The creation of a worldview is the work of a generation rather than of an individual, but each of us, for better or for worse, adds our brick to the edifice.
Generational theory sits at the intersection of history and cultural evolution. When we discuss Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials, and Gen Z, what we’re really exploring is change over time. By examining change through a generational lens, we can explore our most pressing questions: Where have we been? How did we get to where we are today? Where will we go from here?
Now is the moment to explore how shifting demographics, generational patterns, and our disruptive era are transforming the needs and expectations of colleagues and members.
The research that comes out of the Center of Excellence for the Next Generation of Member Growth will commonly use generational language. Because of that, I wanted to have a standard brief with the basic framing of each generation, their background, and major trends that we can revisit as more credit union-specific research comes out. We’ll then compare generational preferences and explore how to reach a new generation without alienating your loyal member and employee base.
I believe that credit unions are sitting on under-leveraged assets that can be highlighted to reach a new generation as they transition into adulthood. My hope is that by better understanding how a new generational ethos emerges, credit unions will be better prepared to capture our current moment and lead in the future.
This brief is meant to be just that—brief. I have included a few bullet points of implications for credit unions but over the next few years, the implications and solutions will become much more tailored, specific, and actionable.
Generations Set Up
Age is simply a starting place when we break down the generations. More significantly, generations are broken down by events and conditions from formative years. During this time, roughly the teenage years, we are highly impressionable and porous. It is during adolescence when we reevaluate the norms and values of our families and begin to make sense of things on our own terms. Consequently, what is happening in the world at that time has a profound and lasting impact on our views and behaviors.
Generational theory is rooted in sociology, not psychology. It’s important to note that both schools of thought are equally important. Leaders often look to both concepts in order to better understand their employees and clients. This is also the approach that Filene has taken, launching both the Next Generation of Member Growth, along with a comprehensive approach to behavior-based segmentation in the Member Voice tool.
In sociology, we look at culture. There are so many psychological ways in which humans are different and unique: our DNA, our brain functionality, the way we practice religion, our relationship to parents, etc. Generational theory specifically looks at what we share. Generational theory explores what that society is and how it changes over time.
1. Baby Boomers
There's a myth that learning is for young people. But as the proverb says, 'It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.' The middle years are great, great learning years. Even the years past the middle years. I took on a new job after my 77th birthday—and I'm still learning. Learn all your life. Learn from your failures. Learn from your successes. When you hit a spell of trouble, ask, 'What is it trying to teach me?' The lessons aren't always happy ones, but they keep coming.
Background
Baby Boomers came of age in an era marked by intense social fragmentation. As teenagers and young adults, many of them fought in the Vietnam War (or protested it), got caught up in “Beatlemania,” were engrossed in the works of James Baldwin and Gloria Steinem, questioned their parents’ traditional values and religious viewpoints, and fought for social justice in the world.
The post-WWII economy was booming. By 1961, the median American man age 25 to 29 was earning nearly 400 percent more than his father had earned at about the same time.1 Although Boomers were small children at this time, that economic engine guided them into early adulthood.
Baby Boomers: Summary Slides
2. Gen X
After you're dead and buried and floating around whatever place we go to, what's going to be your best memory of earth? What one moment for you defines what it's like to be alive on this planet? What’s your takeaway? Fake yuppie experiences that you had to spend money on, like white water rafting or elephant rides in Thailand don't count. I want to hear some small moment from your life that proves you're really alive.
Background
Gen Xers came of age in an era of rapid media growth. Ted Turner put CNN on the air in 1980, the 24-hour news cycle took off, and we’ve been changed forever by that shift. MTV, the Berlin Wall, Rodney King, OJ Simpson, Enron, Worldcomm, The Challenger explosion, and many more newsworthy moments came flooding into living rooms across America. Many teenagers were exposed to it all, all the time.
As institutions were called into question time and time again on television, skepticism seeped into the Gen X mindset. They learned you can’t always believe what you see and hear. Today, this skepticism plays out in many ways, prompted by everything from sales tactics, to voting, and even education. Gen X is the generation of parents most likely to homeschool their children for non-religious purposes.6
On top of crumbling institutions on television, the institution of marriage was also being called into question. Between 1965-1977, the US divorce rate doubled.7 These “latch-key” childhoods created independence at a young age. Unsurprisingly, This generation was more likely to marry later and less likely to get divorced than Baby Boomers. Many Gen X parents are hyper focused on their nuclear family—perhaps as a result of the familial tumult of their childhood.
Their independence and skepticism have contributed to the entrepreneurial energy of Gen X. On October 13th, 1994, as the Netscape browser was introduced, and a new generation of entrepreneurs was empowered. 55% of startup founders fall into the Gen X category.8
Gen X: Summary Slides
3. Millennials
The internet isn't written in pencil, Mark. It's written in ink.
Background
Technology, violence, and a new family structure serve as the backdrop for the Millennial generation.
Millennials grew up in the dawn of social media, which was different from the social media we know now. We aren’t talking about the economic behemoths of today, we’re talking about the punk rock version of social media — MySpace, Friendster, and the first iteration of Facebook, known among its collegiate users as: The Facebook. These were online tools built by and for young people. The early days of social media became an online haven for the youth experience.
This changed the way Millennials worked, communicated, bought, sold, and dated. The technology is still new enough for its consequences to be relatively unknown. As Nicholas G. Carr wrote in the Pulitzer-prize finalist book, The Shallows, “None of us can decide if we’re in the new golden age of access and participation or the new dark age of mediocrity and narcissism.” What we do know is that social media is a collaborative tool, one that values and emphasizes the collective voice while also celebrating and branding personality. The power of collaboration and the branding of personhood has shaped Millennials, and the world at large.
Millennials: Summary Slides
4. Gen Z
Endnotes
- Steven Ruggles, “Patriarchy, Power, and Pay: The Transformation of American Families, 1800–2015,” Demography 52 (2015): 1797–1823.
- Steven L. Gordon and Francesca M. Cancian, “Changing Emotion Norms in Marriage: Love and Anger in U.S. Women’s Magazines Since 1900,” Gender and Society vol. 2 no. 3 (1988): 308–342.
- David Brooks, “The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake,” The Atlantic, March 2020 Issue, www.theatlantic.com.
- Deloitte, The Future of Wealth in the United States—Baby Boomers, accessed December 16, 2024; Heather Gillers, Anne Tergesen, and Leslie Scism, “A Generation of Americans is Entering Old Age the Least Prepared in Decades,” The Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2018; America Counts Staff, “By 2030, All Baby Boomers Will Be Age 65 or Older,” United States Census Bureau, December 10, 2019; Cynthia M. LeRouge et. al., “Challenges and Opportunities with Empowering Baby Boomers for Personal Health Information Management Using Consumer Health Information Technologies: An Ecological Perspective,” AIMS Public Health, September 2, 2014, 1 (3): 160–181.
- Nicky Lineaweaver, “Baby Boomers’ Appetite for Apple Watch 4 Bodes Well for Apple’s Senior-Focused Healthcare Play,” Business Insider, September 20, 2018, www.businessinsider.co.
- Debbie Kelly, “The Survey Says: Gen Xers Favor Homeschooling More Than Other Parents,” The Gazette, August 25, 2024.
- Gary O’Bannon, “Managing Our Future: The Generation X Factor,” Public Personnel Management, 30 (1): 95-110.
- Sage, 2015 State of the Startup (Irvine: Sage Software, Inc., 2015).
- Sparks & Honey Culture Forecast, Gen Z 2025: The Final Generation, October 21, 2015, slideshare.net.
- Claudia Winkler, “Coming of Age in the 9/11 Era,” Berkley Forum: Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, & World Studies, September 11, 2019.
- Sherry Turkle, “Phone, Home: How September 11, 2001, Changed the Way a Generation Is Growing Up,” Boston.com, September 11, 2001.
