Reminds me that the whole concept of generations is something manufactured of whole cloth and meant to divide us, but more than that, that real people are compassionate and understanding. All that stuff is just fake.

It gives me hope for unity.

  • adr1an@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    15
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    4 months ago

    I never understood the generation’s gap. Are there people of a certain age more frequent? Instead, I believe humans reproduce more or less at a yearly constant rate. I understand that having the categories are meaningful for many but to me it’s a ‘double-dipping’ statistical flaw.

    • Odigo2020@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      edit-2
      4 months ago

      There’s definitely differences in birth rates – it’s where Baby Boomer got the name. Here are the CDC numbers below, but in brief, the birth rate in 1950 across all races was 24.1, while in 2019, it was 11.4, meaning people in 1950 were squirting them out at over twice the rate as those just a few years ago.

      https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/2020-2021/brth.pdf

    • Dr. Bob@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      4 months ago

      Sort of. The second world war had a profound impact on demographics in Europe and North America. During the war birthrates were lower than average but during the postwar period there was a surge of births - the baby boom. Once everybody had a houseful if kids birthrates dropped off again - Generation X (that’s me).

      You’re right in that every “generation” since then has gotten fuzzier - for exactly the reasons you mention - and is defined more by cultural events than demographics. But it’s also true that the baby boom and bust has had a profound impact on our society, including the invention of “teenager” as a distinct phase of life.

    • Zoboomafoo@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      4 months ago

      Generations are split up by significant cultural events that signal a change in society. For example I draw the line between Millennial and GenZ as remembering a time before 9/11.

    • credit crazy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      4 months ago

      Not only did baby boomers get their name from how their parents popped out babys twice as often as the generation before them but gen z has been populating way less often than their generation but it’s getting to a point that it’s becoming a world wide crisis I honestly hope people start having tons of kids pretty soon or else we might be facing extinction eventually