Poll: What generation are you?

[jazz4cash]

I’m late baby boomer, and I really don’t identify with folks 10 years older than me.

That’s the problem with all these designations. They are ~15 yrs in duration. Does anyone really identify with someone 10 yrs older/younger? I guess you have to look at it some other way.

 

[Ballhawker]

I was born in 1965. I don't subscribe to a "generation" since it's all arbitrary and tribal. I believe it is designed to fill the need for people to feel part of an in-group. This tends to create the a subtle us vs. them mentality.

 

[Lsbcal]

That’s the problem with all these designations. They are ~15 yrs in duration. Does anyone really identify with someone 10 yrs older/younger? I guess you have to look at it some other way.

"Identify with" ... what does it mean? IMO we should all try to associate and have a good conversation with all age groups. Now it might happen that they do not feel the same need to converse. That can be disappointing. Oh well.

 

[Lsbcal]

I was born in 1965. I don't subscribe to a "generation" since it's all arbitrary and tribal. I believe it is designed to fill the need for people to feel part of an in-group. This tends to create the a subtle us vs. them mentality.

I like your take. I'm still trying to identify with those historical ancients but there is only a one way discussion . Are we Americans too narrow minded? Do we understand the flows of time and evolution?

 

[Gumby]

Same here. SSBN 644G mid 70's.

I served aboard SSBN 598 and SSBN 656 in the mid 80's.

 

[GenXguy]

That’s the problem with all these designations. They are ~15 yrs in duration. Does anyone really identify with someone 10 yrs older/younger? I guess you have to look at it some other way.

Yeah, I made a similar comment. Someone one year age difference is in a completely different generation, yet someone 15 years younger or older is in the same generation. I don't find it useful, but the media likes to use these words, and a lot of online posters have picked up on it.

 

[N02L84ER]

DH and I are Baby Boomers. Two of my brothers are Gen X.

 

[braumeister]

Yeah, I made a similar comment. Someone one year age difference is in a completely different generation, yet someone 15 years younger or older is in the same generation. I don't find it useful, but the media likes to use these words, and a lot of online posters have picked up on it.

Obviously, these polls are just for fun and don't mean anything. Hard to fathom why some take them personally.

There is no possible way to make it realistic with a large population. I think of my "generation" as those born within a few years of me, but someone born a few years earlier or later would have quite a different set as their generation.

We can talk about our generation, our parents' generation, our grandparents' generation, or our children's generation, but they would differ completely depending on who you're talking with. I would hope that everyone could just lighten up about it.

 

[38Chevy454]

Late boomer for me. I agree that the late boomers grew up quite different than the early boomers. I do think the Gen Jones description fits my experiences quite well. Learned about the Gen Jones thing here on the forum in previous discussions of generations.

 

[Toast]

That’s the problem with all these designations. They are ~15 yrs in duration. Does anyone really identify with someone 10 yrs older/younger? I guess you have to look at it some other way.

Large age gaps can make relationships a bit more challenging and interesting. I am firmly Gen X. My parents were the greatest generation and all of my siblings are baby boomers. I grew up in a very different time than my siblings and my relationship with my parents was different as well. There are pros and cons to having older parents and siblings.

 

[braumeister]

Large age gaps can make relationships a bit more challenging and interesting. I am firmly Gen X. My parents were the greatest generation and all of my siblings are baby boomers. I grew up in a very different time than my siblings and my relationship with my parents was different as well. There are pros and cons to having older parents and siblings.

True. Another point is that we're all individuals, and don't necessarily share the mindset of others born in similar times. I'm an early baby boomer, but many of the best friends I've ever had were WW II vets (my parents' generation) and we were extremely close.

 

[GenXguy]

Obviously, these polls are just for fun and don't mean anything. Hard to fathom why some take them personally.

I wasn't referring to the poll itself, but the use of these generation terms in general, which is why I mentioned the media.

 

[MichaelB]

My 2 closest friends are silent generation, more than 10 years of age difference, no difficulties understanding each other.

 

[jollystomper]

The boomers have committed “generational plunder,” pillaging the nation’s economy, repeatedly cutting their own taxes, financing two wars and entitlements with deficits, ignoring climate change, inadequate progress on racism, presiding over the death of America’s manufacturing core, and leaving future generations to clean up the mess they created.

On the racism point, as a minority I would very much disagree with this. Huge strides and progress have been made in my lifetime as a baby boomer. The issue is, in more modern times, a minority of vocal people deciding to redefine what racism is, in incorrect terms. But that is probably too controversial to get into on this board .

 

[Midpack]

Very foggy lenses

You’re welcome to make your case.

 

[Lsbcal]

You’re welcome to make your case.

Not pointing to any one post mind you. My case is ... well a little bit foggy too.

 

[thod]

A couple of possible explanations.

• Boomers have had more time (think 1980s) to acquire wealth than GenX'ers
• Boomers were more likely than GenX'ers to have access to DB pensions
• There were far more boomers than GenX'ers
• Perhaps many who join and are active continue to be active here
• Without access to DB Pensions and Retiree health care, it is much easier to "take a gap year or two" vs. running full steam to ER.
• Younger Generations have had the message pounded into them by pop media "You won't be able to ever retire!" longer
  

It will be interesting if there is a significant upswing in Millennial/GenY participation here going forward.

Just speculating here....


-gauss

I was born in 1968, so an older Gen X. I just retired early 3 years ago at age 52. I had probably only found this board a couple of years before that. So I think there is still a good chunk of GenX that is not really close to retiring.

As for the groups after Gen X, I do not think they are even thinking about retirement too much yet. Or perhaps they are, but they are using a different technology to discuss it. I check in on the reddit board https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/ sometimes. It has over 2.2 million followers. So, I would say there is a good amount of the younger generations interested in retiring (specifically early). Keep in mind, their idea of retirement may be both different and might have a different inspiration.

 

[Amethyst]

And Myers-Briggs classifications are even better, because there are 16 of them. You are your four letters!

+1

And Zodiac classifications are more accurate than age groupings.

 

[ncbill]

Older Gen X here, were I born just a few years earlier I'd have been "Gen Jones" instead.

Parents & In-laws Silent Generation, kids all Millenials.

 

[Amethyst]

To me, it's a nuclear submarine.

And my first thought when I here "Boomer" is a shotgun.

 

[Amethyst]

You raise a good point. I have problems finding people in their 60's on Reddit, and when I do, they're usually discussing ageing and retirement.

For all other topics, the perspective tends to be of those young enough to be my kids or grandkids. Interesting, for sure, but not necessarily useful to me.

As for the groups after Gen X, I do not think they are even thinking about retirement too much yet. Or perhaps they are, but they are using a different technology to discuss it.

 

[Wile E. Coyote]

Gen-X here. However, I have an issue with their thresholds for Gen-X, Millennials, and Gen-Z.

For the longest time, Gen-X was always 1965-1983. But around the time of the Great Recession, they started shrinking it, and then moving the Millennials down a few years. I'm convinced they did that, so they could start with those news stories about how bad Millennials in the workforce were getting affected by the Great Recession. If they had the Millennials start at 1984, that means the oldest ones would have only been 24, and not that many in the workforce yet. Most of them were still in college, high school, or middle/elementary school! But, take a few years off of Gen-X, and give it to the Millennials, and suddenly you have a lot more workers to pull your stats from!

Or, is it just the norm to shrink the more recent generations to 16 years? In all fairness, those earlier generations weren't the same length, either. I guess I just think of 19 years as the default, because that's what the Baby Boomers are, and it seems like that was the generation when the government and media and such started paying attention to these generations.

In more recent years, I've thought of Gen-X as more like 1965-82, Millennials as 1983-2000, and then 2001 and up I just sort of lump them together.

But, regardless, was born in 1970, so I'm still gen-X, no matter how they fiddle with the end-points. As for the Baby Boomers, I'd have to agree on a split, somewhere. Someone born in 1946 could have been off fighting in the Vietnam War, while at the same time someone born in 1964 was probably watching "Gomer Pyle: USMC."

I think Gen-X has a break point, too. The older ones remember a time before video games and home computers, and a lot of us outgrew home video games, thanks to the "Great Video Game Crash" of 1984. We got tired of our Atari VCSs, Odyssey2s, Intellivisions. and ColecoVisions. But then the younger ones only have a faint memory of those early systems, and were raised on Nintendo and then Sega Genesis. And, even other things, like the older Gen-X, when they got a hand-me-down car from their parents, were probably accustomed to having to pump the gas pedal before starting, and putting on snow tires in the winter, whereas the younger ones were more likely to get a car that was fuel injected, with all-season radials.

But, all generations have nuances like that within them.

I was "Gen Jones" "Me Generation" and "GenX" until they finally filed me as a Baby Boomer / BB Group II.

My Siblings are BB and Silent and my parents Greatest.

What does it all mean? People like to categorize people.

 

[Wile E. Coyote]

Large age gaps can make relationships a bit more challenging and interesting. I am firmly Gen X. My parents were the greatest generation and all of my siblings are baby boomers. I grew up in a very different time than my siblings and my relationship with my parents was different as well. There are pros and cons to having older parents and siblings.

I here you on that. I was more of an only child (except for the fact I had 5 siblings 14 to 20 years older than me). They did come in somewhat handy when my parents died when I was far too young. At least they could sign for me (not that they raised me).

 

[Healthy Lifestyle]

Wow this poll really stirred up all of us old fogies!

 

[EastWest Gal]

Tail end of baby boomer. Parents were in the silent generation, though two uncles were in the lost generation, one who served in the Navy in WWII. Grandparents were in the lost generation. Not sure that they were "lost". DS is a Millennial. I feel like that generation is more lost than the "lost generation". Being 9 years old when 9/11 happened fractures a childhood. Following that the active shooter drills started.

I've seen many Millennials reluctant to leave their parents' home, not just DS, but several of his peers. In the media, Millennials are the forgotten generation.