Talkin Bout my Generation

Kaitlin Dryburgh

“People try to put us down, just because we get around” is how the classic Who song goes. First belted out in 1965 at time when the Vietnam war raged on, and the UK was not in a good place economically. The song was essentially a middle finger to the generations above. But it could have been sung at any time period because, for as long as time the young folk have always been giving the middle finger to their elders. But that’s because the older generations have always been a little bamboozled of the youth’s new fandangle sayings, strange clothes, and corrupt morals. Rivalries between generations can even be dated back to 400BC when Socrates moaned about the youth of his day. It’s the circle of life.

It seems that many would have us believe that the difference between generations has never been stronger and more apparent.

Hop on social media and I’m sure it won’t take you long to come across some funny short video of a person poking fun of different generations. Some of the many hits include “different generations answering the phone”, “different generations in the workplace” and “the generational challenge”. They are funny, there’s no denying it.

But it doesn't stop there. The generational explanation is being handed out rather frequently, “Baby boomers are the climate change villains”, “Millenials: the me, me, me generation”, “Gen-Zs are lazy”. These are all headlines from well established news outlets.

There is no point denying there isn’t some truth to some characterisations. It is true that Baby Boomers hold more wealth, that Gen X’s straddle both the digital and non-digital world, and Gen-Z are the first fully digital generation. We are a product of when we grew up, what was available to us, the economic landscape, technological advances, and knowledge. Each generation has for example reared their children differently, as they eye-rolled their parents when they tried to intervene.

However, has it gone too far? It seems that we are currently prescribing too much weight to generational differences. By recent viewings it seems that your generation could all but predict your favourite colour. That the reason anyone acts the way they do is due to their generation. Beliefs can be shaped by environments but many sociologists, psychologists have problems with the whole sweeping generalisations. Firstly they assume that our beliefs stay still and can’t evolve. That what our beliefs may have been when we were the youths of the world don’t change with the times. Some headlines and assertions by those with influence almost point to DNA differences between generations, which absolutely do not exist.

Hollywood actress Jodie Foster stated she doesn’t like working with Gen Z’s, as she finds them annoying. While Renee Rapp, lead actress in the new movie adaptation of Mean Girls openly stated she’s ageist against Millennials. Both actresses made the comments in January of this year, and both were made on ‘personal experiences’. How have they managed to deduct that a whole generation is a certain way by a few interactions, imagine if this was a statement about race or gender. The press very much enjoy creating and stirring the pot of generational wars.

But that’s because they are one of the very institutions who spearheaded the use of generational tags. There is no official group of scientists or government officials who came up with these names. They are not based on science or pure reasoning. Originally they cropped up from different writers and have been adopted into popular culture. Yet, little is spoken about their prevalent usage within marketing. Generational marketing has been a consistent technique since the ‘Baby Boomer’ generation. The 1940’s brought about the discovery that if you marketed straight to teenagers, you could make a pretty penny. And things evolved from there. Splitting up generations helped businesses tailor advertisements to the correct demographic with heightened success. Although many sociologists have argued about their accuracy, marketers have pioneered their use. This is rather telling that the only group who are agreed on their legitimacy are the ones trying to sell you stuff. Should we really listen to them?

Social scientist at Kings College London Bobby Duffy, author of “The Generational Myth”, believes that their ability to offer insight is limited, more limited than we are led to believe. It makes it easier to blame a whole group for something such as the climate crisis, than to investigate the real reason. It aids in the current culture war where we’ve heard phrases such as “snowflake” and “woke”. He predicts that at any time the newest generation is twice as comfortable with any new cultural idea than the generation before, meaning the generational patterns are astoundingly similar. Having less to do with your generation and more associated with your stage in life.

Duffy points to the fact that in this new age informational division is rife and a spicy headline with conflict in the title is likely to get a click, so the misinformation of generations is allowed to spread and influence. A survey looking at how different generations view each other created by Duffy proved his point. One question asked participants to comment on a quote by TV personality Katie Hyslop, which alluded to young people not being able to buy a house because they spend too much on takeaways and avocado toast etc. Over half agreed, but surprisingly Gen Z’s were just as likely to agree than older generations.

Unfortunately, what followed in the press were articles disregarding that fact and pitting Baby Boomers against Gen Z’s.

Overall he believes that more people will have beliefs in common with generations up and down, than across. Meaning families and upbringing is more of a marker than when you were born.

A child from a middle class family, growing up in an affluent suburb will have little in common with their fellow generational peer who grew up inner-city below the poverty line. Other than online trends and popular culture references.  

Yet Duffy is not the only social scientist to seriously question the importance of generation labels. Pew Research Centre received a letter from 150 demographers and social scientists in 2021, asking that the institution stop using the generational labels. There were several reasons behind their request including, their existence undermining actual social research, the ability of institutions like the Pew Research Centre to create a false belief that these labels are somewhat “official” and backed by science, and their risk to informed public discourse.

And that’s my biggest problem with generational labels and reasoning, their ability to hide more influencing factors and distract from reasoned public debate.

For example headlines in recent years have all pointed to Gen-Zs as the “lonely generation”, a generation that is inherently lonely. A 2022 study found that 37% of all adults reported being lonely, where as this jumped to 58% when just looking at adults aged 18-24. All ages reported an increase in loneliness, which is why many charities have chosen to focus on the issue. However, it doesn’t seem helpful to mark this as a generational issue, as if there is something inherently wrong with ‘Gen Z’s’ DNA which makes it hard for them to make friends or socialise. It isn’t as if the ‘Millennials’ and ‘baby boomers’ are all having a big party while the ‘gen Z’s’ walk around outside with a raincloud hovering above their sad little faces. This study was conducted right off the back of Covid and lockdowns etc, at a time when those young people would have been socialising at school, university or new jobs, which they couldn’t. At that age we start to move away from our family homes, and the majority don’t have children or spouses, so we rely on friends, colleagues and activities to stop the loneliness. This section of life stalled and it’s had its effect, unfortunately. Now, your ‘Gen X’s’ or ‘millennials’ would have been just the same.

But that doesn't mean that this ‘lonely’ generation will forever be that way. As they grow (outwith lockdowns) they accumulate friends, partners, even children, just as the generations before them will have done. It is true that loneliness decreases at this stage. And hey, they’ll follow in their footsteps as loneliness increases once again when they become pensioners. That’s just what happens. Marking it as a ‘generational issue’ distracts from what has actually occurred.

However, there are more prevalent examples than this. Class, and poverty are unfortunately, still a bigger indicator of a person’s choices, beliefs and path in life than their generation. Headlines such as Lazy Gen-Z’s can’t buy house because of avocado toast, takes the heat off of housing crisis and the surge in poverty. It’s a free pass for those in charge, while we start pointing fingers at each other online.

It’s a bit of fun online and there’s no smoke without fire. Yet, maybe it’s time we step back slightly and don’t put too much importance on when someone was born, there is little proof to state it is more important than where someone was born, their race, gender, upbringing or financial situation through-out childhood.