X Marks The Spot For Generation Z

Typical Generation Z'er member pursuing advanced studies on a plasma television set

It must be the hallmark of any earlier generation to promulgate to today’s generation the way things used to be and why they were so grand.  We’ve all heard from parents or grandparents, “When I was your age, people used to have to do A or B,” implying that doing A or B back then was somehow better for your character.  I used to tune most of the stuff out.  As a teenager, I asked how could my parents, members of the Silent Generation born between 1925 and 1945, understand what it was like growing up as a Generation X’er, born between 1961 and 1981?

Probably less than I assumed they did.  My parents were toddlers during the Great Depression and up until the end of the Second World War.   They missed these major history markers in memory, but through their own parents who remembered these incidents very well, their generation’s thinking was shaped.  By the time my parents were in their late teenage years in the mid 1950’s, the USA was experiencing a level of relative prosperity compared with the rest of the world it will never experience again.  The USA had an industry, an economy, and job prospects no other place on the planet could match.    There was one enemy, the Soviet Union, but it was far away and not an omniscient threat.

One paid a price growing up in this time period though.  Buying into this prosperity meant buying into the system hook, line, and sinker, great if you were already the unquestioning type.  The Silent Generation was silent, all right.  They kept their mouths shut.  They married right out of college to a partner who was probably more a reproductive mate than a soul mate, had kids almost immediately, and set about finding the safest job they could that would insure a long and prosperous career.  Most women didn’t and weren’t required to work. There was little room for alternative lifestyles, doubting of authority, or breaking any molds.

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