Your generation — the years in which you were born — can say a lot about you, from baby boomer to gen alpha. What do you see as defining trends in your and other generations?
Share why if you wish.
Category: Age
Do You Do Less Than When You Were Younger?
As you get older, do you find that you are less active? Do you stay home more, participate less, or find you are less involved?
Share why if you wish.
What Change To Your Identity Have You Had To Accept?
Establishing an identity can be hard. Updating that identity can be even harder, if it means changing the way you think of yourself.
A useful exercise in self-awareness is determining who you are. That might include your values, interests, and aspirations. Once you determine who you are and who you want to become, that knowledge can help guide your actions. It can shape how you see yourself, and how you talk about yourself. As a result, that can influence how others see you.
Sometimes, though, the identity that you use to help how you think of yourself has to change. There might be several different reasons for this change — perhaps you have just evolved as a person. Or maybe health problems limit how you live your life. Cultural changes, a new job, or a personal realization can all be catalysts for change.
If your identity is equivalent to your own self, then a change to that identity might well mean that you are no longer the person you used to be. This can be difficult to accept. For all that we change over time, it is natural to think of yourself as constant and unchanging. The rest of the world might change, but not you.
As you have aged and matured, how has your personal identity changed? Has that, in turn, led to an update in how you see yourself? Have you had to accept a personal change that was a surprise or that was in some way unwelcome?
Related questions: Who are you? How have you changed? What are your values? How do you demonstrate your values?
Are Generational Designations Useful?
It has become fairly common to refer to generations of people using a nickname, like “Millennials” or “Gen X”. Are these designations useful?
It doesn’t take much effort to find articles or websites that define a generational group based on some age range. For example, the “Boomer” generation, named after the Baby Boom that occurred in the 1950s, typical includes anyone born between 1946 and 1964.
The exact dates, and even entire generations, are hotly disputed. However, regardless of the exact definition, many people find it convenient to group people together in this way. Then some broad generalizations can be drawn over the group.
For instance, the group referred to as “Gen X” is often called by the alternate name, the latch-key generation. This refers to the fact that many kids in this generation were highly independent, largely as a result of both parents entering the work force. Every day, latch-key kids got themselves home from school, made a snack, did homework, and entertained themselves without any assistance from parents.
However, it isn’t true that every single member of the generation was like this. In fact, it is doubtful that even a majority of people who are classified as “Gen X” had this experience. Similar examples exist for any one of the defined generations.
As such, is it actually useful to draw these generalizations? While the idea of these groups might hold some appeal to our order-seeking brains, are they actually illuminating in some way? Are there actual, helpful inferences to be drawn by these generational classifications? Or do individuals defy stereotyping?
Related questions: How do you show your age? In what ways do you not act your age? With which groups do you identify?
How Do You Show Your Age?
In what ways do you show your age? That might include slang you use, music you listen to, TV you like, clothing choices, and so on.
Share why if you wish.