Flip-flops and iPods and Trophies, Oh My!

re: Flip-flops and iPods and Trophies, Oh My!

Graham — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 08:43:54 GMT

To get an idea of the differences between recent generations, check out the annual college mindset survey Beloit College has done for several years... www.beloit.edu/~pubaff/mindset/

re: Flip-flops and iPods and Trophies, Oh My!

HeatherLeigh — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 04:02:13 GMT

Yeah, for sure. 1986 was my senior year in high shool and lots happened before then! Wow!

re: Flip-flops and iPods and Trophies, Oh My!

Rick — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 03:28:32 GMT

Sorry about the double post, Heather, feel free to cut this, but I was just thinking further about this infuriating and remarkable generation that is coming up.

A traditional, 4 year college student graduating this year will have been born in 1986. They won't have really understood things until about 92 or so... They never had Reagan or Bush the 1st for presidents... they were growing up during a time of extreme prosperity... they haven't really known a world without the Internet... they were 9 when Win 95 came out.. they didn't know the berlin wall or the red menace.... they've never really had to live under the threat of nuclear war...

Its interesting to me to think about all the things that have shaped my conscience that they never really experienced.

re: Flip-flops and iPods and Trophies, Oh My!

HeatherLeigh — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 03:20:49 GMT

OK, well late 60s here...so technically, I'm on the cusp of what came before...boomers is it? Same as my parents? That's what they get for reproducing so young!

So interesting about the Berlin wall. I guess I wasn't very geographically /politically astute. For me, 9-11 was a BIG deal but I was 33 when it happened. Also, Reagan being shot was big. And people realizing what AIDS was (a little slowly) in the eighties.

re: Flip-flops and iPods and Trophies, Oh My!

Rick Pennington — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 03:09:05 GMT

There are arguments about the traditional age ranges of the generations, but I have seen Gen X stated as being born in the late 60's to 82 or 84, with the last 5 years or so belonging to the "cuspers", those that are tweeners. I am in the same boat as you, Heather, in that I tend to pick and choose what I believe... you're probably a cusper too. I tend to be more politically/socially aligned with Gen X, but I have been influenced by technology my entire life by the Milennials.

The biggest thing to remember in this is that these are noticable trends in generations, not absolutes. We're all influenced by culture and events in different ways. I believe the most significant event in my lifetime was the fall of the berlin wall and communism, for example, while many people born after me will probably say 9-11.

re: Flip-flops and iPods and Trophies, Oh My!

HeatherLeigh — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:24:47 GMT

Matt - seems we just keep getting spoilder and lazier and arroganter. :)

Rick Pennington - guess that makes me Gen X. OK, so I am not going to ever have kids, so I won't have the opportunity to mess up anyone's life but my own. And granted, my parents really emulated the greatest generation more than their own (they did the whole scary 70s fashion thing but not so much the free love thing...I don't even want to think about that, actually). So I think that there's hope for the free thinkers.

I do feel like a bit of a tweener in some ways. I don't believe in company loyalty (kind of millenial in that regard) but have worked hard to pay my dues and get where I am (boomer?). What do you call people that kind of step outside of the sterotupe and select elements from different generations that work for them? Needless to say, I am the "different thinker" in my family when it comes to politics, religion, social norms (and if you are thinking that I don't seem so "out there", then just consider that my family is totally "in there"), but I'm realy having a hard time putting myself into one of these generational buckets.

What is Gen X again?

re: Flip-flops and iPods and Trophies, Oh My!

Rick Pennington — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:16:13 GMT

I learned a bit about the milennials while I was taking classes for a (now aborted) masters degree. We were looking at the way that they changed college student affairs divisions. One term in particular stood out to me... Helicopter Parents. These are parents who continue to hover over their children well into "adulthood".

Parents act like college is "High School: Part Deux". Their kid gets in trouble... they call and yell at the Dean. Their kid gets a bad grade... they call and yell at the professor!

This behavior starts well before college, though. My wife teaches middle school. She has had parents get upset at her for their children not turning in assignments. She has had kids tell her that their parents say the kids don't have to listen to her, and that the school is wrong for enforcing rules and regs. Accountability has gone out the window.

One generational theorey states that children will parent in reaction to how they were parented. The boomers were parented by the ultra-conservative "greatest generation" of WW2 times. The nuclear family was king, and people on TV didn't sleep together in the same bed. They reacted to this, founded the free love movement, and parented their kids (Gen X) with a more laissez faire attitude, allowing the kids to develop on their own. Now, Gen X is parenting the milennials, and have them convinced that they are all special, that everyone deserves a trophy. These kids depend on their parents for everything and have lost the ability to solve problems on their own. This has gotten so bad that a paper was recently released stating that children today are not cognitively ready to live on their own until they are 26!

I am a Gen X/Milennial cusper (I was born in 79). I heavily identify with Gen X. I think the parents today are going to reap what they sow, and their grandchildren will lead another cultural revolution like we saw in the 60s/70s. This time, though, it might not have good effects...

re: Flip-flops and iPods and Trophies, Oh My!

Matt — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 08:55:27 GMT

I think this illustration best explains my point of view on these generational dynamics

http://indexed.blogspot.com/2008/01/even-grandpa-was-punk-kid-once.html

re: Flip-flops and iPods and Trophies, Oh My!

HeatherLeigh — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 07:39:54 GMT

Definitely. And, like, fearful! Is that the fear mongering of the baby boomer generation: atomic bomb, cold war, etc.? OK, I should stop...I'm probably only making it worse. ;)

re: Flip-flops and iPods and Trophies, Oh My!

Kerry — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 05:30:45 GMT

It's interesting to me the different views of the Millennial generation - I read both positive and negative things about this generation. The 60 minute report was one of the more negative - it was a bit condescending, don't you think?