It’s a fitting topic for a real-life networking event as it addresses a growing disconnection between age groups. This is the issue I really wanted to explore when I started this large Generations project: assessing the ongoing validity of using generational demographics at a time of seemingly increased polarisation and a raging culture war. Identity boundaries are blurring, yet there seems to be more that divides us than unites us.
That’s why it’s important now, more than ever, to step beyond the stereotypes that we are all guilty of upholding towards a more impactful understanding of consumer behaviour. The report powers new perspectives, particularly around the adoption of Flat Age mindsets and a much-needed focus on a new set of life stage markers.
In the initial stages of research for Generations, I tasked myself with an immersion in the Boomer world. For a Gen Xer, this was a tough ask. I am well aware of my own generational prejudices. Gen X’s relationship with our Boomer forebears is similar to the Uncanny Valley-like love-hate relationship between Britons and the French: so near, so similar, yet so... différent.
I admit to having thrown a few mental air punches when Greta tore into those resource-guzzling Boomers in her speech to the UN in 2019, not quite thinking about my jet-set backpack years (oh, alright, decades)…
‘You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you,’ she blasted.
So, in looking to better understand Boomers, I had to put into practice what I was preaching. But what I really learned more about was my own generation.
So, to my fellow Gen Xers, I want to say this: our invisibility is a cloak of our own making, tied tightly with a knot of cynicism. Yes, I get it – you’re time-poor and probably exhausted – but drop any apathy, paralysis or comforting nostalgia and start taking action.
Especially Gen X women, who should let every younger woman know that their seat at the table is no longer guaranteed.
We Xers were given the gift of boredom in our youth, to conjure up our cut-and-paste, post-modern dreams of a digital future. This future has been brought to life today in our tech-dominated world – one in which we are currently negotiating the terms of our inevitable partnership with AI. So, embrace your role as the bridgers and the unifiers of our analogue-digital eras. Loosen that knot and start seizing your moment.
All five Generations reports – Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha – are available free to LS:N Global members. Non-members can purchase them via our shop.
Feedback, as always, is most welcome.
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