Is Gen X ready to replace the boomers?
Wealth, cynicism, activism: these are all somewhat shaped by the generation we are born into. Which means Gen X-ers should now be at the peak of their influence. So what’s holding them back?
From the Greatest Generation (born 1900) to Generation Alpha (born 2010), everyone currently drawing breath fits into a neat category based around the year in which they were born. Apparently. That Winston Peters and Martin Luther King Jr are both members of what is called the Silent Generation suggests these labels have limited usefulness. The closer one looks at the generations, the more imprecise the categories become – just star signs with better stats to back them up.
What then of Generation X, the allegedly forgotten generation born between 1965 and 1980, in numbers smaller than the Baby Boomers who preceded them and the Millennials who followed? According to figures quoted on RNZ, 1,065,000 Baby Boomers were born in New Zealand, 935,000 Gen-X babies and 1,060,000 Millennials.
What defines Gen X, apart from that 15-year band? A typical explanation is that they “came of age during a time of economic uncertainty, technological transformation and profound social changes”, according to marketing website mediaculture.com. Sure – but what generation didn’t?
US psychologist Jean Twenge has written widely and authoritatively on the nature of the cohorts. She has a litany of traits for X-ers that includes an apparent jumble of not necessarily complementary characteristics: love for shared pop-culture escapism, adaptability, shorter childhood and longer adolescence, high self-esteem, cynicism, political apathy, interest in saving the environment, delayed leadership.
But even when there are clear generational differences, they tend to be minor. One of the most comprehensive surveys of attitudes between generations is undertaken by market research firm Ipsos, examining everything from anticipated spend on subscriptions to overall happiness. On economic categories, confidence among New Zealanders is highest with Boomers then decreases with each generation down to Generation Z. And in most cases – feeling loved, feeling life has meaning, feeling in touch with nature – the difference between the generations’ poles are within a range of 10%. For instance, 87% of Boomers are satisfied that they can say and do what they want, as are 78% of Gen X and Gen Z.
More extreme variations could warrant further examination. Satisfaction with co-workers is a high 92% for Boomers, 79% for Gen X and a dispiriting 67% for Gen Z. Only 4% of Boomers are dissatisfied with co-workers, while 19% of Gen X and 29% of Gen Z feel that way.
The tendency of prophecies to self-fulfil doesn’t help: unless you’re in marketing, that is. If you tell people often enough that they are obsessed with popular culture, those Star Wars T-shirts and REM boxed sets will sell themselves.
Clearly, some generalisations can be made with confidence. It’s only logical that people living through the same social forces at the same developmental stages will show some of the same consequences. The global financial crisis of 2007-08 had lasting economic effects on many age groups, but these were the years when Gen X should have been consolidating retirement savings and home ownership but found their ability to do either severely curtailed.
As can be seen from the graphic (opposite), the generational names, when first given, had no basis in research. They were merely nicknames that stuck – Gen X might as easily have been called Gen Slacker, and Millennials Avocado Botherers. Is there anything that can be meaningfully said of Generation X when that group, no longer children, now have children and even grandchildren of their own? Is X actually three generations in the biblical sense?