Generations

I have been more than a little confused about generations.  You know—the X, Y, Z thing.  This morning, I used my Google machine to sort things out.  Here is what I found:

Baby Boomers (my generation) are those born between 1944 and 1964.

Gen X encompasses those born between 1965 and 1979.

Gen Y includes people born between 1980 and 1994.

Gen Z embraces anyone born between 1995 and 2015.

If you are doing the math here, you will notice a bit of imbalance in the length of time these various generations encompass.  This is because our designation for generations is more concerned with the world in which they were raised than the date of birth.  What wars influenced each generation?  What shaped the consumer markets?  What music?

Maybe more telling is the technology and media surrounding each generation.  Baby Boomers, for example, grew up with newspapers in hand.  Gen Y grew up on a diet of television.  Gen Z is online and going mobile.

To further add confusion (by this I mean mine), the term Millennials is used for those who reached adulthood in the first few years after the turn of the 21^st century.

Clearly, technology and war shape the generations more than any other factors.  I hazard to guess what the next generation will become.

—Mitchell Hegman