. Currently these are very active in society in the age group of 30-50. Mostly seen peace times with less wars. The term was coined by Douglas Coupland.
Specific Characteristics & Attributes of the Generation:
1) Total Size ~84 million people in America.
2) Highly Educated
3) Overall Balanced life
4) Focus on health
5) Independent but close to families
6) Overseen a lot of technology changes in society e.g. Computers, Internet etc
7) Also sometimes called the MTV generation after the popular music channel.
8) Birth of more popular type of culture with music, rock, pop, electronic, videos etc
9) More acceptable of diversity within society
10) Entrepreneurship as a concept became acceptable
Timeline
Lost Generation(1880-1900)>G.I. Generation (1900-1924)>Silent Generation (1925-1945)>Baby Boomers (1946-1964)>Gen X (1961-1981)>Millennials (1982-2000)>Gen Z (2000 +)
Millennials (or Generation Y) (1982-2000)
Generation Y comes after the Generation X. It refers to people born between 1982 and 2000). They are also called Millennials as reference to the year 2000.
Specific Characteristics & Attributes of the Generation:
1) Digital Generation
2) Saw the Recession of 2007-2009
3) Unemployment Rates went high
4) Own a large number of gadgets right from Walkman to Mp3 Players to Smartphones and Computers
5) More Informed because of information technology boost
6) Rise of Internet and Social media and dependence on the same
7) Open Minded
8) Questioning Attitude
9) More open on social topics
10) Witnessed 9/11
11) Meticulous in work
12) Work Hard, Party Harder
13) Focus on School and College
Timeline
Lost Generation(1880-1900)>G.I. Generation (1900-1924)>Silent Generation (1925-1945)>Baby Boomers (1946-1964)>Gen X (1961-1981)>Millennials (1982-2000)>Gen Z (2000 +)
Generation Z (iGen or The Founders)
This generation refers to people born after 2000 till now. This is the youngest generation. There is no fixed name till now for this generation but people refer to them as Generation Z in continuation Gen x and Gen Y.
(image:flickr.com/photos/sonyanews/)
Specific Characteristics & Attributes of the Generation:
1) Very Young
2) Fully digital
3) Born in the internet and social media age
4) Comfortable with latest gadgets and electronics
5) Highly intelligent and experimental
6) Risk takers
7) High spenders (even if they not earn)
8) Consists of Tweens (8-12) who are known to spend more and understand products around them better than previous generations
9) Apart from tweens, the generation also consists of very young children
Timeline
Lost Generation(1880-1900)>G.I. Generation (1900-1924)>Silent Generation (1925-1945)>Baby Boomers (1946-1964)>Gen X (1961-1981)>Millennials (1982-2000)>Gen Z (2000+)
