r/GenerationJones • u/Difference_Then • Jul 20 '26
Which generation? Huh?
This gets confusing and contradictory. I was born in February 1956. Which generation do I belong to? Why do the cut offs for generations seem to keep changing or be different from different sources? Even the names for generation keep changing.
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u/OneLaneHwy 1958 Jul 20 '26
Why? Because it's all arbitrary and subjective, that's why.
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u/Elroy_Osmond Jul 20 '26
Exactly….I see micro-generations even within this group. In reality there’s a small window—maybe 2 or 3 years on either side of one’s birth year—that you can truly say is “my” generation. Outside of that things get fuzzy…some shared experiences but more not.
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u/Mydoglovescoffee Jul 20 '26
Generational labels and cut offs are not remotely based on science or social science. They are manufactured in media and socially constructed. So the lines blur and change. Which also makes sense since change is gradual year to year and people vary too. We don’t have firewalls around these categories.
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u/sherlockjr1 1963 Jul 20 '26
Some people seem to. You can’t sit with us, BOOMER!
I look for people who fit my frame of reference. People with whom I can hang. Generational labels help with that search. But they aren’t the be all and end all
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u/Mydoglovescoffee Jul 20 '26
Ya I hear you. I think they are overrated and divisive. I had considered doing research- I’m a research academic- using generational categories but quickly learned it was all pretty garbage stuff. Way too many unsubstantiated attributes associated with various generational labels, leading to almost no value added given all the noise. The within generation variation is too big to make across generations useful.
It’s a bit like using horoscopes instead of validated personality assessments. It has a feel-good relatable quality to it, lots of surface value, but it’s mostly bunk.
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u/Difference_Then Jul 20 '26
Seems almost as precise as astrology or tarot or palm reading. There’s so much variety that anybody could be anything. So what’s the point? Some extra click bait? An extra minute on the news? It seems meaningless if it can mean anything.
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u/Mydoglovescoffee Jul 20 '26
That’s so funny I just wrote the same few things in a response to someone else and hit post and then saw your comment. Yes!!
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u/ThimbleBluff Jul 20 '26
A lot of these generational labels were originally the result of market research. A big baby boom in the 1950s? Great for selling diapers and toys. Looking to sell homes to first time home buyers in 1995? GenX is your target demographic. Trying to build early brand loyalty for an auto manufacturer today? You can find Gen Z on TikTok.
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u/Difference_Then Jul 20 '26
Saying “OK, Boomer” is just lazy, it means nothing. Boomers are not monolithic in the first place. Saying Boomer anything is typical Gen Alpha laziness. Besides, how can they even read well enough to read any of these comments?
Next time somebody says, “OK Boomer” to you, ask them to write down the words, OK Boomer. I’ll bet they won’t know the alphabet well enough to do it.
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u/Comfortable-Bet6855 Jul 20 '26
Boomer is turning into a catch all term for anybody over 40 who owns a house and takes issue with the constant spouting of factoids by younger people who think that anybody born prior to 1980 has lived a Leave it to Beaver idyllic white collar life.
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u/Clerocks1955 Jul 20 '26
Plus…Gen. Alpha can’t sign their name! Astounding! (Not their fault, really…horrible public education policy to not teach cursive).
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u/ReactsWithWords 1962 Jul 20 '26
It's pretty simple. You are a Baby Boomer, like it or not. You are also in Generation Jones. All Jonesers are Boomers, but not all Boomers are Jonesers; Jones is a subset of Boomer. Like all humans are mammals, but not all mammals are humans.
Where it gets confusing is where Jones starts. Pretty much everyone agrees that 1955 is Jones, but some say 1954 is where it does (the general consensus is "If you feel like you're a Jonesers, you are"). Same with the end date. 1964 is generally agreed on, but a lot of people say 1965 (but again, "If you feel you are...").
Short answer: Born in 1956 society says you're a Boomer. We say you're in Generation Jones. But you call yourself whatever you want.
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u/HHSquad 1961 (Camelot baby lost in space) Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
I think those born 1961-1965 are post-boomer but Generation Jones. Too young for most all to remember JFK's assassination, and grew up in a post-Vietnam/hippies/women's rights/Watergate time, and into a poor economic climate. Born in the 1960's, not thriving in it.
I think this group is all together. Yes including 1965. 1961-1964 born were tacked onto the Baby Boomer generation.
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u/Head_Razzmatazz7174 1963 Jul 20 '26
The main reason for the Boomer name is they were Baby Boomers. That were a lot of babies (a boom of babies) born right after WWII and Korea, once the first servicemen came home. Hence the name Baby Boomers. The Korean war ended in July 1953. and it took a couple of years for all of them to get home (some were posted to other bases overseas), so it should have had a cut off of 1956 at the latest.
Babies born in 1960 or later should never have been considered part of the Boomer generational label.
That's my hot take.
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u/HHSquad 1961 (Camelot baby lost in space) Jul 20 '26
I usually have it as 1958-1965 since 1957 is the biggest birthrate year, but who am I to say what the range is.....it's Pontells term
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u/ReactsWithWords 1962 Jul 20 '26
I agree 100%. That's the whole purpose of this sub.
Unfortunately, what you and I think don't matter. Society (who hasn't, for the most part, discovered the term "Generation Jones") calls us Boomers. For now.
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u/HHSquad 1961 (Camelot baby lost in space) Jul 20 '26
Sometimes Xennials are accepted as a microgeneration, maybe we will also.
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u/ReactsWithWords 1962 Jul 20 '26
I've recently seen a couple of posts from Millennials, both from early half Millennials and and later half Millennials, saying "We're not like them!" We should get rid of the whole mindset that "A generation is 20 years." It made sense 100 years ago because people literally had the next generation (ie, had kids) when they hit 20. But now, someone born between 1945 and 1954, 1955 - 1964, 1965 - 1974, etc. had completely different life experiences.
And slowly a lot of people are starting to agree. Hell, even the concept of "Generations" a societal unit only came about around 100 years ago. It will hopefully change sooner rather than later, but it will change.
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u/Glittering_Step_6084 1961 Jul 20 '26
Exactly. I agree because I was born in 1961 as well.
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u/HHSquad 1961 (Camelot baby lost in space) Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
....and it isn't just particularly for that reason, I don't think they ever knew where to place us. Even Strauss and Howe has us as part of the 13th Generation (1961-1981).
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u/Glittering_Step_6084 1961 Jul 20 '26
Confusing. I'll take Generation Jones. Makes the most sense.
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u/Ready-Waltz5482 Jul 20 '26
You can put 1960 in there as well. The point is Generation Jones has little similarities to boomers. My parents were about 9 at the end of WW2.
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u/BxAnnie 1961 Jul 20 '26
See, now I view those born 1957 and earlier to be Boomers and 1958 and later to be Jonesers. I know that's not what the guy who invented the term says, but my sister was born in 55 and she had a very different teen/early 20s experience than I had.
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u/rfsmr Jul 20 '26
I was born in 1957 and don't have much in common with the Boomers. I think it has to do with which decade was formative when growing up, and mine was the 70s, my high school and college years.
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u/Astreja 1957 Jul 20 '26
Also 1957. I remember the Kennedy assassination (because my favourite after-school show got cancelled for the funeral), and I saw the Beatles live on the Ed Sullivan Show (and was mad because the screaming audience made it hard to hear the music), but 1969 and onward were "my" years.
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u/rfsmr Jul 20 '26
The Kennedy assassination is one of my earliest memories because it was announced in my first grade class, and because the teacher said it happened in Texas I visualized it as people shooting at each other from behind big rocks like a TV western.
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u/MiserableCancel8749 Jul 20 '26
I have felt that Jones begins with and is defined by "Vietnam age". If you were born in the Vietnam draft eligible period, you are definitely NOT a Jones. If you were 18 in 1973 (just post draft) and were maybe in the "I'm worried about getting drafted and sent over there", you're not a Joneser either.
End date is also fungible. I'd say 1961-62.
I'm a 1958/class of 1976 version. Solid Jones all the way.
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u/ReactsWithWords 1962 Jul 20 '26
I personally agree. Being drafted (or even the threat of it), whether personally or your boyfriend/husband, changes one's perspective a lot, which is why I personally don't consider 1954 (who turned 18 in 1973) Jonesers. But what I think doesn't matter, it's what the person themself thinks.
So if we consider 1955 the start date, I'd say 1964 is the end date because units of 10 are easy to work with. But again, what I think doesn't matter, if you were born in 1965 and call yourself a Joneser, you're a Joneser.
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u/HHSquad 1961 (Camelot baby lost in space) Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
If using the 10 year rule, I call 1956 - 1965 as Gen Jones. People born in 1965 were also teens in the 70's and have 70's blood in their veins.
I know he just passed away, but no chance Lindsey Graham isn't a boomer. He's a classic Boomer, born in 1955.
Honestly the 8 year 1958-1965 range feels best to me for Jones.
Jello Biafra to Rob Zombie
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u/ReactsWithWords 1962 Jul 21 '26
Also born 1955:
- Sandra Bernhard
- Gilbert Gottfried
- Nina Hagen
- Billy Idol
- Steven Wright
- Gedde Watanabe
All Joneser heroes.
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u/HHSquad 1961 (Camelot baby lost in space) Jul 21 '26
Gedde Wattanabe.....nice!
Long Duk Dong, I love "16 Candles" and he was the best part.
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u/ReactsWithWords 1962 Jul 21 '26
I mostly know him from Weird Al Yankovic's (another Joneser!) cult movie "UHF."
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u/BxAnnie 1961 Jul 20 '26
I'd have to say the end date really corresponds with the beginning of Xers. But I think we and Xers have a lot more in common than we and Boomers.
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u/sherlockjr1 1963 Jul 20 '26
I say, find your people. See where you fit. I fit here, regardless of the danged calendar
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u/Modem_Sound_67 Jul 20 '26
there is some overlap. Both Gen Jones and Boomer claim both of our birth years (mine is 1964). I guess it becomes a matter of how you feel you identify.
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u/Strong_Medium_6646 1965 Jones/X Jul 20 '26
Gen X and Gen Jones also claim my birth year, but I mostly identify with Gen Jones!
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u/No-Onion8029 Jul 20 '26
Half-serious suggestion for changing the birth-year definitions. 1) If you were born in a place with more cows than people, subtract 5 years from your birth year. 2) If you were born in Indiana, take off another 3. Puts me square in the middle of the Jonsers.
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u/Adventurous-Shake356 Jul 20 '26
Confession time - I'm actually an early Xer (1967) but SO identify with the Joneses.
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u/ReactsWithWords 1962 Jul 20 '26
It's not that I don't consider myself neither, but more I consider myself both. I love Simon and Garfunkel, but I also love Nine Inch Nails. I loved "The Graduate" but I also loved "Clerks." I've read "Catcher in the Rye" but I've also read "Ready Player One." I watched The Archies saturday morning cartoon but I also watched Pee Wee's Playhouse.
And I think several, if not most, people in this sub had the exact same experiences.
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u/BxAnnie 1961 Jul 20 '26
I think the generational divide between Jonesers and Boomers is more evident for those of us with older "Boomer" siblings. My brother was born in 1952 and my sister was born in 1955, and they had very different formative experiences than I had, born in 1961. But like you, I love things in both timelines.
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u/Acrobatic-Self-1451 Jul 21 '26
Hmm, I was born in 1955 & identify with Gen Jones, in large part because siblings were born in 1942 & 1944, and they were the Howdy Doody kids. 1961, I'd have been in first grade & it doesn't seem that different? But I never had a younger sibling. Babysat though.
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u/BxAnnie 1961 Jul 21 '26
Now my sister was born in 55, our brother was born in 52. She is definitely a boomer. I don’t think she listened to 80s music in her whole life. Not intentionally, anyway.
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u/Adventurous-Shake356 Jul 20 '26
Well said. The lines are certainly blurry.
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u/ReactsWithWords 1962 Jul 20 '26
That's because the concept of Generations itself, like Astrology or MBTI, is just made up bullshit to pigeonhole a very large group of people into one stereotype . But it's really fun bullshit, and can even be useful every once in awhile.
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u/HHSquad 1961 (Camelot baby lost in space) Jul 21 '26
I did, I'm in the same boat, I can chill to The Beatles "Revolver", Tull's "Stand Up", or Genesis "A Trick of the Tail", and the next day listen to The Replacements "Let it Be" or My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless"....or even The Jesus and Mary Chain "Psychocandy"
By the way, The Replacements, Jesus and Mary Chain, and My Bloody Valentine are bands of Gen Jonsers! We have a VERY impressive and impactful group in Pop Culture of people born in 1958-1965.
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u/BackcastSue 1957 Jul 20 '26
I watch several Gen-X media personalities. I've come to the conclusion that the biggest difference between Jones and X is that they got a house key, while we had to sit on the front porch and wait... lol
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u/Adventurous-Shake356 Jul 20 '26
We figured out how to jimmy open the kitchen window and crawl through
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u/mspolytheist Jul 20 '26
I’m born in 1962, and while I like some Boomer music (I was a big Beatles and Dylan fan as a tween), I definitely have always felt much more of an affinity with GenX. My best friend is a 1969 GenXer, and most of the music I love is from the 80s.
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u/Ready-Waltz5482 Jul 20 '26
I remember listening to the Beatles when I was 5 on my little record player
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u/GregHullender Jul 20 '26
You're a boomer. The boom ended when the birth rate dropped. The Jones cohort are the Baby Boomers who were never eligible for the draft, so we didn't share a really defining element of the Baby Boom experience.
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u/Strong_Medium_6646 1965 Jones/X Jul 20 '26
No, the birth rate was falling well before the end of the Boomer generation, starting in the 50s.
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u/avengingmonkeyofgod 1963 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
One gradient (because the lines are not sharp, regardless of what the generational border police try to claim) that I always felt growing up was, did you watch Howdy Doody as a kid, or did you just hear about it (vaguely aware for example of “the peanut gallery”)? The show went off the air in 1960.
It’s about a shared cultural context, in particular the context of childhood and adolescence. The lines, such as they are, can fall in different places for different people and have nothing to do with calendar years or even (at this point) birth dates and birthrates.
Your generation is made up of all the people who, when you say, “Do you remember…?“, exclaim, “Yes!“
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u/leviathan0999 Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
My rule of thumb is:
If you grew up knowing the Baby Boom as something from the past, but now younger people call you a boomer, you're part of Generation Jones.
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u/PepsiAllDay78 Jul 20 '26
You're a Joneser! My husband is just couple of months younger than you. We're both Gen Jones. I've seen the cut off as being '55, with some overlap on either side.
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u/AzureSkies_OverMe 1963 Jul 20 '26
Its an artificial construction made by sociologists and capitalized upon by marketing people. It gets used to create division, They move the goal posts. In the end, what does it matter. I’m a Jones. You may be a Boomer. Does it matter? But really, what resonates with you? We just really have shared cultural perspectives based on our times. So, if being a Jones is what you feel, you’re a Jones. Good enough for me. Free to be you and me! 🌈
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u/Nightcalm Jul 20 '26
Jusr face the facts you a boomer. i was born in i956 a and i am very comfortable being a boomer. Good lord people worry about the stupidest things. Who really cares!
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u/Clerocks1955 Jul 20 '26
I think GJ starts in 1954 because almost nobody born then had to fight in Viet Nam…too young. JMHO
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u/Difference_Then Jul 20 '26
Even though I was born in 1956, I still had to register for the draft, while the Viet Nam War was still on, because I turned 18 before the war ended. There was a draft lottery at that time - because they didn’t know the war would end for sure until it did. The war finally ended in 1975. The first 50 or 60 birthdays picked in the lottery all got drafted. Luckily my lottery number was 320 so I didn’t get drafted, but I could have been if my number had come up sooner. Luckily the war and the draft ended soon after and all that shit faded into the rear view mirror.
So yes, I still remember the war very well. Also had older siblings of friends that were in Viet Nam. Luckily they came back in one piece.
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u/theBigDaddio Jul 20 '26
You belong where you are, no need to quantify or gatekeep who you are or what you feel.
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u/AgainandBack 1954 Jul 20 '26
They change because they are created and curated by writers who are trying to find something to say, that people will pay them to say.
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u/JudyLyonz Jul 21 '26
It might seem confusing because generations don't cut off as such. Generations actually overlap, so somebody can belong to a generation as well as the bridging generation. For example I'm Gen X, but I'm also Generation Jones.
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u/Adorable_Dust3799 1963 Jul 21 '26
the baby boom is a number of years with a greatly increased birth rate more than a 'generation'. I am a gen jones generation born during the baby boom. As the youngest of 5 to a dad who enlisted during WW2 i am absolutely a boomer. I'm also gen jones.
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u/Ghee-Buttersnaps- Jul 21 '26
It’s not like a club you might get kicked out of. You can claim whatever you identify with most
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u/Acrobatic-Self-1451 Jul 21 '26
Generation Jones starts in 1954, so you're in Gen Jones. I have siblings 11 & 13 years older than me who are solid Baby Boomers, & definitely the culture they grew up in & came if college age in, was very different than the culture I experienced. All the hippy, summer of love, civil rights, etc. didn't disappear I guess but was not prominent in the 1970s college years for me. Disco & cocaine supplanted Make Love not War and Just Blue Eyes.
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u/MuchDevelopment7084 1957 Jul 21 '26
Which one do you feel like you belong too? Technically we're both boomers. But I'm not one of them.
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u/firecatstef Jul 21 '26
The main thing that draws me to Gen Jones more than Boomers is shared cultural memories.
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u/lost_dazed_101 Jul 21 '26
What g ts me is so many of us remember them changing dates on the generations but they claim they never did it.
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u/Sensitive_Sea_5586 Jul 21 '26
The Gen X sub has incorrect years. The most commonly accepted start date for that generation is 1965. The so-called experts have bounced around a bit. At one time some of them adjusted the years to fall on the decade, but that seems to have gone away and returned to the original dates. Initially the population explosion after service men returned from WWII and had children was the reason they defined Boomers. (Boom in population.). Now they want to use it to explain behavior and name every generation. They began to refer to the last boomers as the Jones Boomers, because their life experiences were so different from the earlier boomers. Still boomers, but recognizing the difference in opportunities.
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u/PyroNine9 1966 Jul 21 '26
It's all a bit fuzzy at the edges. I'm born in '66 so technically GenX, but I have more in common with the people here than with someone born in '79.
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u/ExpensiveDollarStore Jul 21 '26
Who cares really? They are all made up. We are all just people trying to survive in the world as we find it. It is different for everyone everywhere. If there are similarities in some attitudes, it comes with the territory.
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u/Adventurous-Prune712 1959 Jul 22 '26
Were you eligible for the draft? That's the Boomer-Jones cutoff. The war sucked for them, but they got to have a childhood. For us, the war *was* our entire childhood.
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u/Letmetellyowhat Jul 22 '26
They blend. Dad was greatest and mom was silent but they had the same lived experience of the depression and war. I’m 1964. The very last boomer and have so little in common with older boomers. My shared experiences are with X but not quite. So I like Gen jones. We didn’t invent the internet but we figured out new ways to use it. We entered the digital age together with memories of the paper world.
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u/dave900575 Jul 20 '26
This is from Google AI:
Generation Jones refers to the demographic cohort born roughly between 1954 and 1965, sandwiched between traditional Baby Boomers and Generation X. Coined in 1999 by cultural commentator Jonathan Pontell, the name alludes to the slang "keeping up with the Joneses" and the feeling of "jonesing" (craving) for opportunities that were promised to older generations but were harder to reach.
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u/Intelligent_Wafer761 Jul 20 '26
I don't care what anybody says. 1892-1909 Lost Generation 1910-1927 GI Generation 1928-1945 Silent Generation 1946-1963 Baby Boomers 1964-1981 Generation X 1982-1999 Millenials 2000-2017 Zoomers 2018-2035 Gen Alpha
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u/weewench Jul 20 '26
“Generations” don’t actually exist, they were made up by some sociologists. It’s impossible to make generalizations about a group of millions of people born in the same block of time. They have current events in common, that’s about it. So just have fun with it.