This led to a wave of divorces among Silent Generation couples thereafter in the United States. Whereas divorce in the eyes of the previous generation was considered aberrant behavior, the Silents were the generation that reformed marriage laws to allow for divorce and lessen the stigma. As young parents, this generation gave birth primarily to the Baby Boomers while younger members of the generation and older members who held off raising a family until later in life gave birth to Generation X. American Silents are noted as being the youngest of all American generations in marrying and raising families. "get their money's worth." This led some members of the Silent Generation to develop hoarder tactics in the guise of "not being wasteful." Īs with their own parents, Silents tended to marry and have children young. In adulthood įrom their childhood experiences during the Depression and the insistence from their parents to be frugal, Silents tended to be thrifty and even miserly, preferring to maximize the property's lifespan, i.e. This generation were also heavily influenced by the transformations brought about by the Golden Age of Radio, the rise of trade unions, the development of transatlantic flight and the discovery of Penicillin during their formative years. Fortune magazine's story on the College Class of '49 was subtitled "Taking No Chances". Their attitudes leaned toward not being risk-takers and playing it safe. Unlike the previous generation who had fought for "changing the system," the Silent Generation were about "working within the system." They did this by keeping their heads down and working hard, thus earning themselves the "silent" label. When the Silent Generation began coming of age after World War II, they were faced with a devastated social order within which they would spend their early adulthood and a new enemy in Communism via the betrayal of post-war agreements and rise of the Soviet Union. They saw the fall of Nazism and the catastrophic devastation made capable by the nuclear bomb. Many lost their fathers or older siblings who were killed in the war. Before reaching their teens, they shared with their parents the horrors of World War II but through children's eyes. Characteristics United States As children and adolescents Īs a cultural narrative, the Silent Generation are described as children of the Great Depression whose parents, having revelled in the highs of the Roaring Twenties, now faced great economic hardship and struggled to provide for their families. People born in the later years of World War II who were too young to have any direct recollections of the conflict are sometimes considered to be culturally, if not demographically, baby boomers. Authors William Strauss and Neil Howe use 1925 to 1942. The Intergenerational Centre of the Resolution Foundation has used 1926 to 1945, while the Encyclopedia of Strategic Leadership and Management uses the range 1925 to 1945. According to this definition, people of the Silent Generation are 77 to 94 years old in 2022. The Pew Research Center uses 1928 to 1945 as birth years for this cohort. The cohort is also known as the "Traditionalist Generation" and has been named the "Lucky Few" in the 2008 book The Lucky Few: Between the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boom by Elwood D. The term "Silent Generation" is also used to describe a similar age group in the UK but has been at times described as a reference to strict childhood discipline which taught children to be "seen but not heard." In Canada, it has been used with the same meaning as in the United States. A reason later proposed for this perceived silence is that as young adults during the McCarthy Era, many members of the Silent Generation felt it was unwise to speak out. The Time magazine article used birth dates of 1923 to 1933 for the generation, but the term somehow migrated to the later years currently in use. It has been called the "Silent Generation." It does not issue manifestoes, make speeches or carry posters. By comparison with the Flaming Youth of their fathers & mothers, today's younger generation is a still, small flame. With some rare exceptions, youth is nowhere near the rostrum.
The most startling fact about the younger generation is its silence. Time magazine first used the term "Silent Generation" in a November 5, 1951, article titled "The Younger Generation", although the term appears to precede the publication: A girl listening to vacuum-tube radio during the Great Depression
0 kommentar(er)
