The oldest generation you will probably come across online are the Baby Boomers, or Boomers for short. They are the progeny of those coming back from WWII up through the mid 1960s. While these people grew up with computers getting smaller and smaller and the functions getting more and more complex. Computers were more tabulating machines though, not really thinking machines. We didn’t have the first real hand-held calculator (that did addition, subtraction, multiplication AND division…I know, exciting, right?) until the mid 70s . They tend to look at the world as drastically changing but not having a whole lot of information on how or why. Their childhood was about being outside, going to friend’s houses, “hanging out,” and making sure they were home by the time the street lights came on. Mom was home most of the time, cooking, cleaning, watching The Guiding Light on TV or working on something for the local church or civics club. They are a much less “confined” group, the earlier buying into the peace and love of the hippy movement and railing against the establishment (and of course war, as we were embroiled in Vietnam during this time) while the latters were trying to get a grip on the changing technology with very little info. They are very family oriented and while focused on raising their children, tended to allow their children to make mistakes and learn and be more hands-on with their children, as opposed to being hyper-vigilant and protecting them from harm and constantly proclaiming how wonderful they are. They did not have technology to help raise their children like today. If the TV wasn’t the babysitter, you were. They also didn’t tend to “spare the rod” as it were. Punishment was the main way to teach children and there was little to no discussion on how the child felt about any of this.
Communication was sparse, having really only the house telephone to speak with friends, so they often were out and about in groups, a newspaper to give you the slant..I mean the story of the day, or the 6 o’clock news on TV (yes, one whole hour for news, and if you missed it you were simply out of luck). Why should all of this matter? Because they often feel lost and left out now. Latter generations have the internet and are so used to using it it might as well be a third arm. Boomers didn’t have the luxury of looking up song lyrics on the internet, finding out what was happening in China this week, or even gathering extra information on political candidates. You got what was available to you and that’s it, so seeing these “young kids” (whom everyone is who is under 40) do all these amazing things with computers, tablets, watches and the like, just reminds them how disconnected they are and how that increases with each passing year, but that doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy technology. This was the first generation where we actually had major developments happening in their lifetime that totally transformed society.
They also tend to be much more traditional. Keep in mind, many of these people’s social lives revolved around a church in some respect. The U.S. was only starting to move off of the farms and create the suburbs, so often this generation “fell in line” with what the community was doing. Having a child out of wedlock was a disgrace. Being gay was something that simply was not discussed unless one was willing to take on a whole lot of ridicule.
Work ethic here was paramount. Boomers tend to see work as just a part of life; something that must be done to pay the bill and exist. Longevity displayed the ability to handle responsibility rather than gaining experience
Contrast this with the next generation, Gen X.
