I remember the old pins in the apples for Halloween but instead of trying to be quiet and find out who did it. The news media spread it all over and instead of having only one incident the next year there was more and the media went at it again then the hospitals offered to x-ray any fruit for the children. We went form one isolated incident into a major problem. The media was as much to blame as anyone.
No I don't think we are "better off" than other generations. We may make more money, but basically everything costs more money and owing debt doesn't mean owning anything. We may live longer but basically that doesn't mean we have a better quality of life. Medical advances may be able to keep our earthly bodies alive, but that doesn't necessarily mean our bodies are really living. We may have gained freedoms others didn't have in the past, but the evil many do with those freedoms offsets the advantage of having them. In every generation there is good and bad...we are not given a choice of what generation we live in and because I live in this generation I always look for the blessings in my life...not the curses. I don't think we are better off but I do try to make the best of the life I am given. And I really liked your question @Tim Burr.
When I see the term "baby boomers," I don't think of that age group, overall, but rather the white middle class of that age group. The term has become negative to me. I was on the cusp, born in 1946. Not really involved in the activities Joni Mitchell is referring to in the video below. She was born in 1943, so not technically a boomer. Joni Mitchell on the Failure of the Baby Boomers (1:35), FWIW. "The sickness of the collapse of that dream was vague" ... "And they didn't know where to take it" ... "They didn't have another plan."
As I've already stated in a previous post on here, "I truly believe it depends on where Baby Boomers and older Seniors live". When we first moved here to Jacksonville, the lifestyle seemed to be much slower than it is now. Not "small town slow", but still slow. As more and more of the younger, as in Generation X and the Millennium Generation have moved here, the pace has gotten very fast. Wild drivers that definitely don't want a Baby Boomer or older driver in front of them who drives much more safely. Actually we've been asked by more than one Baby Boomer or older, "why on earth would you move to Jacksonville, Florida?" Drugs, prostitution and all kinds of crime have hit the big cities more and more. We just had a prostitution raid on some hotels/motels here yesterday, including one we drive by to go to Cracker Barrel restaurant. The hotel is located in a very nice area around other nice hotels, including the Marriott. Thing is, drugs, prostitution and crime was still a problem back in the 50's and on, but just not publicized like it is today. Drugs were a huge problem during Woodstock and years after. Actually, I can't remember once watching or listening to the local news, out of Ft. Wayne, Indiana when I was in high school. Heck, I didn't even know what the word "crime" was during those years. Were we better off back then, when we were teens and in our 20's and up a couple of decades...…..yes and no.
Apparently I come under the headline Boomer 2 or Generation Jones..... (born between 1955 and '65..) Boomers II or Generation Jones Born: 1955-1965 Coming of Age: 1973-1983 Age in 2004: 39 to 49 Current Population: 49 million This first post-Watergate generation lost much of its trust in government and optimistic views the Boomers I maintained. Economic struggles including the oil embargo of 1979 reinforced a sense of “I’m out for me” and narcissism and a focus on self-help and skepticism over media and institutions is representative of attitudes of this cohort. While Boomers I had Vietnam, Boomers II had AIDS as part of their rites of passage. The youngest members of the Boomer II generation in fact did not have the benefits of the Boomer I class as many of the best jobs, opportunities, housing etc. were taken by the larger and earlier group. Both Gen X and Boomer II s suffer from this long shadow cast by Boomers I. http://socialmarketing.org/archives/generations-xy-z-and-the-others/
Yep. Instead of having fun on here, we could all be stuck sitting alone on our porch with a paper fan.
Why have I never heard of Boomer II or Generation Jones? Then again, I have never really understood the generation thing. It seems like every couple of years now, we have a new generation or we've changed the name of one of the old ones.