God has seen to it that all individuals are different. While there are many exceptions to the rule, persons of different generations have a tendency for their outlooks, attitudes, and reactions to life to be molded by the societal and world events of, or preceding, their time of life.
Our USA generations have been in a small number of multi-generational cycles. And, within each cycle, there tends to be a prevailing characteristic...one of 4 basic generational characteristics in America. Some generations are powerfully defined, such as the "Seniors" who went thru The Great Depression. Others are much more broken up into "cohorts" whose common-experience molding is on a much smaller scale.
As I will later show in this web site, not only do persons of each generation (or cohort) differ because of these varied external influences, all individuals differ according to various genetic predispositions and different temperaments. God has truly created "individuals"...unique creations in His image. How ignorant and arrogant are those who are distraught because so many folks don't "do" or "operate" like THEY do!
| Birth Years | NAME(S) | 1997 USA Population size | Attitudes and Characteristics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a Pilgrim generation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a Pilgrim generation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a Pilgrim generation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a Pilgrim generation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
(colonial cycle) | Puritan generation [idealist] |
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| Cavalier generation [reactive] |
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| Glorious generation [civic] |
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| Enlightenment generation [adaptive] |
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| Awakening generation [idealist] |
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(revolutionary cycle) | Liberty generation [reactive] |
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(revolutionary cycle) | Republican generation [civic] |
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(revolutionary cycle) | Compromise generation [adaptive] |
(civil war cycle) Transcendental |
[idealists] (civil war cycle) Gilded generation |
[reactive] (civil war cycle) Progressive generation |
[adaptive] ("great power" cycle) Missionary generation |
[idealistic] ("great power" cycle) the LOST generation | [reactive] 900,000 |
| ("great power" cycle) GI generation [civic] 19.9 million | children of the WWI gen. & fighters in WWII& young in the Great Depression...all leading to strong models of teamwork to overcome and progress; | society strongly interested in personal morality and near-absolute standards of right and wrong; strong sense of personal civic duty; marriage is for life; strong loyalty to jobs, groups, schools, etc.; yet is the labor-union-spawning generation; credo "use it up, fix it up, make it do, or do without"; avoid debt...save and buy with cash. Tom Brokaw's new 1998 book has a title which he bestows on this group, The Greatest Generation. Age of radio and air flight. ("great power" cycle) Silent generation (possibly gen #283 since Adam & Eve) [adaptive] 49
million | born around, or parented by, those of The Great Depression of 1929 & children of the WWII gen.; marriage is for life; labor union
generation; Korean and Viet Nam War generation; in grade school, the gravest teacher complaints were about passing notes and chewing gum in class; readers; the Big-Band/Swing music
generation; strong sense of trans-generational common values and near-absolute
truths; dsiciplined, self-sacrificing, & cautious. | (millennial cycle) [idealist] 77 million | the "me" generation; "rock and roll" music gen.; ushered in the free love and societal "non-violent" protests which triggered violence; self righteous & self-centered; buy it now and use credit; too busy for much neighborly involvement yet strong desires to reset or change the common values for the good of all; the first TV generation; quite conversational & skilled vocal & writer advocates; poor on marital skills...the first divorce generation; begin "gay toleration"...AIDS begins and is first
lethal infectious disease in the history of any culture on earth which was not subjected to any
quarantine what-so-ever because of a beginning obsession of individual rights prevailing over the common good...especially if it is applicable to any type of minority
group; optimistic, driven, team-oriented. | (millennial cycle) "13th" generation ["Bridgers" 1977-1994] America's21st generation generation X [reactive] 59
million | raised by the career and money conscious Boomers amidst
the societal disappointment over governmental authority and the Viet Nam war and the scoff-law attitudes coming out of the protest times; school problems about drugs; late to marry (after cohabitation) and quick to divorce...many single parents; are iconographic...clothes lables are large & shows of caring (turning out for a worthy-cause rally) are fully sufficient expressions (while government, charities, agencies will see to the work of it); want what they want and want it now but struggling to buy; conversationally shallow because relating consists of shared time watching video movies; short on loyalty & wary of commitment; all values are relative...must tolerate all peoples; self-absorbed and suspicious of all organization; computer generation; survivors as individuals;
cautious; skeptical, unimpressed with authority, self-reliant. | (millennial cycle) generation Y the Millennials the Net generation echo boomers [? civic] 80
million | undefined as yet; school problems with drugs, shootings, rape; the internet generation; buy it now...online. | |
(posted Sept. 1998; latest addition 18 July 2005)