Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction
Who decides where generations begin and end? And is there actually a science behind it?
I always thought it was a just a way of organizing people for marketing purposes.
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It's not like there's any official body out there saying where these generations begin or end or what they should be called, but often there is statistical validity to the groupings. It would be arbitrary if we had a flat birth rate, but as it is, these labels are trying to capture trends in the birth rate: baby boomers, obviously, representing a huge boom in the birth rate, and millennials, an echo of that boom, while the Silent Generation, Gen Xers, and Gen Z represent relatively low birth rate periods. The problem comes when we try to assign traits and experiences to these generations. It's really more useful for things like public policy than marketing, where simple age and numbers are more important than experiences and traits.