Silent Generation vs. Boomers vs. Generation X vs. Millennials vs. Zoomers — Who’s Better?

At some point this year, you’ll probably head to a family function. You’ll have three or four generations of people there if you’re lucky. Now, depending on your family dynamic, you might have to endure some unwanted comments. Often in these situations, while you’re enjoying a delicious home-cooked meal just as you’re about to take a bite of your aunt's special dish, someone will say —

“This generation is useless... they’re the absolute worst, they’re soft, and they’ve ruined everything.”

And the table might fall silent. Some people will nod their heads in agreement, and others will get ready to back them up, but before they can do that, one of your younger cousins sitting on the other side of the table will say —

“Excuse me, you boomers have destroyed the planet. Plastic, gas, capitalism — it’s all you!”

And that’s the end of that lovely family get-together, isn’t it? Maybe it hasn’t happened exactly this way for you. Maybe you’ve seen people talking about it on social media or you overheard a conversation at your local coffee shop, and whether or not you agree or disagree, it does make you wonder how valid each argument is.

Did one generation mess things up for everyone and which generation is that? Are we all so different really? Well, we want to find out what the experts say because if there is a generation we can blame, let’s do it, and if there isn’t, well, maybe we should rethink our approach to this.

Now, let’s start by breaking down the generations because you know, the names and heirs seemed to change pretty quickly. Also, it doesn’t seem to be set names straight across the board because researchers and the media changed them on a whim.

1. Silent Generation

From what we can tell, from 1928 until 1945, we have the "Silent Generation”. They got their name for being so conformist. Now, at the time, Senator Joseph McCarthy was proposing controversial policies in the US to curb communism, many of the threats he spoke about were unfounded and made the public paranoid, and everyone silently believed every word he said, no matter how unrealistic he sounded.

Their parenting style was pretty conformist too. Women were to stay home and make sure dinner was cooked in the house was clean and the men had to work for most of their lives.

2. Baby Boomer

In 1946, the "Baby Boomer Generation” started, and it lasted until about 1964. After World War II, the population exploded, and a boom in babies being born, which explains the name.

Now, while we think of baby boomers as conformists and out of touch, there is a defiance in them that later generations often forget about. They defy their parents and went to music festivals, forest weekends away, and created the summer of love. They protested the Vietnam War, experimented with drugs, and stood up for civil rights. As parents, boomers looked at growing up from their kid's perspective. They focused on emotional growth and started the concept of family meetings.

3. Generation X

Now, “Generation X” was from 1964 until 1980. They lived through the AIDS epidemic, a shifting culture that would enable better LGBTQ+ rights, and they made watching TV a regular pastime. They’re also kind of known as the slacker generation. These parents were more involved with their children’s education, and it’s when the term "Helicopter Parenting" was coined.

From 1981 until 1996, we’ve got two generations:

1. The first millennial generation
2. Generation Y

4. Millennials

“Millennials” or Generation Y — this generation spent their teens and early 20s living through the aftermath of 9/11. They’re the first generation born with and without the internet.

Now, boomers accuse millennials of being self-centered and entitled, a result of excessive social media use, but studies show that this generation has far more volunteers than ever, their health and environmentally conscious, and their community oriented. They prefer to support local stores when possible, and they’re more focused on art and creativity than previous generations.

As parents, there are more open-minded and accepting up their children. Their approach to parenting is freer and has less turn structure. Now, while it’s too early to tell the full effects of this kind of parenting, experts are divided on the effect it might have. There’s a fake structure to this parenting. They’re given playtime at school, but it’s carefully arranged for them to hit different goals. Their parents balance equally busy work and personal lives, only to be kept going by the structure and routine they have in place.

5. Generation Z

And finally, “Generation Z” is from 1997 to 2010.

They’re the first to be born into a world where the Internet and social media are constant. They’re always connected to each other. From a very early age, they began looking at a screen.

Now, each generation has been through a lot a war pandemic, major cultural shifts, economic downturns, and upturns, and each one has coped in different ways; some better than others and each generation is equally different from the preceding one. Millennials are more diverse than their parents, but their parents were also more diverse that their grandparents. Each new generation is more educated. Each new generation has more rights and a better quality of life for women and people of color. Now, interestingly, newer generations show a decrease in the marriage rate. Cultural norms, an open labor force, better education, and resources have made people more independent and self-sufficient. You don’t need two people of the opposite sex in the same house to survive anymore. Actually, the largest decline in marriages was between the silent generation and the baby boomers. Boomer women kicked down the doors in the workforce, often dealing with unprecedented degrees of harassment and bullying just for being there. And, you know, as different as our experiences have been, no generation dealt with less or more than the other.

We may not have major wars, but we are constantly bombarded with attacks, discrimination, and danger. We may not have the Summer of Love or Roaring Twenties, but we can reach and positively influence people in ways we’ve never been able to before. So much more of us have the resources to make a major difference in this world, and that readers, it makes us the same. We’ve gone through the ups and downs of thought, society, and our parents and dealt with disparaging comments, and received love & acceptance from people we don’t even know. We have all lived our own unique version of the same things. We really aren’t all that different when you zoom out far enough.

So, when you next hear that same line at the table again, we encourage you to be the person who reminds everyone about the good and bad that we’ve all been through.

“We create a better dialogue with our similarities than we do with our differences.”

And that healthy dialogue, that’s what’s going to help us change the world.

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