Dear LPG readers,

I was reading an article the other day that mentioned Baby Boomers, but I had no idea what that meant, even though I had heard the term before.  

Someone said it when I was part of a discussion with a group of people one day, not so long ago.  Everyone else appeared to understand what was meant, so I reacted like most of the other people in the group, although I had no real idea exactly what was being talked about.  I understood that a particular age group or generation of people were being referred to from the rest of the conversation, but which generation exactly was being referred to?  I had very little idea, and while we all reacted appropriately at the time, I now wonder how many other participants in that chat had more of an idea than I did. 

I must not have had much else to ponder because that particular two-word phrase ultimately dictated what I had learned from talking with my friends on the day, and I felt I had learned very little.  A bit later, after the chat, I asked the person in the group that I feel closest to, and she said something about different generations, which I had already worked out for myself.  Her enlightening attempt at clarification involved a lot of words but no real explanation.  I did not push the point because I did not want to make her feel as ignorant as I then did, but it occurs to me that there are a lot of words and concepts that have crept into our language as the years have gone by that we don’t know a lot about.  We hear them and deduce what they mean because of their context within the words around them, but I know that I don’t understand. 

We are lucky these days because we don’t have to stay ignorant.  We googled, and I had to ask a few generational questions.  

I asked how many years there are in a ‘generation,’ and the answer was about 15. I then asked about the significance of each of those generational terms. These terms started as sociologists' jargon; most pensioners will likely be builders or boomers.  

I found a few websites that explain what sort of outlook on life you are typically likely to have, depending on which generational category your date of birth puts you in, and what our ages are supposed to tell us about our outlook on life and lifestyle.

Apparently, at the age of 75, I am a boomer. As such, I typically should identify with hippy-type expressions   and cassette tape recorders instead of Personal stereos or Spotify. I would have been more likely to have come across toy cars and dolls as opposed to a handheld computer or tablet to play with when a child is born.  

I suspect that few of us are an exact fit for any of the categories, thank God, and despite having learned that I am a boomer, I am also glad to be able to categorise myself and each of the people I know, as unique individuals whatever their sociological demographic dictates!  

WG, Beckenham

WG offers a little of what the internet taught her…

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