Generation X and Y

All people are part of a certain generation. Special circumstances and events, such as war or technical progress, shape and connect the members of these individual sociological groups. Because different generations experience different things, there are big differences between you. In the following, two successive generations of our time will be examined more closely.

Generation X - children of the 60s and 70s

Generation X is the population group whose members were born in the 1960s and 1970s. They succeed the baby boomer generation and are replaced by the later-born members of Generation Y.

The term Generation X goes back to the 1991 novel "Generation X" by Douglas Coupland. This book describes the main characteristics of this population group within a fictitious one story enumerated and explained.

The photo report of the same name by Robert Capa from the 1950s also has the

Names shaped early on. However, this was only about those born after the war. There is also a famous sociological study that bears this title. In this, Hamblett and Deverson in the 1960s examined a youth movement of this generation, the rockers and mods.

Generation X, which originally meant a nameless generation, is also known as the "Lost Generation". It includes the sub-categories "Generation 68" and "Generation Golf".

It is the first population group to have grown up without the devastating war and its effects. Nevertheless, for the first time she has to deal with less prosperity and economic security than her parents.

In doing so, they create a new value system that is far less based on the accumulation of material possessions and status symbols. The central term for this generation is a refusal to consume that the previous generation did not know. For them, work is only a necessary evil in order to secure a livelihood. Getting ahead is important to them.

Generation Y - born 1980 - 95

Generation Y includes those born between 1980 and 1995 who were teenagers between 1990 and 2010. It follows Generation X and is being replaced by the digital natives, Generation Z.

The term Generation Y is derived simply from the fact that Y is in alphabet follows X. So they are those born after Generation X. Klaus Hurrelmann described them in detail in 2014 in "The secret revolutionaries - How Generation Y is changing our world".

Because of their youth around the turn of the millennium, the Ypsiloners are also called millennials. Other names are "Generation Maybe" or "Generation Why", since Y is pronounced "Why" in English.

The majority of its members are well trained and extremely tech-savvy. Because they grew up with the Internet and mobile communication. You are characterized by optimism and self-confidence. A job is not just a job for them. It has to bring fulfillment to them and at the same time leave enough space for leisure and family. The search for meaning and work-life balance are the key terms for this group of people.

Both generations in comparison

Whether Couplands Generation X or the successor generation Y, named by sociologists and the media: Both are closer than is to be expected given the numerous differences. Because they have to work and live together. Their members are sometimes parents and children, older and younger colleagues, employers and employees.

While Generation Y, of course, dealt with the great terrorist attack in New York, the financial and euro crisis grew up, Generation X spent their youth fighting their stuffy parents and that Establishment. The Ypsilonians have long been used to the omnipresent uncertainty, make the best of it and have learned to improvise.

The work-life balance is a crucial goal for the Ypsiloners. This enables them to adapt perfectly to the changing job market. Because permanent positions and an employer until retirement are a thing of the past, which the Ixers are more used to.

The Ypsiloners are flexible and find their way around. For them, the job means self-realization and not a means to an end. The typical burnout candidates who desperately want to stay in their company are the Ixers.

Individuality is the keyword for Generation Y. Therefore they are also called "egotactics". This also includes the daily presence in social networks and the vanishing separation between online and offline. They are always available throughout life, whether at home or at work.

Generation X had to rebel against their parents. Political engagement and perseverance are at the top of her list.

Against prevailing prejudices on the part of the Ixer plays politics also play a role in the life of Generation Y. Yet they protest in a quieter, but no less effective, way. The "Occupy Wall Street" movement, for example, proves this.

The losers of Generation X could not fulfill the desired resolution of the classic distribution of roles and can no longer find their way around the rapidly fluctuating labor market. The losers of Generation Y are not referred to as "Generation Chips" for nothing: Obesity is an always topical issue in this generation.

X and Y are two different generations who should get over the generational conflict and mutual prejudice. Because they can learn a lot from each other: where some stamina does not harm one, a little rethinking of flexibility can help the other. That way they can live and work well together.