A generation is a group of people born around the same time scale, a decade or two apart,and raised around the same place, area or region. People in this “birth group” exhibit similar characteristics, preferences, and values during their lifetime such as communication, shopping, and motivation preferences. For example baby boomers love to read a Newspaper than to go online for news.

In a specific Generation period,trends are most influential as people come of age, which means that members of a particular generation will develop and share similar values, beliefs and expectations. It is important to remember that at an individual level, everyone is different. But looking at people through a generational lens offers useful predictability for those trying to reach, inform or persuade a large cross-section of a population.

Currently, five generations make up our society

Each of those five generations has an active role in the marketplace. Depending on the specific workplace, the workforce includes four to five generations. Here are the birth years for each generation:

Key trends that shape generations The three key trends that shape generations are parenting style, technology and economics. For example, many Baby Boomers have the parenting philosophy, “We want it to be easier for our kids than it was for us.” This philosophy in turn helped create and reinforce Millennials and Centennials a sense of entitlement, which is at present a hotly debated topic.

Generation gap is widening among Baby boomers and Generation X ,Y,Z, courtesy, the different style and shaping of these new generations.They grow up with latest technology, high tech communication devices and booming social media, there by leading to regular conflict of interest and difference of opinion. The baby boomers, barring a few exceptions, are laggards andbeing not in congruity with technology is on the receiving end. Now-a-days it is not big eating the small; it is fast eating the slow.

Surinder Shaun Kochhar

Parents of baby boomers or Traditionalists or Silent Generation (1919 to 1940) Using birth records, it is possible to identify, by birth year of mothers, the proportion of births that occurred during the baby boom period. Mothers born between 1919 and 1940 had a high proportion of their children during the baby boom. Based on this demographic criterion, the parents of baby boomers generation can be defined as all individuals born during this 22- year inter-war period.According to 2011 Census data, 3.1 million persons, about 1 in 10 Canadians (9%), were parents of baby boomers. These people were aged between 76 and 97 in 2016.

The baby boomers (1946 to 1965)

A baby boom, by definition, is a sudden rise in the number of births observed from year to year after World War II. Since half a million people approx… were lost during World War one and two, governments of the day encouraged parents to go for babies to increase the population and there were incentives for that. The word “Baby Boomer” was coined thus for this post-world war period. This baby boom lasted 20 years in Canada. During that time, more than 8.2 million babies were born, an average of close to 412,000 a year in Canada.

The average number of children per woman was 3.7 during the baby boom period, compared to about 1.7 in recent years. According to the 2011 Census, 9.6 million persons, or close to 3 Canadians out of 10 (29%), were baby boomers. Besides the number of births between 1946 and 1965, this generation has benefited from sustained immigration levels since the end of the 1980s in Canada. These people were aged between 46 and 65 in 2011

In the coming years, many of them will reach the age of 65, accelerating population aging in Canada. By 2031, all baby boomers will reached 65, and the proportion of seniors could reach 23%compared to 15% in 2011.

Gen X (1965 to 1976) Generation X came after the Baby Boomers, and typically covers people born between the mid 1960’s and the early 1980’s. Gen X grew by witnessing global political events that occurred during this generation’s youth. Events such as The Vietnam War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Cold War, and the Thatcher-era government in the UK were events that helped to influence the culture and upbringing of Generation X. Relative to previous generations, Gen X is wide open to diversity and has learnt to embrace differences such as religion, sexual orientation, class, race , culture and ethnicity.

Millennial or Gen Y(1977 to 1995)

Millennial are getting so much attention. At global level, Millennial are also the fastest-growing generation of customers in the marketplace, bringing the greatest lifetime value. More so, Millennial exhibit different attitudes toward parents, elders, employment, sales, marketing and spending which are challenging many conventional strategies and approaches all together. They have been shaped by the technological revolution that occurred throughout their youth. Gen Y grew up with technology, so being connected and tech savvy is in their DNA. Equipped with latest technology and gadgets, such as Cell Phones, laptops, tablets and daily Apps., Generation Y is online and connected 24/7, 365 days a year. Many Millennials grew up seeing their Baby Boomer parents working day and night doing stressful corporate jobs, which has shaped their own views on the workforce and the need for work and life balance.

iGen or Generation Z or Centennials (1996 and later)

The next generationis known as iGen, Generation Z or Centennials They are the children of Generation X and Generation Y. Their existance on earth is not very long yet. Generation Z are predicted to be highly connected, living in an age of hightech communication, technology driven lifestyles and prolific use of social media. A lot of what we think we know about Generation Z is deduced, and only time will tell whether we have been correct in our guesstimation.

This new group of people is making big waves in all directions, including parenting, education, employment, entrepreneurship, sales, marketing, politics, religion and much more.

 

By: Prof. Surinder
Shaun Kochhar
LPN, FCN, M.Com,
CAIIB, DIM
(A freelance writer with
36 Years Exp.