ADMIRATION AND ADVERSITY ACROSS AGES

BY KATE CORCORAN

No matter if they are a flower child, cyberspace pioneer or a social media savant, it seems those of every era desire to hear something different. Is their favored form of acclaim predetermined by personal preference, or are they sculpted by experience and adversity? From time bombs to phone alarms, digging into past and present problems can uncover what makes entire generations tick, as reflected by their preferred form of admiration. A few formative factors govern generational differences. The cohort effect, or the result of sharing comparable experiences with a group, is key. It plays a role in how varying generational groups view the receipt of admirations, resulting in the development of the perceptions and views of that generation. With their divergent experiences, each generation possesses different perceptions, framing the world in terms of the events that shaped them so early in life. Whether it be incessant war and recession; the advent of the iPhone and introduction of social media; or the experiences of Woodstock and the civil rights movements of the ‘60s, shared events present generations with periods of arduous growth. What many members of generations want to be admired for is conquering the calamities these critical events created.

Baby boomers have been around the block. Apart from bowing to the beauty of Beatlemania, the sagacious generation was born into the rolling thunder of the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement. Even so, they developed core values such as “wanting to make a difference,” being “team-oriented,” and support for “equal rights,” according to generational research from the University of South Florida. Boomers’ values demonstrate a desire to continue to learn from the conflict they spotted in adolescence, becoming a generation of empathetic revolutionaries. The “baby busters” of Generation X faced experiences against the backdrop of the Gulf War in the Middle East coupled with the recession in the early ‘90s. Many of Gen X’s older individuals had a hard time ditching the savings-friendly dorm diet once they graduated, facing a weak job recovery and shallow pockets as a result of the fiscal policy decisions of the late ‘80s. Along with millennials, Gen X zeroed in on workplace success as their preferred flattery. Wracked with recessions, they generally long for financial stability above all else.

A problematic parallel, Millennials faced similar experiences as they were thrust from college graduation into a desolate job market. The 2007-2008 financial crisis discombobulated the global financial system, forcing many broke businesses to cut back. Additionally, the U.S. still had a major presence in the Middle East with seemingly never-ending wars that were the byproducts of 9/11. Yet millennials, in stubborn defiance of disparaging stereotypes, are realists who value achievement and being highly tolerant, according to USF’s generational research. The seemingly constant uncertainty of war and recession that made up their adolescence may have produced a more accepting generation; one of individualism and one far from its entitled reputation.

Growing up in the digital age set Generation Z apart from their elders, and their shared experience is a world of overexposure to exponentially expanding sources of information and misinformation. Zoomers covet one main concept in a compliment: that they are different. One could wager that social media has caused Gen Z’s problem to be a constant comparison. The solution? To the children of Instagram profiles filled with aesthetic photo squares: being outside-the-box. Every generation’s values were established in their youth, with the hardships of their adolescence influencing what they crave to overcome. Overcoming personal, generational difficulties is the finest form of flattery between decades. Individuals of all ages desire to be reminded that they have beaten Goliath and moved on from the miseries of the past.