Thursday, September 17, 2009

Generation Gyrations

Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y: these terms are so wonderfully vague that nobody can actually pin down who belongs in each group. It allows a sort of shell game to shuffle age groups around for convenience, especially for the Gen-X and -Y groups.

I started thinking about this after reading this press release which gives different age ranges for the three groups than I am familiar with, and even states that Generation X are the parents of Generation Y. I always assumed the following ranges: Boomers - 1947 to 1967, Generation X - 1967 to 1977, and Generation Y - 1977 to 1987. I also assumed that the Boomers are the parents of both Gen X and Gen Y.

But what do I know? After reading the Wikipedia pages for Baby Boomer, Generation X, and Generation Y, it is far more confusing than I ever thought possible. And now, I notice that there is even a Generation Z! We sure like making up labels for everything, don't we?

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