Generations

(From www.colpm.org/program/ties.htm )

The Silent Generation (1930 - 1945)
The Baby Boomers (1946-1964)
Generation X (1965 - 1975)
Echo Boomers (1976 - 1990)
The Millennium's (1991-Present)

This just made me feel so old:

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Echo Boomers who started college in the Fall of 1999, for example, were born in 1981. They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan era. The President with the most influence on their lives is Bill Clinton.

Echo Boomers were prepubescent when the Persian Gulf War was waged. Witnessing it live on CNN made war seem surreal and certainly less exciting than the typical video game. Vietnam is ancient history and all but meaningless to them. The wars that draw their interest are conducted by hackers against the "establishment."

They neither remember when Americans were held hostage in Iran nor do they care. They were 13 years old when the Soviet Union broke apart. The tearing down of the Berlin Wall was a non-event since the majority of them cannot point to Germany on a world map. They do not remember the Cold War and have no knowledge of air raid drills, bomb shelters, the purpose of Civil Defense or what a military draft. Yet, they know all too well the threat of classmates turned terrorists in their schools. A startling number dont think twice about the consequences of infanticide. They rarely collaborate choosing instead to collude in order to get their way. Drawing upon a parallel with their Baby Boomer parents, they indulge in life, they dont engage in it.

Black Monday (1987) was a bleep on the radar screen of Echo Boomers while many of their parents' experienced sudden wealth syndrome leading some to diagnose their children's problems as stemming from "affluenza". Most of them have at least two houses to call home and multiple sets of parents, step-parents and half-siblings.

They were too young to remember Mount St. Helen's blow up, the Challenger disaster or the massacre in Tienamin Square. They cant remember a time before AIDS, metal detectors, or email. Atari and Pac-man predate them as do record albums, 8 tracks, 45s and Hi Fis. As a result, they have no frame of reference for the phrase "you sound like a broken record". The compact disc (CD) was introduced when they were three years old. There have always been VCRs, voice mail, and computers in their lives. They were born the year after Sony introduced the Walkman. Roller-skating has always meant in-line. Popcorn has never been popped anywhere but in a microwave.

They are mesmerized by the family-oriented "oldies" on "Nick at Night" like Leave It To Beaver, My Three Sons, I Love Lucy and Happy Days. Bevis and Butthead were their role models. America and Alabama are places, not musical groups. Fast food always came in environmentally friendly packaging. And a seemingly natural rite of passage seems to be from pacifier to cell phone.
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