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Suzy Jacobson Cherry
Defying Stereotypes: Generation Jones
2024-07-05
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Generation Jones remembers the moon landing much more clearly than watching the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show.Photo byApollo 11 Images
We’ve all heard it, we’ve discussed it, and mostly, we’ve bought into it. Each generation born in the United States since the turn of the twentieth century has had an identifying nickname. Most of the generational titles have beginning and end dates, though those dates sometimes fluctuate depending on the resource.
Generational boundaries have always existed. As one generation grows older, another comes of age, and yet another is being born while all the while societies change with new discoveries and technological advances. Younger generations question the abilities of the older generations while the elders distrust the wisdom of the youth.
Humans have understood this from the beginning of civilization. However, until the Twentieth Century, nobody seems to have felt the need to define the boundaries of the generations, nor give them names.
Have you ever wondered why they do it now, when it started, and why? Why are there labels to identify us? Why are there generational stereotypes and why are these labels so deeply ingrained in our society?
A quick history of generational labels
Sociologist Karl Mannheim developed the theory of generations in 1927. It was a time of rapid modernization. The concept, as originally proposed by Mannheim, has inspired sociologists ever since. Mannheim proposed the idea of generations as units in which a birth or age cohort responds collectively to a set of social conditions and develops a unique consciousness and a sense of belonging and identity. Mannheim clearly stated that divisions of class and gender were significant and that members of a given generation did not all have the same experiences.
The naming of generations began in the 20th-century when Gertrude Stein gave the title of Lost Generation to the group who served during World War I, comprised of those who were born around the turn of the century.
In 1991, generational theorists Neil Howe and William Strauss published their study “Generations." In the study, Howe and Strauss identified the generation that fought World War II as the G.I. (for Government Issue) Generation. Less than ten years later, Tom Brokaw published his best-selling cultural history of the Great Depression and World War II, The Greatest Generation, and that is the name which stuck.
All these labels are marketing tools
The work of these and other sociologists led to the use of the information by marketers to create strategies to sell products. This is called generational marketing. The concept was born when marketers realized that each age group responded to different messages on different channels. For instance, each generation uses social media differently, and some have more brand loyalty than others.
By assigning easy to remember identifiable names and applying various attributes to these social generations, sociologists played right into the hands of marketers.
American Generations Timeline
Though there is a consensus on the general time period for generations, there is not an agreement on the exact year that each generation begins and ends. In 2014, NPR ran a report by Samantha Raphelson entitled,“GIs To Gen Z (Or Is It iGen?): How Generations Get Nicknames,” in which Raphelson delineates the following timeline.
GI Generation, Born 1901–1924
They were teenagers during the Great Depression and fought in World War II. Sometimes called the greatest generation (following a book by journalist Tom Brokaw) or the swing generation because of their jazz music.
Silent Generation, Born 1925–1942
They were too young to see action in World War II and too old to participate in the fun of the Summer of Love. This label describes their conformist tendencies and belief that following the rules was a sure ticket to success.
Baby Boomers, Born 1943–1964
The boomers were born during an economic and baby boom following World War II. These hippie kids protested against the Vietnam War and participated in the civil rights movement, all with rock ’n’ roll music blaring in the background.
Generation X, Born 1965–1979
They were originally called the baby busters because fertility rates fell after the boomers. As teenagers, they experienced the AIDs epidemic and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Sometimes called the MTV Generation, the “X” in their name refers to this generation’s desire not to be defined.
Millennials, Born 1980–2000
They experienced the rise of the Internet, Sept. 11 and the wars that followed. Sometimes called Generation Y. Because of their dependence on technology, they are said to be entitled and narcissistic.
Generation Z, Born 2001–2013
These kids were the first born with the Internet and are suspected to be the most individualistic and technology-dependent generation. Sometimes referred to as the iGeneration.
Generation Alpha, Born 2013 — to Date
The name “Generation Alpha” is meant to define the group as a first: The Alpha generation is the first to be born entirely in the 21st century. Because of this, they have been named after the first letter of the Greek alphabet, Alpha. Generation Alpha is still young, so what their generation will become is still unknown. However, there are certain characteristics that can be identified simply by acknowledging certain facts about the time in which they are growing up. The Alpha generation is already familiar with and expects their communication and information to be immediately accessible. They have an expectation of diversity, inclusion, and equality. Education is a strength for Alphas, who are expected to become the most formally educated generation in history.
But wait — you mentioned Generation Jones — where is it?
In the late 90s, American cultural commentator Jonathan Pontell discovered what many of us knew…some of us born on the cusp of Boomer and Gen X are more like Gen X than Boomer, but have memories most Gen X don’t.
Generation Jones is the social cohort worldwide and a “microgeneration” spanning from the late baby boomer generation to the first year of GenX. Pontell identified the group as those born from 1954 to 1965 in the United States. They were children during Watergate and the oil crisis rather than during the 1950s.
Most of Generation Jones did not grow up with World War II veterans as fathers like earlier Boomers. By the time Gen Jones came of age, there was no military draft. When Gen Jones was old enough to understand social ills, there was no major political cause like the older Boomers’ anti-war protests against U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam.
Personal perspective
I identify as Gen Jones, and it seems to me that in many ways we are quite different from both Baby Boomers and GenXers. It’s partly a result of being the first group of kids who had television our entire lives, influenced by the Vietnam war and the protests against it on the news in our livingrooms.
Our musical influences span from American Bandstand to Midnight Special and Woodstock to Lollapalooza. Both the space race and the reality of a nuclear threat permeated our entire childhoods. I hid from atomic bomb threats under desks in kindergarten and possibly part of first grade, but the memory is hazy and the practice ended before I could really understand what was happening.
Though I have faint memories of John F. Kennedy’s assassination and the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show, I was more affected by the deaths of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, the Manson murders, Watergate, the moon landing, and the Enjoli woman.
Generation Jones straddles both Boomers and Gen X. We don’t fully fit in either group. That’s why, to me, it’s not when we were born at all; rather, it’s about what we like and what we buy. One of the clearest illustrations of the misfit status of Gen Jones is the variety of musical tastes many of us have.
I’ll use myself as an example. I like the old psychedelic bands, but before I turned 17, I didn’t really know them at all. By the time I was a teen, Disco was a thing, Hard rock was just beginning to morph into metal and punk was just coming out from underground.
In 1972 I was 14 and in ninth grade. I turned from being a teenybopper listening to Donny Osmond, David Cassidy, and bands like Paper Lace into a rocker virtually overnight because I saw Alice Cooper on the cover of Circus magazine and a boy played Stairway to Heaven on his guitar in the back of the school bus.
My favorite musicians today straddle time and sub-genre, too. Among them are Billie Holiday, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Bad Brains, Godsmack, Epica, Patsy Cline, Renaissance, Johnny Cash, Heilung, Jimi Hendri, Heart, Wardruna, Gin Wigmore, Halsey, ZZ Ward, and Melanie Martinez. Count among them Arizona's own Gentlemen Afterdark, Cait Brennan, Traveler, and Two Cities. I've even been known to pop on an old recording of Woody Guthrie.
My point is that we who identify with Gen Jones are harder to pin down and stereotype than some other marketing groups. Even a good advertising agency would be hard pressed to look at a list of my likes and dislikes and identify me as Gen Jones without information about my birthday and zip code.
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