The Generations
by Oliver Carlos
Some years ago, some people started labelling the generations. I heard the origin of this practice is a magazine for advertisers. They wanted to hit their target audiences bulls eye so they made such divisions of the general population. Studies were made on the likes and dislikes of each generation so advertisers can make strategies to better attract them to buy certain products.
Most of the old folks we know belong to the Baby Boom generation. They were born in the years right after World War 2. They got their generation name because there was a population boom at that time. The war left so many nations with casualties, both civilian and military, so governments then encouraged “family planting” to replenish their depleted populations. If you would ask people born from 1945 to 1960, they would tell you that they had so many siblings, some with more than 10 brothers and sisters. The senior citizens of today are the Boomers.
I belong to the Gen X. We are people who were born at the height of the Cold War. Roughly, that’s the 60s and 70s. The Cold War is the war of ideology between the rich democratic countries of the world like USA and UK on one side, versus the communist superpowers, USSR and China on the other side. It’s a non-shooting war, that’s why it’s called Cold War. It involved spy-versus-spy maneuvers and funding rebellions in 3rd world nations. This is the era of James Bond, the nuclear arms buildup, and the space race. People in this time were afraid of the tension escalating into a nuclear war that would wipe out humankind. Maybe our generation is called Gen X because of this fearsome uncertainty that hanged around.
The next generation after ours is the Gen Y, or most commonly they are called the Millennials. Roughly, the years they were born in is from 1980 to 1999, the last years of the millennium. They were my students. I taught college and high school beginning 1994. Today, they are the young professionals in our labor force. They are innovative, creative, and wanted to do things their “own” way. They are also very tech savvy. They grew up in a time when there’s no World War, no Cold War, and so they didn’t experience great hardships of the past generations. Instead, they experience the great comfort and convenience brought about by the technological world they live in.
Finally, is Gen Z. This is the generation of the current young people. They are the current students in today’s schools. My son belongs here. He’s born in the year 2000. They are similar with Gen Y in so many ways like being tech savvy, but they are of a higher level. They learned to write their names using the keyboard before learning to hold a pencil. In class, they don’t take notes using a notebook, but they do so with their camera phones. Now, in the pandemic times, they do almost everything online, including schooling and a great deal of human interaction. They don’t like to read long stuff like picture-less posts, so much more books. They would prefer seeing messages in video rather than on paper or in text form. They are always glued on social media.
Times do change a lot. I wonder how the next generation would look like?
World politics, economic life, and technology may change ever so often, but one thing that never changes throughout all generations is God who has a great love for us. In Psalm 100:5 (NIV) we read:
“For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.”
This is a promise that we can always rely on. Whatever problem or challenge our generation may pose, God himself will bail us out. He is a loving God, he is a faithful God. What he says, he will do. That’s tried and tested through all generations.
