This week, Tom Brokaw’s topic is baby boomers, the generation following “the greatest generation” that Tom has chronicled so eloquently over the years. And he’ll discuss that topic in the two-hour documentary, “Tom Brokaw Reports: Boomer$”He’ll look at the life, the legacy and the future of those people born between 1946 and 1964 as he talks to President Bill Clinton, Tom Hanks and more.
“Tom Brokaw Reports: Boomer$” airs Thursday, March 4th at 8 p.m. on CNBC…
Photo Credit: NBC
I like your blog, Angela. Brokaw is deservedly a beloved icon. But he is nothing remotely approximating an expert in generations, and from what I’ve seen about his Boomer$ documentary, he is embarrassing himself with his lack of knowledge. For example, he uses that old widely-discredited 1946-1964 Boomer definition at a time when most actual experts now divide that demographic boom in births into two distinct generations: the real Boomer Generation and Generation Jones. Generations are a function of the common formative experiences of its members, not the fertility rates of its parents. And most analysts now see generations as getting shorter (usually 10-15 years now), partly because of the acceleration of culture. Many experts now believe that while there was certainly a demographic baby boom between ’46 and ’64, the actual cultural Boomer Generation was more like 1942-1953, while GenJones was born from around 1954 to 1965.
ReplyDeleteGoogle Generation Jones, and you’ll see it’s gotten lots of media attention, with many major mainstream media companies using this term. In fact, the Associated Press' annual Trend Report chose the Rise of Generation Jones as the #1 trend of 2009. There are many of us GenJonesers who are quite happy to see our long-ignored generation finally recognized, and who resent media companies like CNBC broadcasting out-of-date, badly-researched material like this Boomer$ show. We should speak out against companies like this, and do what we each can to help spread awareness of GenJones, so that our generation can finally have its collective voice fully heard.
Here are some good links I found:
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20090127/column27_st.art.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ta_Du5K0jk
http://generationjones.com/2009latest.html
I'm looking forward to this Tom Brokaw special. It will be very interesting to hear more about the Baby Boomers especially in regards to their plans for retirement given the current state of the economy. Lately I have read numerous articles predicting that Baby Boomers will be instrumental in the housing market recovery. The most popular thought is that often times the 55-plus homeowner is living in a home that's already paid off which means they can afford to purchase a new home without selling their current home. Even more important to them is moving forward enjoying a fulfilling lifestyle, often times in an Active Adult community. With the thousands of retirees already living in Active Adult communities we already know of their mass popularity. But, what will the group just now turning 55 want in their next home and more important, what do they want to do with their retirement years in terms of activities, continued education, volunteering, etc? Looking forward to hearing more on this topic from Mr. Brokaw!
ReplyDelete