Monday, May 3, 2010

Generation Jokers are back

With Britain appearing to hand over power to a younger generation those that claim to be "Generation Jones" are reemerging. You know them, right? They were born somewhere between the mid 50's to the mid 60's and are too cool to be labeled either a boomer of GenXster.
David Cameron and Nick Clegg are neither Boomers nor GenXers. Instead, they belong to a distinct generation in between, one long under the radar and only now making its full impact felt. I coined the term "Generation Jones" for this long lost generation, which includes not only Cameron, Clegg, and many of Britain’s most influential new movers and shakers, but also over two thirds of the current Presidents and Prime Ministers of EU and NATO member countries. The exact birth years vary slightly between countries; in the UK, GenJonesers were born from 1955 to 1967, and are now 42 to 55 years old.

We Jonesers have long been lumped with Boomers simply because we arrived during the same long post-World War II spike in births. But generations arise from shared formative experiences, not head counts, and the two groups evolved with dramatic differences.

4 comments:

GenJoneser said...

I'm interested i n this new "Generation Jones" concept. I was born in 1964 but I never felt like a boomer or an Xer, but the whole 60s idealism definitely influenced me as a young child.

Bag Blog said...

I'm a "tweener" too - born between boomers and Xers and not really feeling a part of either group.

Wek said...

Definitely seems to be "tweeners". I see that a lot in people born in the early '80s. They, like you two, share traits of 2 generations. Maybe they should be called "cuspers"?

Bag Blog said...

I guess that makes my daughter a "cusper" or maybe my family is just a bit off the norm.