Do We Place Ourselves in a Generational Box?

Do you really believe that we all belong in a specific generational box?  It is not something I considered until reading the essay titled “Generational Myth”, by Siva Vaidhyanathan.  When I look back on history I tend to associate a certain time period with a huge event or a historic cliche.  Take the 1960’s for example.  Whenever I meet a person who grew up during that time, I instantly assume they were a hippie, when in fact they could have grown up in a strict Christian home far from this lifestyle.  This may seem like an ignorant statement, but I can guarantee I am not the only person who thinks this way.  We are all programmed from a very young age to think in terms of generations.  Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y, etc.  We like to place people in a box, because that is what makes the most sense to us.  But as described in Vaidhyanathan’s article, the lines are more blurred than we think.  We make the assumption that anyone born after 1998, is a technological baby who grew up immersed in gagdets and knows any technology like the back of their hand.  And while more children may understand technology than older generations, this generation as a whole is not as technologically savvy as we may think.  Some young adults may choose to limit there use of gadgets, or they may not have the funds to access them.  Just like placing older generations in a box, we are now placing the younger generations in their own box.  Will we always think in this way, or as the years go on will the lines between generations become more blurred?  I think there will always be these generational confines because it makes it easier for us to classify one another.

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