Baby boomer

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Baby boomer is a term used to describe a person who was born during the demographic Post-World War II baby boom(1946-1964) ^[1][2] , and is also a term used to describe a person who is part of the Baby Boom Generation (controversial birth years, starting as early as 1942, ending as early as 1953, ending as late as 1964). Originally, everyone born during the 1946-1964 boom in births was considered part of the Baby Boom Generation, but over time, many experts have come to believe that two separate cultural generations were born during this period. The most common name used for the younger generation born then is Generation Jones. Many influential experts and publications now use the term Generation Jones, and the victory of Barack Obama, born in 1961, in November 2008 significantly increased the awareness of Generation Jones, with many experts pointing to Obama as the first Generation Jones President.^{[3] [4][5][6]} The most widely-used beginning year for Generation X is 1965, although a small but passionate group of people sometimes argue the minority view that Generation X started as early as 1961.

Following World War II, many countries, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand experienced an unusual spike in birth rates, a phenomenon commonly referred to as the baby boom.

Characteristics

Size and economic impact

Seventy-six million American children were born between 1946 and 1959, representing cohorts that would be significant on account of its size alone. These several cohorts share characteristics like higher education than previous generations and assumptions of lifelong prosperity and entitlement developed during their childhood in the 1950s.

Because the Baby Boomer generation has found that their parents are living longer, their children are seeking a better and longer college education, and they themselves are having children later in life, the boomers have become "sandwiched" between generations. The "sandwich generation", coined in the 1980s, refers to baby boomers who must care for both elderly parents and young children at the same time.

The age wave theory suggests an impending economic slowdown when the boomers start retiring during 2007-2009.^[7]

Cultural identity

Many experts have noted that the cultural touchstones for those born during the first part of the birth boom are very different than for those born during the second part.

The boomers found that their music, most notably rock and roll, was another expression of their generational identity. Transistor radios were personal devices that allowed teenagers to listen to The Beatles and The Motown Sound.

In 1993, Time magazine reported on the religious affiliations of baby boomers. Citing Wade Clark Roof, a sociologist at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the articles stated that about 42% of baby boomers were dropouts from formal religion, a third had never strayed from church, and one-fourth of boomers were returning to religious practice. The boomers returning to religion were "usually less tied to tradition and less dependable as church members than the loyalists. They are also more liberal, which deepens rifts over issues like abortion and homosexuality."^[8]

It is jokingly said that, whatever year they were born, boomers were coming of age at the same time across the world; so that Britain was undergoing Beatlemania (which in fact occurred before the peak of the British baby boom in 1966) while people in the United States were driving over to Woodstock, organizing against the Vietnam War, or fighting and dying in the same war; boomers in Italy were dressing in mod clothes and "buying the world a Coke"; boomers in India were seeking new philosophical discoveries; American boomers in Canada had just found a new home and escaped the draft; Canadian Boomers were organizing support for Pierre Trudeau;. It is precisely because of these experiences that many believe those born in the second half of the birth boom belong to another generation, as events that defined their coming of age have nothing in common with leading or core boomers (which Daniel Yankelovich and other demographers made perfectly clear).

In the 1985 study of US generational cohorts by Schuman and Scott, a broad sample of adults was asked, "What world events over the past 50 years were especially important to them?"^[9] For the baby boomers the results were:

• Baby Boomer cohort #1 (born from 1946 to 1954)
  • Memorable events: assassinations of JFK, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr., political unrest, walk on the moon, Vietnam War, anti-war protests, social experimentation, sexual freedom, civil rights movement, environmental movement, women's movement, protests and riots, experimentation with various intoxicating recreational substances
  • Key characteristics: experimental, individualism, free spirited, social cause oriented
  • Key members: U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush
• Baby Boomer cohort #2 (born from 1955 to 1964, commonly called Generation Jones)
  • Memorable events: Watergate, Nixon resigns, the Cold War, the oil embargo, raging inflation, gasoline shortages
  • Key characteristics: less optimistic, distrust of government, general cynicism
  • Key members: Douglas Coupland, Barack Obama, who many national observers have referred to as post-Boomer, and more specifically part of Generation Jones^{[10][11][12][13]}

Aging and end of life issues

As of 1998, it was reported that as a generation boomers had tended to avoid discussions and planning for their demise and avoided much long term planning.^[14] However, beginning at least as early as that year, there has been a growing dialogue on how to manage aging and end of life issues as the generation ages. ^[15] In particular, a number of commentators have argued that Baby Boomers are in a state of denial regarding their own aging and death and are leaving an undue economic burden on their children for their retirement and care. ^[16][17][18]

Journalist Jeff Chang wrote in his book Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, "Boomers seem to have had great difficulty imagining what could come after themselves."^[19]

One book, written by Colorado doctor Terry Grossman, titled "The Baby Boomers' Guide to Living Forever", proposes how Baby Boomers might avoid death. On page 3 of the book, Grossman writes, unironically, "As an official member of the Baby Boomer Generation, I really and truly do not believe that it was intended for us to die. Death, if and when it occurs, clearly will represent a mistake of some kind."^[20]

The humor publication The Onion published a satirical article celebrating the anticipated large-scale deaths of Baby Boomers in the upcoming years, quoting one fictional expert as saying the Boomers are "the most odious generation America has ever produced."^[21]

Impact on history and culture

An indication of the importance put on the impact of the boomer was the selection by Time magazine of the Baby Boom Generation as its 1967 "Man of the Year". As Claire Raines points out in ‘Beyond Generation X’, “never before in history had youth been so idealized as they were at this moment.” When Generation X came along it had much to live up to and to some degree has always lived in the shadow of the Boomers, more often criticized (‘slackers’, ‘whiners’ and ‘the doom generation’) than not.^[22]

See also

• Demographics of the United States
• Generation gap

Notes

External links

• Edward Cheung, "Baby Boomers, Generation X and Social Cycles". Long Wave Press, 2007.
• Excerpts from Boomer Nation on Plymouth State University Website
• Baby Boomers at the Open Directory Project