The Generation Myth: Why When You're Born Matters Less Than You Think

Millennials, Baby Boomers, Gen Z—we like to define people by when they were born, but an acclaimed social researcher explains why we shouldn't.

One of the simplest and most powerful ways we understand people is as members of a generation. Your uncle is a bit racist because he's a baby boomer; your gen x boss is not a good team player; your cousin is constantly trying to go viral because he's gen z, and his generation is obsessed with fame. We also use generations as a tool for tracking how a society's values change over time (baby boomers liberated sex; millennials made it problematic), and how to appeal to the generations that hold them.

What we assume when we talk about generations is that our values and habits are fixed by the time we turn 18, and that generational conflict is inevitable: a generation matures into adulthood and takes control of our artistic, commercial, and political tastes, which then become obsolete and are replaced by succeeding generations. It's a compelling story - after all, it is natural to think you have more in common with your peers than with your parents. But it is also wrong.

Bobby Duffy has spent decades studying how social values and beliefs change. In The Generation Myth, he argues that generations do not have fixed or monolithic identities, nor is one unavoidably distinct from all the rest. Rather, generational identities are fluid, forming and reforming throughout life. Gen xers aren't just a product of the Reagan years - their values have been shaped equally by the Iraq War, two financial collapses, and the simple fact that they have gotten older A generation isn't an identity as much as a process.

Duffy shows that differences between generations aren't nearly as sharp as we think. Political engagement, for example, has not declined in younger generations - younger people are always less politically active. Older generations have different expectations of their employers than younger generations simply because they entered different labor markets. Baby boomers had more sex in their youth than millennials, but millennials are actually happier with their sex lives. Young adults are no likelier to buy a product based on the company's ethics than their parents or grandparents. Through these insights, we find not only a truer picture of real generational differences, but a better way of understanding how societies change, and where ours may be headed.

An analysis of breathtaking scale, based on data collected from over three million people, The Generation Myth is a vital rejoinder to alarmist books like iGen, The Coddling of the American Mind, and A Generation of Sociopaths. The kids are alright. Their parents are too.