Why the Concept of "Generations" Is Ridiculous

Started by Shiranu, August 16, 2018, 01:08:30 AM

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Shiranu


For those who are tired of identity politics, or "us vs them" conflict, then this video is on the nose.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca4xBrmWUJc
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

Mr.Obvious

I havent seen The vid, and probably won't. But i concur with The bottom statement.
"If we have to go down, we go down together!"
- Your mum, last night, requesting 69.

Atheist Mantis does not pray.

Baruch

It was invented to organize marketing of stuff.  How young people, to be cool, have to buy different new products than their parents.  A flip phone for your daddy, but a smart phone for you.  Marketing works ... calling a phone "smart" is a marketing coup over the muppet customers.

Are demographics real?  In this sense, at any given point in time, people in their 20s, act a certain way (young adult) but at any given point in time, people in their 60s (seniors) act in a different way.  The generations are static, people move thru them as they age.  Because culture changes rapidly, today's 20-somethings are different than they were 20 years ago ... but that isn't the important thing, that is what marketing wants you to focus on.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

GSOgymrat

Generational labels are useful in explaining certain differences in populations. For example, the author talks about how the invention of smart phones affected more recent generations. WWII affected older generations. Generational differences are like regional differences-- people who live in rural areas have different priorities than people in urban areas, which can be seen in voting patterns. Stereotyping, scapegoating and us-vs-them thinking are the actual problems.

SGOS

Quote from: Mr.Obvious on August 16, 2018, 02:36:27 AM
I havent seen The vid, and probably won't. But i concur with The bottom statement.
I do too.  I've never understood the point of stereotyping generations and then naming them as though they can be classified by some kind of field guide.  I don't even know which generation I am.  I've always called myself a baby boomer, but I'm not, although most of my friends were.  I was born during WWII when the birth rates were one fourth the rate of the years previous and the years that followed.  Maybe the fact that I don't have a real group of my own makes it seem like it doesn't matter.

But I'm putting my money on the millennial generation. They are our only hope.  The rest of us had our chance and failed.  Will they be up to the task?  I don't know, but I wish them well.

Hydra009

Quote from: SGOS on August 16, 2018, 07:59:50 AM
But I'm putting my money on the millennial generation. They are our only hope.  The rest of us had our chance and failed.  Will they be up to the task?  I don't know, but I wish them well.
As a representative of millenials (one of the older ones, literally turned 18 around the millenium change) we are definitely not up to the task.  We're all doomed.  Doomed, I say!

SGOS

Quote from: Hydra009 on August 16, 2018, 08:47:35 AM
As a representative of millenials (one of the older ones, literally turned 18 around the millenium change) we are definitely not up to the task.  We're all doomed.  Doomed, I say!
You just blotted out my last ray of hope with a slap in the face meant to restore my consciousness and bring me back to reality.

But hope springs eternal, while reality offers nothing.  Well, except it does offer reality.  We must all choose one or the other.  I don't know what to do. 

I was talking to the woman yesterday.  She's a 20 something with a bright outlook who wants the best world for her newborn, a world I would be happy with too.  I would gladly leave the country in her hands.  In a few more years it won't matter, at least for me, but you see there's this child, who hasn't even learned to talk and has done nothing bad to anyone.

Mike Cl

Quote from: SGOS on August 16, 2018, 07:59:50 AM
I do too.  I've never understood the point of stereotyping generations and then naming them as though they can be classified by some kind of field guide.  I don't even know which generation I am.  I've always called myself a baby boomer, but I'm not, although most of my friends were.  I was born during WWII when the birth rates were one fourth the rate of the years previous and the years that followed.  Maybe the fact that I don't have a real group of my own makes it seem like it doesn't matter.

But I'm putting my money on the millennial generation. They are our only hope.  The rest of us had our chance and failed.  Will they be up to the task?  I don't know, but I wish them well.
I was born in '45 and feel as you do about generations--sort of generationless.  And I've never cared.  Generations make sense within families but not in societies.  And I too, think the current crop of youngsters are smarter and better than they are depicted so often.  I wish them well, too.
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?<br />Then he is not omnipotent,<br />Is he able but not willing?<br />Then whence cometh evil?<br />Is he neither able or willing?<br />Then why call him god?

Baruch

Quote from: SGOS on August 16, 2018, 09:56:26 AM
You just blotted out my last ray of hope with a slap in the face meant to restore my consciousness and bring me back to reality.

But hope springs eternal, while reality offers nothing.  Well, except it does offer reality.  We must all choose one or the other.  I don't know what to do. 

I was talking to the woman yesterday.  She's a 20 something with a bright outlook who wants the best world for her newborn, a world I would be happy with too.  I would gladly leave the country in her hands.  In a few more years it won't matter, at least for me, but you see there's this child, who hasn't even learned to talk and has done nothing bad to anyone.

If she has no husband, marry her.  If her husband isn't good to her, beat him.  Do it for the children.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Baruch

Quote from: SGOS on August 16, 2018, 07:59:50 AM
I do too.  I've never understood the point of stereotyping generations and then naming them as though they can be classified by some kind of field guide.  I don't even know which generation I am.  I've always called myself a baby boomer, but I'm not, although most of my friends were.  I was born during WWII when the birth rates were one fourth the rate of the years previous and the years that followed.  Maybe the fact that I don't have a real group of my own makes it seem like it doesn't matter.

But I'm putting my money on the millennial generation. They are our only hope.  The rest of us had our chance and failed.  Will they be up to the task?  I don't know, but I wish them well.

Pre-Boomer, LARPing as a Boomer ;-)  The Millennials I know are doing fine.  If the Boogie Man would  stop scaring them from the closet, they might get a good night's sleep.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

SGOS

Quote from: Mike Cl on August 16, 2018, 12:23:54 PM
I was born in '45 and feel as you do about generations--sort of generationless.  And I've never cared.  Generations make sense within families but not in societies.  And I too, think the current crop of youngsters are smarter and better than they are depicted so often.  I wish them well, too.
The Baby Boomers was the first name I'd ever heard for a generation, not that other generations had been named before.  I just wasn't aware.  And for many years, it was Baby Boomers this and Baby Boomers that.  It seemed like someone got the idea from all this that we should now have a name for each generation.  And then the names started showing up, I never knew why.  Time has been a continuum and I'm still not sure what determines the end of one generation and the beginning of the next.  It's not like people are completely different all of a sudden.  I've noticed more changes in our environment than I have in people.  Times change.  People not so much.

Hydra009

Quote from: SGOS on August 16, 2018, 02:20:27 PM
The Baby Boomers was the first name I'd ever heard for a generation, not that other generations had been named before.  I just wasn't aware.  And for many years, it was Baby Boomers this and Baby Boomers that.  It seemed like someone got the idea from all this that we should now have a name for each generation.  And then the names started showing up, I never knew why.
It was a convenient time for generational labels because there was a derth of births during the war and a surge of births after the war ended.  Suddenly, there's a lot of people who are all roughly the same age as well as a desire to categorize people to more effectively sell them all the post-war commercial products.

SGOS

Quote from: Hydra009 on August 16, 2018, 02:33:01 PM
It was a convenient time for generational labels because there was a derth of births during the war and a surge of births after the war ended. 
OK, that brings something to mind.  I did have a generational label, or at least I heard someone refer to my category as "War Babies."  But there weren't that many of us so it didn't seem to stick, and it probably had no commercial value.  In my mind, it refers only to time of birth, but says nothing about our personalities, as defined by horoscopes, astrological signs, and corporate America.

"Dearth of births" is surprisingly accurate from my from my limited sampling of the data available to me as an elementary school kid.  My graduating class had 18 students.  The one following mine had 60, and that was typical for all the classes that graduated after that.

Quote from: Hydra009 on August 16, 2018, 02:33:01 PM
Suddenly, there's a lot of people who are all roughly the same age as well as a desire to categorize people to more effectively sell them all the post-war commercial products.
It's hard to imagine, but those guys on Madison Ave do know what they are doing.


trdsf

I never got the whole generational divide thing either, but then, I'm not identified as any particular one -- 1963 is, depending on who you ask, a late Boomer, Generation Jones, early Generation X, or a Cusper (Boomer/X).  Which mostly means that generational decision making -- political or commercial -- has almost no relevance whatsoever to me.  I fall between the cracks.
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