It’s a bit like the notions of pre-modern, modern, and post-modern. The change was continuous over a long period of time, but I think there are commonalities of thought and experience that tie generations together. Pearl Harbor, the Vietnam War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, 9/11; all of those influenced people of different ages at the time in different ways, compounding on each other.
The perspective of someone who was 18 on 9/11/2001 was different from someone who was 35, versus someone who was 50, versus someone who was 80. My kids, for example, have never known the WTC as anything other than an attack site, and recoiled when the NYC skyline was shown during New Year’s Rockin’ Eve 1999.
It’s that shift in perspective and experience that defines a generation and there are generation-bounding events like 9/11. But the period of time is not precise, and generally much longer than 14 years.
It’s a bit like the notions of pre-modern, modern, and post-modern. The change was continuous over a long period of time, but I think there are commonalities of thought and experience that tie generations together. Pearl Harbor, the Vietnam War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, 9/11; all of those influenced people of different ages at the time in different ways, compounding on each other.
The perspective of someone who was 18 on 9/11/2001 was different from someone who was 35, versus someone who was 50, versus someone who was 80. My kids, for example, have never known the WTC as anything other than an attack site, and recoiled when the NYC skyline was shown during New Year’s Rockin’ Eve 1999.
Exactly.
It’s that shift in perspective and experience that defines a generation and there are generation-bounding events like 9/11. But the period of time is not precise, and generally much longer than 14 years.