The Generational Chasm: Why it’s Worse Than Ever

Jehyun Sung via Unspash

“Ok boomer.”

I bet you haven’t heard that phrase in a while. Once used to scorn someone else’s old age, it was swept off stage by the next trending expression a while ago. Yet, in 2019, it was a troubling symptom of a deepening rift in intergenerational relations. And if the countless articles from the past year are anything to go by, we are now experiencing one far bigger.

As I reflected on this, I realised I didn’t know what a generation was in its original conception. For years I (and many others) have brandished the concept like a knife, without truly understanding what it means. So here’s a recap: generational theory was only mainstreamed in the 90s. In it, William Strauss and Neil Howe posited that American history was made up of 80-year cycles, consisting of 4 generational cohorts lasting 20 years, each with its own “function” as such. 

It’s undeniable that the concept was useful when it came to examining sociopolitical issues in history from a different angle; it might explain the notably longstanding feud between Boomers and Millennials. The crux of it: the latter accuse the former of irreparably wrecking the economy for them. A difficult issue, but fairly concrete and verifiable in its economic nature. Similarly, Gen Z are currently politically at odds with older counterparts. There is an increased sense of powerlessness in younger generations when it comes to the future due to a lack of representation in ageing governments, and in the UK, young people are currently the most politically disengaged age group, with only 37% of 18 to 24 year olds having participated in the last general election. 

With the advent of social media however, there is a recent phenomenon wherein generational theory has engrained itself into cultural identity, rather than just socioeconomic analysis. Terms like ‘Millennial humour’ or ‘Gen Z stare’ are now thrown around casually, and are likely being written into a dictionary at this very moment. They are not unlike astrology: their grounding in reality is questionable.  Yet nowadays it only takes  one person on TikTok for an idea to spread like wildfire through the virtual world that is social media, where generalisations are pushed in order to feed debate and entertainment, perpetuating and encouraging stereotypes.

With this, the generations have alienated themselves. Boomers are too ancient, Gen X too irrelevant. We pick apart Millennials as the aging has-beens trying too hard to stay in trend, then hate on Gen Alpha for being too young and too chronically online. But Gen Z are all socially inept freaks who can’t take things seriously.

So how do we bridge this gap? The solution is not regressing to a pre-Internet era, nor is it putting everyone through therapy (contrary to popular belief, this is not the youth’s fix-all). It is perhaps to aim for an eradication of generational theory in its current state: i.e. a cultural element with a life of its own. We’ve let it move too far beyond socioeconomic analysis towards being a human identity evaluator when it’s obvious that it isn’t: not only has this theory been applied globally despite originating as an American metric, the period of time that each generation covers is simply too long to accurately describe such a wide spread of people. 

Whether we are realistically capable of letting go of all this useless generational jargon or not remains sadly unsure; people will always enjoy using labels to justify and define their own existence. Until society figures it out though, I’m ok knowing I can take all my future frustrations out on the Gen Alpha brats.