1/ Boomers are criticized for the Great Recession; Gen Xers are largely forgotten. Millennials have suffered financial woes and are changing cultural norms; Gen Z is being shaped by technology. A decade’s worth of Atlantic thinking on the generations:
2/ Things have not exactly gone according to script for Boomers, Michael Kinsley wrote in 2010: They ducked the Vietnam war, ran up huge public and private debts, and passed along an America where prosperity looks to more and more people like a mirage. theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
3/ In addition, @lymanstoneky wrote this June, Boomers created, advanced, or preserved policies that made American institutions—such as housing, higher education, and law enforcement—less dynamic. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
@lymanstoneky 4/ The Boomers are partly to blame for Millennials’ adulthood delay and financial burdens, @DKThomp wrote in 2012. theatlantic.com/business/archi…
@lymanstoneky @DKThomp 5/ But Millennials’ cheap habits are not a temporary side effect, @DKThomp and @JHWeissmann wrote in September of that year; there is a permanent generational shift in tastes and spending habits. theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
@lymanstoneky @DKThomp @JHWeissmann 6/ For example, when it comes to drinking alcohol, @amandamull wrote this year, Millennials are realizing that it doesn’t have to be as all-or-nothing as American culture has long dictated. theatlantic.com/health/archive…
@lymanstoneky @DKThomp @JHWeissmann @amandamull 7/ However, Millennial workers—specifically college-educated elites—have morphed jobs into a religious identity. It’s a blueprint for spiritual and physical exhaustion, @DKThomp wrote in February. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
@lymanstoneky @DKThomp @JHWeissmann @amandamull 8/ Today, 43% of self-identified Democrats are either Gen Zers or Millennials. A generation-based party realignment is in the works, @nfergus and @eyckfreymann wrote in May—and it may have profound implications for the future of American politics. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
@lymanstoneky @DKThomp @JHWeissmann @amandamull @nfergus @eyckfreymann 9/ What about Gen X? When it comes to politics, @PeterBeinart wrote in October, the generation is suffering a crisis of confidence, and struggling to adapt past policy views to shifting ideological beliefs and alliances. theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
@lymanstoneky @DKThomp @JHWeissmann @amandamull @nfergus @eyckfreymann @PeterBeinart 10/ Meanwhile, @jean_twenge wrote in 2017, post-Millennials are on the brink of the worst mental-health deterioration in decades—and it all traces back to the smartphone. theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
@lymanstoneky @DKThomp @JHWeissmann @amandamull @nfergus @eyckfreymann @PeterBeinart @jean_twenge 11/ American teenagers and young people are also having less sex compared with past generations even though our culture has never been more tolerant of the act, @katejulian wrote in 2018. theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
@lymanstoneky @DKThomp @JHWeissmann @amandamull @nfergus @eyckfreymann @PeterBeinart @jean_twenge @katejulian 12/ Each generation is different. But what the meme ‘OK Boomer’ made clear, Andrew Ferguson wrote this year, is that the only thing Gen Xers, Millennials, and Gen Zers agree on is that as bad as everybody else is, Boomers are worse. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
