The conflict between parents and children is not a personal conflict at all, because in reality there is nothing personal in this phenomenon, repeated by enviable regularity. In fact, this is the confrontation of entire generations, events, under the influence of which their views on life, and values were formed.
Features of age differences
Generation theory was created in 1991 by the Americans William Strauss and Neil Hove at the intersection of several sciences. Neil Hove was a specialist in demography and an economist; William Strauss was a writer, playwright, and historian. They decided to study in detail the concept of generation. Initially, the attention of researchers was attracted by a generational conflict, which (as it turned out) was not associated with age-related contradictions. Otherwise, children, reaching a certain age, would become the same as their parents in the same period, but this does not happen.
After analyzing the history and demographic situation in the USA, the authors of the theory revealed several patterns. They found that people born in certain periods have similar value orientations and needs. Value is the value of certain phenomena and objects of reality in accordance with the needs of society, individual social groups and specifically the individual.
Generations form major memory events, for example, the Olympics-80, the first space flight, the First World War. Important messages from society to the world. Today's generation, for example, is growing, surrounded by innovation, high technology and startups. Another important factor is education. Parents of different generations are generally similar, but focus on different things.
How values are created
The fundamental source of value formation is deficit. In the post-war period, books were rare, they were written out and collected, so for people of that generation they are still extremely important. Many of them have large home libraries that their children are puzzled by, who use completely different formats for development - communication, video, electronics, travel. Children who grew up in abundance of electronic devices do not get enough live chat, so they seek to share each experience with others.
The combination of personal, gender, family and national values is unique for every person. But the theory of generations is based on highlighting a whole layer of characteristic values and life features of a certain generation, which affect their character, attitude to themselves and to the world. A new generation with completely different values is born approximately every twenty years, and by the age of 11-12 they are fully formed and begin to influence habits, relationships with other people, work, and style of consumption.
The underlying values are subconscious and are not evaluated in the process of growing up as “good” or “bad”. A growing child simply learns to live in those conditions that have fallen to his lot.
Generation of winners
Turning directly to theory, the forerunners of the baby boomer generation and the silent generation were winners. These are people who were born between 1900 and 1923 (± three years). Their values were actively formed until the thirties of the last century. This time came the revolution, the Civil War, general collectivization and electrification. These people were distinguished (now it is very rare to meet representatives of a generation that are already old) with hard work, categorical opinions, traditional family values and a commitment to ideology, a high level of responsibility and faith in a bright future. Money was not a value for the greatest generation, because during their lifetime, the currency depreciated several times, and people at one moment lost everything that was acquired.
Silent generation
Young parents of the baby boomer generation, their older brothers and sisters, are representatives of the silent generation (1923-1943). The formation of the values of these people continued until the mid-fifties. They survived the Great Patriotic War and the Stalinist repressions, the destruction, and then the restoration of the country, the discovery of antibiotics. The latter inspired them unconditional faith in doctors. People from the silent generation respect the law, are very law-abiding, respect the positions and status of others. The main value for them is the family, and in society they completely control themselves and do not allow too much.
Who are baby boomers
Baby boomers - this is the generation that was born during the compensatory increase in the birth rate after the end of World War II. The term is most widely used in the United States, in the Russian popular literature on people born in the late forties - early fifties, called the "generation of the Cold War." The generation is very massive. Why were baby boomers needed? It is characteristic that in the years following the end of the war, a sharp increase in the birth rate is recorded and a greater number of marriages are concluded.
Demographic issues
The generation of baby boomers in the United States today remains very massive, which leads to a deterioration in the demographic situation. The US age-gender pyramid risks becoming a rectangle. By about 2060, the number of Americans over eighty-five will be approximately equal to the number of newborns. In 1960, the largest population group were children from zero to fourteen years old, and already in 2010, people from 45 to 64 years old. This means that the social and economic burden on young people will only increase over time. The head of the pension programs department of a private American company, Bridget Mixa, admitted that the baby boomer generation (b. 1943-1963) had exhausted itself, and his sunset was expected to begin, with all the ensuing negative consequences.
Influences
Representatives of the generation of baby boomers (the theory of generations notes their mass character, that is, the ability to more accurately identify the characteristic features) were born in superpowers. They are optimists who can coexist in a team, like team sports (especially football and hockey), and tourism is the best vacation. They value curiosity very much, are distinguished by good health and endurance, patriotism, and the ability to do everything with their own hands.
The formation of the values of the representatives of the generation of baby boomers (baby boomers) was influenced by World War II, the Soviet “thaw”, the conquest of outer space, guaranteed medical care (moreover, high-quality and free), uniform training standards. These are very powerful events that were not in the lives of children and grandchildren of baby boomers.
Baby Boomers in the USSR
In the West, the object of research was the middle class, which has a sufficient income level to provide significant expenses for food, education and cultural life. In Russian realities, the application of generation theory has its own characteristics. Now the middle class consists of people with high incomes and people with a good education, but middle incomes. The theory of generations is more applicable to the times of the USSR, when most families could afford about the same thing.
The description of the generation of baby boomers would be incomplete if we consider only the USA, where the theory arose. People born in the period from 1943 to 1963 are probably the most privileged generation in the history of the USSR, the most educated, who did not know such deprivations as Stalin's repressions, World War II and revolution. These people got the most that the system could offer.
Representatives of the baby boomer generation had a relatively calm fate, but already at that time the country was slowly decaying. Interestingly, the difference between the "American dream" formed by the US boomers and the "Soviet dream" was not significant. Soviet people only found it much harder to get all these benefits because of a shortage. The irony is that the most prosperous generation of the USSR, as a result, rejected this system and survived its collapse.
Baby boomers went to school when the first man flew into space. N. Khrushchev promised this generation that they will live under communism, and very soon a bright future will come - by the eighties. But disappointment happened, and in the nineties Russia, in general, experienced something like the Great Depression in the States, when everyone around lost their money, work, status, but welcomed the changes. At the same time, it is difficult for representatives of the baby boomer generation to come to terms with the fact that their country is a former superpower.
Famous representatives of the generation
The story of the generation of baby boomers is written by its most famous representatives. These include B. Clinton, George W. Bush, today's President of the United States Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin. To see the features, just remember the slogans of the election campaign of Donald trump. “Let's make America great again” - what is this if not nostalgia for the values of a superpower and gravitation towards the past? Donald Trump spoke again about the American dream. Representatives of the younger generation began to argue that everything that happens in the world is similar to the Cold War, but the choice of a president who is friendly to Russia will improve the situation. In response, the slogans “Let's make everything great again” appeared.
Lost generation
This is the name of the people born from 1963 to 1983. They grew up amid the confrontation of superpowers, perestroika and total deficit. In political life, they are practically inactive and less patriotic. They differ in that they rely only on themselves, are informed about what is happening in the world, are ready to choose and change. Representatives of this age category are more often loners aimed at achieving individual success and hard work.
Generation Y, or "Autumn"
People born in 1983-2003 saw the collapse of the USSR, epidemics and terrorist attacks, crisis. They found the rapid development of technology and the Internet. Players can easily chat with new people on the web, but experience difficulties in real life. They are naive, do not know the realities of this world and are often independent. These people strive to develop in several areas at once, and not become an expert in one thing, they strive to obtain information from different sources in order to make an objective picture of the world.
