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| Timeline of generations in the Western world as in its Wikipedia article with notable events by CMG Lee. The retirement and life expectancy ages are approximate due to variations in place and time. In the SVG file, click or hover over a generation to highlight it. See references on Generation for sources. |
Every Birth Generation Explained in 9 Minutes > .
Social generations are cohorts of people born in the same date range and who share similar cultural experiences. The idea of a social generation has a long history and can be found in ancient literature, but did not gain currency in the sense that it is used today until the 19th century. Prior to that the concept "generation" had generally referred to family relationships and not broader social groupings. In 1863, French lexicographer Emile Littré had defined a generation as "all people coexisting in society at any given time."
Sociologist
Karl Mannheim was a seminal figure in the
study of generations. He elaborated a
theory of generations in his 1923 essay
The Problem of Generations. He suggested that there had been a division into two primary schools of study of generations until that time. Firstly, positivists such as Comte measured social change in designated life spans. Mannheim argued that this reduced history to "a chronological table". The other school, the "romantic-historical" was represented by Dilthey and
Martin Heidegger. This school focused on the individual qualitative experience at the expense of social context. Mannheim emphasised that the rapidity of social change in youth was crucial to the formation of generations, and that not every generation would come to see itself as distinct. In periods of rapid social change a generation would be much more likely to develop a cohesive character. He also believed that a number of distinct sub-generations could exist. According to Gilleard and Higgs, Mannheim identified three commonalities that a generation shares:
- Shared temporal location: generational site or birth cohort
- Shared historical location: generation as actuality or exposure to a common era
- Shared sociocultural location: generational consciousness or "entelechy"
Authors
William Strauss and
Neil Howe developed the
Strauss–Howe generational theory outlining what they saw as a pattern of generations repeating throughout American history. This theory became quite influential with the public and reignited an interest in the sociology of generations. This led to the creation of an industry of consulting, publishing, and marketing in the field (corporations spent approximately 70 million dollars on generational consulting in the U.S. in 2015). The theory has alternatively been criticized by social scientists and journalists who argue it is non-
falsifiable,
deterministic, and unsupported by rigorous evidence.
There are psychological and sociological dimensions in the sense of belonging and identity which may define a generation. The concept of a generation can be used to locate particular birth cohorts in specific historical and cultural circumstances, such as the "
Baby boomers" [
Western Generations]. Historian Hans Jaeger shows that, during the concept's long history, two schools of thought coalesced regarding how generations form: the "pulse-rate hypothesis" and the "imprint hypothesis."
- Lost Generation, 1883 to 1900: came of age during World War I and the Roaring Twenties.
- Greatest Generation, 1901-1927 "G.I. Generation", Interbellum Generation): came of age during the Roaring Twenties, while younger G.I.s came of age during the Great Depression and World War II.
- The Silent Generation, (Traditionalist Generation, "Lucky Few"), 1928-1945: came of age in the post–World War II era, Korean War, Vietnam War.
- Baby boomers (sometimes shortened to Boomers) 1946-[1954]-1964: relatively large demographic cohort, Vietnam War, counterculture of the 1960s.
- Generation Jones (later Boomers), 1954-64: came of age in the "malaise" years of the 1970s.
- Generation X (Gen X, baby bust) 1965-1980: includes different subcultures or countercultures since the 1950s.
- Millennials, 1981 to 1996, Generation Y, Gen Y grew up around the turn of the 3rd millennium. The Pew Research Center reported that Millennials surpassed the Baby Boomers in U.S. numbers in 2019, with an estimated 71.6 million Boomers and 72.1 million Millennials.
- Generation Z (Gen Z, "Zoomers"), 1997 to 2012 [whiny, self-obsessed weakists]
- Generation Alpha (Gen Alpha), early 2010s to mid-2020s. First born entirely in the 21st century. As of 2015, there were some two-and-a-half million people born every week around the globe, and Gen Alpha is expected to reach two billion in size by 2025.
