This probably isn’t that new of a thought to most of you all, but another post made me think to share it.

About a year ago my wife and I (both millennials) were taking a long walk and reflecting on some stuff. It occurred to us both that from our early to mid 20s forward it was hard getting good advice from our parents (both Boomers) on life matters. Sure, there’s the usual “they don’t know what the housing market is” stuff, but it seemed like more than that. That’s when we both had the glass shattering conclusion that we have experienced more life than our parents.

We didn’t mean travel. We honestly meant global changes and conflict. Sure, our parents had the Cold War and threats of nuclear annihilation, but it felt like the traumas of the last generation weren’t as frequent, global, and of personal impact. Economic meltdowns, global warming (with local weather events impacting us), 911, COVID… I don’t need to keep going.

So, we came to the conclusion that even though Boomers like to fall back to the “pick yourself up by your bootstraps” mantra, it turns out that they went through their adult lives with relatively little global/national trauma. This obviously can’t stand as a generalization for personal trauma, but on a macrochasm scale Boomers are Summer Children (matured during a time of plenty and ease).

  • imaqtpie@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    4 months ago

    Generation Jones is a grossly underutilized concept imo. It’s totally unfair to lump in people born after 1960 with the early Baby Boomers.

    Generation Jones were children during the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s and were young adults when HIV/AIDS became a worldwide threat in the 1980s.

    The name “Generation Jones” has several connotations, including a large anonymous generation, a “keeping up with the Joneses” competitiveness and the slang word “jones” or “jonesing”, meaning a yearning or craving. Pontell suggests that Jonesers inherited an optimistic outlook as children in the 1960s, but were then confronted with a different reality as they entered the workforce during Reaganomics and the shift from a manufacturing to a service economy, which ushered in a long period of mass unemployment. Mortgage interest rates increased to above 12 percent in the mid-eighties, making it virtually impossible to buy a house on a single income. De-industrialization arrived in full force in the mid-late 1970s and 1980s; wages would be stagnant for decades, and 401Ks replaced pensions, leaving them with a certain abiding “jonesing” quality for the more prosperous days of the past.

    • Dr. Bob@lemmy.caEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      No it’s not. My older siblings are part of Jones and with just six and eight year gaps they have had very different experiences than X. My favorite example; there were still government grants for university when they went through. They worked odd jobs during the summer knowing that grants would pay full tuition and residence. Government backed loans paid the rest. By the time I went through the grant program had been dismantled and loans were partially privatized. And I graduated into the aftermath of Black Monday.

      • imaqtpie@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        4 months ago

        We all know people who are part of Jones. Your anecdotal evidence is unconvincing.

        I’m a millenial and I received federal financial aid for my college tuition, so… clearly government-backed grants still exist.

        Also, your elder siblings had to deal with the height of the AIDS epidemic. The first HIV medication wasn’t approved by the FDA until 1987.

        Similarly, they got to enjoy of 6-8 years of additional exposure to toxic concentrations of lead as children. So lucky.

        See how you can make whatever argument you like if you start cherrypicking data points?

        • Dr. Bob@lemmy.caEnglish
          0·
          4 months ago

          I’m not an American. Federal grants still exist in Canada as well, but the eligibility criteria changed and the program was no longer universal by the time I went to post-secondary. As I said that was an example and there are many. I also had to deal with the height of the AIDS epidemic. The first case report in the literature was 1981. And lead contaminated water was never an issue in our jurisdiction.

          If you are a millenial you don’t have any lived experience from the period, so why do you question mine? I was part of the “baby bust” as they originally called it and programs and services that were available to my older siblings were not available to me.

          • imaqtpie@sh.itjust.works
            0·
            4 months ago

            My point is that your personal experience doesn’t negate the whole concept of generation jones. All the generational paradigms are based around the US anyway, it doesn’t line up perfectly with other countries.

            I came off a bit aggressive in my original comment, I’m sorry about that.

            • Dr. Bob@lemmy.caEnglish
              0·
              4 months ago

              It’s all good. The generations thing comes from the boomers as well, the huge number of babies that were born in the post-war period and that covered a lot of countries. They needed a name and everything else just formed around them.

              I won’t deny that someone born in 1946 had a very different experience than someone born in 1964, but from a programmatic view they all benefited from growth in programs and services aimed at children and youth. Those programs underwent a dramatic change in the 1970s as they became means tested or mothballed because of the small number of children.

              Again, this is anecdotal, but I switched schools every two years before high school. Every one of them closed because there weren’t enough children in the catchment area. They were built because of the baby boom, and my Jones siblings walked to schools in the neighborhood because classes were full. I was bussed from Grade 1 onwards. And so on.