More Generational Malarkey

I have already shown some skepticism over the overuse of generational abstractions as the title of this post indicates: "Millennial Nonsense: Generalizations about Generations." In it, I provide a list of titles of books and articles as evidence. More evidence is provided here in a list of "GEN" titles noticed over just the past few days! As I have also written,

"Genug Shoyn" or "Enough Already."

This was all prompted by another "GEN" headline encountered in The

Washington Post, "These 8 Gen Z Habits Are Baffling. Let Us Zoomers Explain," (Aug. 20) Which begins, bafflingly enough, with this sentence. "It's impossible to pin down the essence of an entire generation."

Here are 75 that were quickly found. They have also been quickly pasted

and I did not bother with capitalization, since the people who wrote them

didn't either. I also did not provide the sources, since the list would have been too

bulky. They exist, I assure you, and I did include the source for the

CANCON example to show you. It is unfortunately the case that this

generation thing is a global phenomenon.

1. 3 Jewellery Staples Every Gen Z Closet Needs for an Instant Style Upgrade

2. 10 best cities in the world for Gen Z to live in 2025:

3. 93 percent of Gen Z loses sleep because of social media. But changing that isn’t a dream.

4. A Little 'Workcentrism' Is Good for You, Gen Z

5. AI falters at physical work, driving Gen Z into trades

6. AI not evolving quickly enough for Gen Alpha

7. As Gen X Near Retirement, Challenges Lie Ahead

8. Are Gen Z's habits for real?

9. As Gen-Z hungers for sexiness, eroticism starves

10. BAN SEX NOW' Shock rise of the ‘boy-sober’ movement as Gen Z women reveal the REAL reason they’ve quit sex – despite feeling horny

11. British banks feel Gen Z consumers are less brand loyal

12. Can You Guess The World’s Best Place for Gen Z to Live?

13. Consumer Insights Gen Z Isn’t Broke. They’re Smarter With Money Than You...

14. The Devil Wears Prada 2: A Gen Z fashion insider breaks down the new looks

15. Disney Wants Gen Z Men Back In Cinemas

16. Finfluencers get Gen Z hooked on angling

17. Forgotten Gen X now quietly fuels trillions in consumer spending

18. Football leagues seek new Gen Z audiences

19. Gen Z, Gen X, Or Gen Y: Which Generation Witnesses The Most Drastic Tech Boom? Experts Weigh In 

20. The Gen Z Dictionary: Slang words everyone needs to know

21. Gen Z brings resurgence to seaside arcades

22. Gen Z driving boost in book sales, according to Waterstones

23. Gen Z fuels surge in spiritual travel, brands allocate up to 30% of budgets

24. Gen Z Is Officially Retiring Gym Leggings And Getting Hooked On Oversized Sweatpants

25. Gen Z loves to live in Edinburgh

26. Gen Z: Moving from atheism to faith

27. Gen Z & Gen Alpha need subtitles for parents? Decoding ancient slang

28. Gen Z drinking trends: 5 things to think about when targeting this key demographic

29. Gen Z drives surge in value-based consumption

30. Gen-Z Hitchhikes To Cut CO2 Footprints

31. Gen Z needs new ways to socialize

32. Gen Z parenting guide: Why connection matters more than control

33. Gen Z redefines reading through screens and apps

34. Gen Z says smacking children is unacceptable amid calls for ban

35. Gen Z is fnally growing up - and discovering the joy of cask ales

36. Gen Z slang explained as 'skibidi' and 'delulu' are added to Cambridge dictionary

37. Gen Z skips dating costs: over half spend $0 on romance, sparking 'romance recession'

38. Gen Z thinks ‘marrying rich’ is the easy option – trust me, it’s not

39. Gen Zs must join political parties ahead of 2027

40. Gen Z verpasst den besten Zeitpunkt zum Investieren

41. Generational war erupts on social media over the 'Gen Z stare'

42. The Great Crypto Migration: Why Gen Z is Both Entering and Exiting Web3

43. Homeware trend Gen Z won’t give up

44. How does Gen Z feel about the current state of America?

45. How Gen Z are boosting Nigel Farage’s ‘Mega’ movement

46. How Laufey remade jazz for gen Z:How Laufey remade jazz for gen Z

47. How marketers can embrace Gen Alpha’s spending power

48. How the Latin Mass is Bringing Gen Z to Christ

49. How tourists, Gen Z affect the local accent; Professor details patterns in Nashville, the South

50. I know why Gen Z has become antisocial, but how do we fix it?

51. I'm a family law attorney. I've found my Gen Z clients are more willing to talk openly about finances — and prenups

52. Is Gen-Z really drinking less, or just being choosier when they indulge?

53. Millennials And Gen Z: Why Tongue Cancer Risk Isn’t Just About Tobacco?

54. Monzo ramps up the banking battle for Gen Alpha

55. Netanyahu says Israel has 'work' to do to win over Gen Z

56. Online secrets haunt Gen Z woman: Gritty debut novel paints bleak picture of the young working poor.

57. Sussex’s seaside arcades under threat but Gen Z steps up to save the fun

58. The exciting Gen Z stars that can put athletics back into mainstream

59. The New American Dream: Why Millennials and Gen Z Can’t Afford Homes

60. The new Gen Z clubbing trend: no phones

61. TikTok isn't enough to stop Gen Z from drifting to AOC. Trump must do 3 things next

62. Topshop’s return to the high street must appeal to gen-Z to succeed

63. US Survey Reveals Startling Insights Into Gen Z’s Work Habits

64. We Asked Teens to Test This New Gen Z-Approved Skincare Brand

65. What Is Gen Z So Nostalgic for?

66. What Do Gen Zs Really Want From Love? Between Confusion, Clarity and Commitment

67. What kids don’t want you to know about Gen Alpha culture

68. When a Gen X-er Watches ‘Stranger Things’ With His Family

69. Why Gen Z are flouting tradition with ‘fake’ Indian weddings

70. Why Gen Z is binning cookbooks - and turning to TikTok

71. Why Gen Z women are falling for older men

72. Why Gen Zers eat like OAPs

73. Why kinky braids, locks are setting Gen Z males against police

74. Youthful leap of faith; Gen Zers turning to Catholic Church

75. CANCON

"Gen Z doesn’t need a year of national service. They’re already drafted into decades of service for older Canadians; Their service is baked into housing markets, government budgets and the deteriorating health of our planet," Paul Kershaw, G&M, August 23, 2025.

The Bonus:

If, like me, you have no idea of the ages of those residing in the various cohorts, that illustration might help. It may be a little outdated since it doesn't mention the ALPHAS. I now confess that I just discovered another post I did on this subject about a year ago. The confession is made because, if you put all of the citations I have provided into your own bibliography, all you will have to do is the dissertation part and you will be granted a PhD. See: "Generational Gibberish.". Of course, see also the closely related post: "ON Bullshit".

Generational Gibberish

   I am again irritated by the use of terms like, "Gen X" or "Alpha" and no one has heeded my appeal to stop using them in headlines. My irritation was most recently displayed in "Spontaneous Generations", where this quotation is found and now provided again:" The contemporary problem with generations lies in their ubiquity as an explanation for social phenomena. There is no credible evidence to suggest that generations exist, or that they manifest to influence behavior in any systematic way. Further, there is no value whatsoever in formulating organizational, economic, or labor policies based on these unsupported social constructions."

   Seven years and many headlines ago I complained about them in: "Millennial Nonsense: Generalizations About Generations." In revisiting that post I noticed that I produced, as evidence, examples of generational terms being used in articles and book titles. Although I need not write any more about this issue, I did take the time to add to the bibliography already provided. Below are forty-or-so headlines from just the past few months. I did not take the time to capitalize them or provide the sources since they are not worth the effort, but I will assure you that they are real and often from respected publications.

Do the Democrats have a Gen Z problem?
A Sock War Is Afoot Between Millennials and Gen Z
What Gen Z Gets Wrong About Sunscreen
Millennials had it bad financially, but Gen Z may have it worse
What Gen Z wants in the workplace
Millennials top boomers in debt while Gen X still owe the most
What millennials need to know about rising cancer rates
Millennials, Gen Z, need government help ‘now more than ever
Majority of millennials, Gen Z don't support Trudeau's internet regulation plans
How millennials became the least cool generation
Is ‘OK millennial’ the new ‘OK boomer’? Helen Coffey charts her generation’s journey from hip young things to desperately outdated
Gen Z model sparks debate after saying millennial fashion ‘staple’ is out
Millennials and Gen Z have given up on finding fulfillment at work as survey finds they’re the least likely to care about enjoying their job
Wealthy US millennials more than twice as likely to invest in wine than Gen X or Boomers
Boomers called me a slacker - now I've got an 'entitled' Gen-Z rant:Millennials, Gen-X and Boomers are lining up to call out young workers…
Travelling Then Vs Now – 6 Things Gen X Used To Do That Millennials Now Could Never 
Gen X and millennials would pay higher taxes to access Medicare
Gen Z and Millennials smile for 65 minutes each day -but Gen X only manage 48: survey finds
Boomers are sexist bigots. Gen X have let down their children. Millennials are constantly moaning. What Gen Z REALLY thinks about you - and…
Gen Z will pay dearly for this U.S. blunder on the massive debt that boomers, Gen X, and millennials are dumping on them, former White House…
Three Gen X Retirement Mistakes for Millennials, Gen Z to Avoid
How Work Habits of Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X Differ — Who’s More Successful?
Man sparks FURIOUS debate after revealing his fascinating theory about why millennials are aging so much BETTER than Gen X
24-year-olds are more likely to own homes than millennials and Gen X when they were that age
Survey reveals Gen X and Millennials desire business ownership and embrace flexible working hours
Millennials and Gen X LESS likely to have a grasp on pensions than Gen Z
Millennials and Gen X must dispel earlier generations’ tech doubts
Unique Challenges: Leading Millennials, Centennials, and Gen X
Oldest Millennials joining Gen X in middle age, weighed down by worries about their finances - RBC Poll
Younger workers are actually using AI on the job less than Gen X and millennials
Millennials, Gen X Push Ahead of Gen Z in Homeownership in 2023
Millennials and Gen X leading tech adoption in microbusinesses
Hey, Gen X, Z and millennials: the great wealth transfer could go to health care, not you.

Sources:
  They have already been provided and if you google "generations" the Wikipedia entry will be enough. If, like me, you can never remember where these people supposedly reside in the past, this illustration may help, but should be ignored.

  I realize that writing headlines is difficult and need to be short, which is one of the reasons for the appeal of "Gen X", but such headlines are unhelpful. For some humorous ones caused by the need to be concise see: Headlines.

Spontaneous Generations

 

Spontaneous Generation (singular)
"The theory of spontaneous generation states that life arose from nonliving matter. ... Louis Pasteur is credited with conclusively disproving the theory of spontaneous generation with his famous swan-neck flask experiment. He subsequently proposed that “life only comes from life.”
What was spontaneous generation and why was it wrong? It was once believed that life could come from nonliving things, such as mice from corn, flies from bovine manure, maggots from rotting meat, and fish from the mud of previously dry lakes. Spontaneous generation is the incorrect hypothesis that nonliving things are capable of producing life."

   Having disproved the notion that nonliving things were sometimes generated spontaneously, we now appear to be on the cusp of discovering that a generation cannot be conceived and developed on a whim. The notion that if you are a member of Generation Y (a Millennial), or are a Gen Xer, you are of a certain type, is now being questioned. 

   About four years ago, I indicated that I was a contrarian about cohorts such as those and will have little more to say about them. My original post is here and the title indicates how I felt about the subject: Millennial Nonsense: Generalizations About Generations. The only reason I raise the subject again, is because a few more articles have surfaced recently and they suggest not much is being gained by talking about Generation Whatever.  Here are some samples:

Sources: 

"It’s Time to Stop Talking About “Generations”: From Boomers to Zoomers, the Concept Gets Social History all Wrong," By Louis Menand, The New Yorker, Oct. 18, 2021.

‘Gen Z’ Only Exists in Your Head:  The dividing Lines Between Generations Are a Figment of our Collective Imagination," Joe Pinsker, Atlantic, Oct.14, 2021.

"You know there’s drama in research circles—or at least what qualifies as drama in research circles—when someone writes an open letter.

Earlier this year, that someone was Philip Cohen, a sociologist at the University of Maryland at College Park. His request: that Pew Research Center, the nonpartisan “fact tank,” “do the right thing” and stop using generational labels such as Gen Z and Baby Boomers in its reports. Some 170 social-science researchers signed on to Cohen’s letter, which argued that these labels were arbitrary and counterproductive...."

Generational labels capture some of the basic fact that people who are born in different eras lead meaningfully different lives. But these labels are clumsy and imprecise—and getting more so all the time. They flatten out the experiences of tens of millions of very different people, remove nuance from conversations, and imply commonality where there may be none. The social scientists are right: Generational labels are stupid.

"Answers to 10 Questions About Generations and Generational Differences in the Workplace," Cort W Rudolph, PhD, Rachel S Rauvola, PhD, David P Costanza, PhD, Hannes Zacher, PhD. Public Policy & Aging Report, Volume 30, Issue 3, 2020, Pages 82–88, https://doi.org/10.1093/ppar/praa010

Conclusion:

Our goal with this work was to present answers to 10 common questions about generations and generational differences as they are assumed to operate in the workplace. Mannheim’s (1927/1952) original conceptualization of “the problem of generations” deals with questions about the mechanisms of social change. Given the answers to the preceding 10 questions, we would argue that there is a need to recast the problem of generations into more modern terms. The contemporary problem with generations lies in their ubiquity as an explanation for social phenomena. There is no credible evidence to suggest that generations exist, or that they manifest to influence behavior in any systematic way. Further, there is no value whatsoever in formulating organizational, economic, or labor policies based on these unsupported social constructions.

There you have it. Now that I am no longer a contrarian on this issue, I may have to reassess my position. 

Millennial Nonsense

Generalizations about Generations

From: “Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation”

Joel Stein, Time, May 20, 2013.

    It is absolutely the case that the words ‘absolutely’ and ‘millennials’ appear rather too often these days, but for now we will only discuss the latter word. While I am not ready this morning to go so far as to look again at any sociological texts, I am willing to be contrarian about cohorts, particularly generational ones such as Gen X and Gen Y (the Millennials). I reluctantly concede that Lost and Beat Generations may have had some sort of ethereal existence, but I am less convinced that there was a “Greatest” one, or that subsuming millions of people born between c1980 and c1995, in many different parts of the world, under the label “Millennial Generation” helps us understand much at all.

  As evidence of overuse, I introduce a few recent article and book titles from the zillions available:

Articles:

“Millennials are the most narcissistic generation ever”

“The Terrible Truth About Hating Millennials That No One Wants To Admit”

“Millennials Are Not Being Rewarded for Job Loyalty”

“U.K. Millennials Are Badly Paid for Staying With Their Jobs”

“Millennials: A Generation in Financial Chaos”

“Why Millennials are better with their money than their parents”

“New Study Shows How Wealthy Millennials Are”

“Millennials, we didn’t eat your lunch, we were in the kitchen making it for you”

“Millennials ruining parents’ retirement”

“Millennials may never get out their parents' homes”

“Millennials will never get to live alone”

Why Millennials Are Lonely

Millennials are killing department stores

How Millennials Are Driving Changes For Retail Stores

Books:

The Millennial Mindset : Unraveling Fact From Fiction

Fast Future : How the Millennial Generation is Shaping Our World

The M-factor : How the Millennial Generation is Rocking the Workplace

Millennials Go to College : Strategies for a New Generation on Campus : Recruiting and Admissions, Campus life, and the Classroom

Millennials Rising : The Next Great Generation

The Millennials on Film and Television : Essays on the Politics of Popular Culture

Condemnation of GenYphobia and the Elimination of Millennials

    That subheading looks rather contradictory so I will be clearer here and say that it is the word ‘Millennials’ that needs to be eliminated not all the people born during that ‘generation’. (Although I guess it would now be possible in the U.S. to, at least,  round up all of them along with the immigrants and deport them).

    My proposal is more modest. In the Canadian House of Commons there has been concern expressed that some Canadians are making some negative generalizations about our fellow Muslim citizens and that such tendencies should be discouraged. To the motion to condemn such “Islamophobia” I suggest that the private member consider adding a Condemnation of GenYphobia along with the recommendation that the plural form of the word ‘Millennial’ be expunged from both official languages.

    In support of my suggestion read “Against Generations” by Rebecca Onions from which this quotation is taken:

“But in real life, I find generational arguments infuriating. Overly schematised and ridiculously reductive, generation theory is a simplistic way of thinking about the relationship between individuals, society, and history. It encourages us to focus on vague ‘generational personalities’, rather than looking at the confusing diversity of social life.” (From the digital magazine, Aeon, n.d.).

 Also consider this remark by William Blake:  “To Generalize is to be an Idiot. To Particularize is the Alone Distinction of Merit.” (as cited by Cass Sunstein in “Why Free Markets Make Fools of Us,” in the NYRB, Oct. 22, 2015).