I have always enjoyed these things if only for their generalizations that seem oh-so-true, but when you scratch at them a bit, they smell not-so-good (sort of like Libertarianism).

Take line 4 for example: Baby Boomers are "idealistic." Oh yeah: Peace and Love. This is the "Everyone who grew up in the 1960s is a hippie at heart" myth. Here's a thought: Are the baby boomers so idealistic? Or is that just what we want to believe to blunt the history of that generation? I think you can divide baby boomers into roughly three categories: the people who bought into "Peace and Love," the people who bought into Nixon/Goldwater/Reagan, and the vast majority who worked, went to school, went to war, and gave birth to Generation X. The first two are such a small part of who actually grew up in the '60s, but seem to have had the most power that it is easy to see why some Baby Boomers resent BOTH groups as the world they managed to craft isn't so damn nice, either from a "hippie" point of view or the more conservative view.

Generation X is troubling as well. I know very few members of my generation who are 'cynical.' Pragmatic, sure. I don't mind being called a pragmatist at all, but pragmatism and cynicism always seemed to be coupled together when we talk this generational stuff and it cyncism gets laid at the feet of my age cohort undeservedly. Sure, there are some very cynical people born around my time, don't get me wrong. I would chalk up aberrant cynicism not to generational impluses, but to that behavior being a general American trait. If anything, Generation X was, to some degree, the generation that can be accused of being most naively idealistic and in some cases successful at it (South African Divestment Movement, AIDS activism come to mind). If my generation can be accused of anything, I think it is not paying attention the actions of the previous generation, especially with regard to social entitlements, and not taking up this as a cause. I think the training we got from our parents on how to ignore a problem was really, really good and they also gave us a bunch of ready-made tools, called neoconservatism, to justify it all that ignorant behavior.

I am currently interacting all the time with members of Generation Y here at Rutgers. They are smart, sharp and full of energy to the point of buzzing. I seem to remember my college days being much more slow paced. They are also prone to dismissing any sort of knowledge imparted to them as being ideological from the start. This might be the product of having easy, ready-to-hand knowledge technologies that allow them to check behind each and everything thing that anybody says quickly (if not accurately). They are also poorly read and consider reading things like the classics to be a momumnetal waste of time. It is not Generation Y. It is Generation QED. I think this technological desire of the post 1977 generation has a lot to do with the eclecticism and naive realism that they participate in. One of the really noticeable traits of a lot of these kids is "flavor of the moment" musical tastes. It isn't so much diversity as it is divergence for the sake of divergence.

Anyhow, I've run out of steam. I htink I will just be exaspperated for a couple of hours.... 

True happiness is knowing you are a hypocrite. -- Ivor Cutler

Good follow-up. I suppose I could agree with you to some extent. However, I tend to agree with the graph as well.

A lot of generalities, but to be so brief, the descriptions sound pretty good.

There are many of the "Greatest Generation" that really aren't so great. Baby Boomers, conform to the rules? I guess to get that killer job. Generation X accepts diversity and is self-reliant? Guess it depends on where they live and who their daddy is. Generation Y, individualistic and multitask fast? Sort of like baby boomer hippies except their butts that show below their pants are fat. Multitask fast, doing what though?

Whether or not they are exact keywords, I bet it does work for marketers. Maybe it is just what each generation wants to think of itself.

So why does Gen X rate such a small, compact cohort (only 10 years long and half the size of the two around it)? As someone who gets lumped in with the Baby Boomers, even though I was born WAY too late to be part of the peace and love generation, I have always thought this stuff was a bunch of hooey. I remember how the demographers keep pushing forward the date for when the Baby Boom generation ended from 1959 to 1961 to 1964.

Speaking as a supposed baby boomer, but one who studied computer science starting in high school, was on the Internet before there was an Internet, and learned all my politics after Vietnam and Nixon blew up the last remaining pretensions of idealism in American politics, I don't recognize myself in any of the psychographics of my suppposed generation.

Marketers would do better to narrow their focus or broaden it significantly. Appeal to me as a woman in my forties, or as an iPod owner, or as a social liberal. Or appeal to everyone by revisiting that old-fashioned concept of mass appeal.

And as for workplace behavior. Honestly. "Employers say this generation would rather be mentored than managed and many are looking for flexible work schedules." Who exactly doesn't fit that description?

 I'm supposed to be a Baby Boomer due to my birthdate, I have some of the personality of a Gen X'er, but I think more and more like a Gen Y'er...(I've never met a piece of new technology I didn't like)

Though I must say..."Nurtured" ain't the word I would use for most Gen Y'ers..."Spoiled" is more like it.

"You can't fix stupid..." Ron White

I thought of this post today as I read Garrison Keillor's daily Writer's Almanac.  Today is the birthday of Walker Percy.

Dr. Percy wrote, "[We] live in a deranged age, more deranged than usual, because in spite of great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing."

He wrote this in the 60's.  We have made great strides since then.

nill illigitimi carborundum

I prefer these guy's take on it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generations_(book)

 A little more research-based, and the generations are more evenly divided (to address a point another poster made).

 Good book - I read it in 91 (despite Wiki's giving a date of 92) because I can distinctly recall sitting at my desk reading it at the school at which I taught (for one year only). Then, I named my band from a line in it.