Why Generation Y?

What do I call my generation? 

In the wide history of the world, it has not been hugely important to name generations because people born as far as a century apart could still lead a similar life.  In the last 150 years however, life has been changing very fast and the world that I am growing up in, the world that I am accustomed to, is far different from that of my grandparents, or parents.

The reason why Generations matter so much, is that the time which someone is born, decides the world in which they grow up in. And the world that we grow up in, decides the people we become.  This is best explained by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers. 

Gladwell points out that from the 75 richest people in History, 14 are Americans born between 1831 and 1840.   This list includes the likes of John Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan; all people who are known to be extremely successful.  I’m sure they were all hard-workers and extremely intelligent people, yet the characteristic that they all have in common is their birth date.

 

The industrial revolution took place in the 1860’s and these 14 people were at the precise right age when it happened: they were old enough that they had the intelligence to take advantage of the growing economy, and they were young enough that they were willing to take risks and be entrepreneurial.

I am sure there are men as smart as J.P. Morgan in every Generation, but Morgan was born at the right time and likely had some lucky circumstances that led him to be successful.  I take the stance of Nurture when I say that these people would not have been nearly as successful if not for their circumstances. 

So what circumstances shape us?  This question is really hard to answer because my generation has not really grown up yet.  We have not reached our potential and we won’t for a few years.   To see the effects of a generation’s circumstances, it is easier for us to look to the past.

My Grandparents were born around the 1920’s-1940’s.  They happened to be too young to fight in WW2 and too old to fight in Vietnam.  Throughout their lives though, whether WWII, the Cold War, Vietnam or Korea, they lived in a time of War. 

My parents actually come from two different generations.  They are only separate by 5 years but my Dad is really a Baby Boomer and my Mom is more of Generation X. 

The Baby Boomers grew up in the Bipolar world.   They saw the communists as evil and they often lived in fear of a Russian takeover.  This environment created two great things: nationalism (as a result of having one common enemy), and great science fiction novels and movies.

Generation X is really just the name of the generation that came after the Baby Boomers. Generation X did not grow up with the hardships of war.  They saw economic strife but they also saw great success stories.  My Mom (and Dad) saw the cold war come to an end. They saw Ronald Reagan lower inflation, raise employment and lower taxes to record lows.  Generation X saw the great economic expansion of the 1990s under Clinton.  They were also the ones who lived through the personal Computer Revolution.

Generation X saw a life of optimism and went on to believe that it is possible to end wars and create peace and solve problems.

My Dad sort of falls into this category but he grew up during the hard parts of the Cold War as well.  He still has that telltale love for science fiction and anti-communist mentality to him.

But we are a different generation.  People have called us different things: 90’s kids, Generation Y, the Millennials, Generation Me.  We have been called Selfish, Lazy, and Ignorant of the world around us.  But kids are called these things all the time.

 

Our true Definition is yet to come but for the remainder of this blog, I will consider us to be Generation Y.   Why Generation Y? It is an unbiased description.  Generation X got its name because they were the Generation unknown. They weren't Baby Boomers anymore but people didn't know what to call them. 

Y comes after X so we are simply

the next Generation.