I’ve heard it both ways. My friend Janet Granger says there are big differences, but I’ve also seen old quotes about Baby Boomers that sound suspiciously like recent quotes about Gen. Z, which makes me wonder if the differences are just a matter of getting older.
We have a funny relationship with generalizations. Or can I use the more fraught term: stereotypes?
All my listeners are smart enough to know that a generalization can be true without being true in every case. So, for example, psychologists tell us that men are more mechanically inclined than women by one standard deviation. That’s true despite the fact that Sally is a car mechanic and Harry can’t change his oil.
In my mind, these alleged generational differences are somewhat like the Myers Briggs stuff and personality differences. I dislike personality tests because I’ve only seem them abused.
At the same time, it’s been reliably shown that people do vary according to the “Big Five” personality traits: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.
What bugs me is when someone assumes that because a person tends towards extroversion – it is a scale, after all – that they will therefore act the way extroverts tend to act in all situations. That’s simply wrong.
So let’s pick at this a little.
It’s wrong to assume that an individual has the characteristics of a group that the individual happens to be a member of. So even if there are “Gen. Z” characteristics and “Boomer” characteristics, that doesn’t mean every person in that generation has those characteristics. People are individuals, and there’s lots of variations within any particular group.
Still, there have to be consequences to growing up with black and white TV versus growing up with an iPhone in your face, right? And making a reference to Gilligan’s Island is more likely to work with one generation than another.
This all leaves me somewhat ambivalent. It’s very likely there are some general guidelines that you should – maybe not follow, but at least keep in mind – when dealing with a particular demographic group, including a particular generation. After all, marketing is a game of averages.
That can be true despite the fact that we can’t apply those generalizations to an individual. “You’re Gen Z., so ….”
Here’s the Krehbiel take on this.
- There are probably statistically significant differences between generations. I’d be shocked if there weren’t.
- Most of the stuff you hear about generational differences is probably hype and marketing BS with no scientific basis.
- When it comes to these alleged differences, there’s a continuum between “slavishly follow” and “ignore.” Avoid the extremes.
- Don’t think of these things as givens, but as hypotheses that you can test.
If you’ve done any interesting tests along these lines, please let me know.
If you’re curious about generational differences, my friend Janet Granger wrote a book about how such differences can affect the workplace. OK Boomer! Revelations of a Baby Boomer Working with Millennials
And here’s a more skeptical take on the question: Running their own race: the problem with demographic generalisations
