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BlueThunderFlik t1_iw4wi3l wrote

It seems like a lot of discourse nowadays revolves around grouping people by their generation and remarking on them. Is this a new phenomenon or is their evidence that people have been doing this throughout history?

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jezreelite t1_iw7cir5 wrote

There's little evidence of anyone talking about generations (in the sense of societal generations) before the 19th century.

Despite that, there is plenty of evidence of people complaining about Kids These Days, even though they didn't call them, for instance, Boomers, Millennials, or Gen Z.

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someterriblethrills t1_iwbqgr5 wrote

Thomas Jefferson argued that every generation (which he decided was 19 years) should get their own constitution.

We seem not to have perceived that, by the law of nature, one generation is to another as one independant nation to another… On similar ground it may be proved that no society can make a perpetual constitution, or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living generation… Every constitution, then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of 19. years. If it be enforced longer, it is an act of force and not of right.

Source

Not quite what you were asking since he's not really assigning characteristics to each generation, but it's interesting that he wanted a legal system based on the idea.

This was in a letter to James Madison. I don't have time to find Madison's reply rn but from what I remember it was something along the lines of "You're a fucking idiot, never try to talk about this to me again."

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MeatballDom t1_iw6pg3a wrote

Not entirely sure what you mean, do you mean like calling people "gen X" "Millennials" or speaking of generations in general? Or "kids these days" type stuff?

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BlueThunderFlik t1_iw76mwg wrote

Well it's giving distinct names to each of our generations and then apportioning general characteristics to them or blame for things they do/have done.

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skyblueandblack t1_iw9loq0 wrote

I think that's largely a modern phenomenon that we can thank technology for. Before modern communication technology, cultures were, by and large, very regional. But as technology began to allow wider communication, subcultures began to develop. You really saw it with pop culture, as people of similar ages would be listening to the same music, or watching the same TV shows or movies, things like that.

For example, without recording and broadcast technology, Beatlemania would have been impossible.

A lot of the "generational traits" that we see among different cohorts depend on shared culture. And modern communication is what makes that possible.

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