Fragmentation in Boomerville

The commonly accepted birth year range for Baby Boomers is 1946 – 1964. Or so I thought. Even though someone born in 1946 (who is turning 63 years old this year) might not have much in common with someone born in 1964 (who is turning 45 this year), both were considered Boomers.

I also believed that Generation X came next, starting with those born in 1965 (who are turning 44 this year).

Those definitions are just perfect for me: clean demographic lines for generational categories with otherwise blurry borders.

But I recently heard of a new generational category: Generation Jones. Have you heard of this one?

Wikipedia defines Generation Jones as the generation of people born between 1954 and 1965. Someone who commented on my last post pointed out that many publications are claiming President Obama (born in 1961 and turning 48 on his next birthday) as someone in Generation Jones.

Friends of mine who participate in a weekly DC radio show called Women Talk (which I sort of produce) claim the new Pres as a Gen-Xer. I claim him as a Boomer. In fact, in my last post I said he is likely to be the last Boomer president. So if he’s not a Boomer, then Bush was the last Boomer President. Say it ain’t so!!

As we Boomers become Seniors, are we really going to want either of the last two presidents to go down in history as representing our generation? If the new president lives up to his campaign for the next four to eight years, then we would probably would want him to be remembered as a representative of the Boomer generation. But if he isn’t a Boomer, then that won’t be the case, will it?

This fragmentation of definition sucks. So does my undefined point in this post, my unclear logic from open to close and this very blurry conclusion. And my fragmented sentences.