The Generation Game

A quirky feature of Australian life (compared to the UK) is a slight obsession with the characteristics and trends of different 'generations'. Although I had a slight awareness before coming here that demographers talked about things like baby boomers and generation x, I'd never really taken it particularly seriously and would certainly have struggled to place myself or anyone I know in a generational pigeon hole.

Here, hardly a day goes by without another media article about the unique features & challenges faced by Generation Y or the clash of interests between Baby Boomers and their 'Gen Y' offspring. References to different demographic generations are scattered throughout daily conversation. Everybody happily slots everyone else into their preconceived place.

It's so much of a 'thing' here that I've actually had to find out what the different labels mean and who they're supposed to refer to! I had no idea that I was in Generation X, along with K (we both just scrape in at either end of the 'early 1960s to late 1970s' span of this particular generation. Although it seems I might also be on the cusp of Generation Y but as everyone here seems to strongly dislike Gen Y, I might self-select into X!! Apparently we tend to be economically and politically individualistic, technologically adept, flexible, interested in work-life balance, distrustful of authority and are all in the habit of sleeping together before we get married.

I reckon it's all a bit silly, however it seems we're now onto Generation Z - which begs the question - what comes next?!