You might not be in the generation that you think you are.

The “generation” is a frequently misunderstood cultural/sociological concept.  

Sometimes the word generation is used to refer to the levels of a family tree, but more often to describe a large demographic loosely associated with an age group.  The confusion concerning Boomers, Generation X and Millennials comes from the strict defining of a generation by being born between specific dates.  By a strict date measure there are many people that don’t fit the generational profile in which they are placed.  Then comes a dismissive explanation eluding to the concept of generations being irrelevant.  It’s a simple misunderstanding that takes only a little bit of patience to have a more accurate understanding. 

A generation has significance because of the characteristics that define the generation.  These characteristics are stratified between one generation and the previous or next generation.  And here is the important part - there are clusters of people that have the hallmark characteristics that fall between two dates. 

If you look at the various characteristic clusters on a chart they form a series of bell shaped curves that then provide the distinctions of generations.  

In the case of Generation X you might have an individual that embodies all of the Gen X characteristics but in the earliest part of the curve near the peak of the Boomer generation, this individual is an EARLY Gen X’er.  On the other side of the Generation X curve you might have an individual that embodies all of the Gen X characteristics but in the latest part of the curve near the peak of the Millennial generation, this individual is a late Gen X’er. 

Within these curves there are individuals that are at the 50% intersection of two generation.  This individual can not only be anywhere on the timeline of a generational curve (early or late) but they can also be at any percentage of distribution between two generations.  For example, an individual that is half Gen X and half Millennial very early on the Millennial curve/very late on the Gen X curve, or 10% Gen X and 90% Boomer half way between the rise and fall of the Gen X/Boomer curve, etc.

One last interesting thought about generations is that it might be a temporary phenomenon based on technology.  This concept of generations did not exist prior to the industrial revolution.  Previously, a person’s life would not have been that different from their great-great-great-grandfather’s life.  It was not until an era of ubiquitous and uniform mechanization that daily life would be very different between a parent and their child.  Interestingly, technology is on it’s own curve that advances faster and faster as new discoveries, new innovations, and new channels of spreading information emerge.  The futurist Ray Kurzweil (along with many others) predict the coming of a “singularity event” in which the rate of information will double at an increasing rate until it becomes so fast that it is immeasurable.   We have begun to see a glimpse of this in studying generational changes in Japan through the phenomenon of “speed tribes” or “otaku” culture.  This theory proposes that there will come a point that there will be no unified set of characteristics to define a generation.  After the last generation there will simply be micro-cultures or as they are called in Japan “otakus” (loosely translated from “fanatic” or in the derogatory sense as “freak”).  The benefit in Japan is that there are groups of natural specialists for everything from answering questions online to consulting to creating a perfect replica of a family katana.  

The western world may not experience our singularity in the same way but, in the meantime, when you hear an author on a podcast or a talking head on TV or a co-worker misusing the concept of generations, now you can say “ah, I know why they are confused… and it’ll take more time to explain than they care to listen… I’ll just send them this link.”

Do you have any thoughts about your generation? Does it mean anything to you? Has thinking of yourself as being of a specific generation given you any insights on the generations before or after yours?

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