Baby Boomers – Pioneers of Social Change
By Sandy Morris on Apr 1, 2010 in Baby Boomers, Featured
- Image by Christchurch City Libraries via Flickr
Baby Boomers grew up at a time of dramatic social change in the country. In the United States, that social change marked the generation with a strong cultural expression, between the proponents of social change and the more conservative. Some analysts believe this class has played out politically since the time of the Vietnam War, to some extent defining the political landscape and developing division in the country.
In 1993, Time magazine reported on the religious affiliations of baby boomers, stating that about 42% of baby boomers were dropouts from formal religion, a third had never strayed from church, and one-fourth of boomers were returning to religious practice. The boomers returning to religion were “usually less tied to tradition and less dependable as church members than the loyalists. They are also more liberal, which deepens rifts over issues like abortion and homosexuality.”
Boomers across the world are said to have come of age at about the same time. Thus, Britain was undergoing Beatlemania while people in the United States were celebrating Woodstock, organizing against the Vietnam War, or fighting and dying in the same war; boomers in Italy were dressing in mod clothes and “buying the world a Coke“; American boomers in Canada had just found a new home and escaped the draft; Canadian Boomers were organizing support for Pierre Trudeau. It is precisely because of these experiences that many believe those born in the second half of the birth boom belong to another generation, as events that defined their coming of age have little in common with leading or core boomers.
The boomers found that their music, most notably rock and roll, was another expression of their generational identity. They continued to listen to music that was not the traditional sounds of their parents. Transistor radios quickly became personal devices that allowed teenagers to listen to The Beatles and The Motown Sound when they wanted.
In the 1985 study of US generational statistics by Schuman and Scott, a broad sample of adults was asked, “What world events over the past 50 years were especially important to them?”For the Baby Boom Generation (this particular study used the years 1946–1955, although the exact baby boomer birth years are currently controversial and interpreted differently by differing organizations, the results for this study were:
- Memorable events: assassination of JFK, Robert Kennedy, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr., political unrest, walk on the moon, risk of the draft into the Vietnam War, anti-war protests, social experimentation, sexual freedom, Roe V. Wade, Stonewall Riots, drug experimentation, civil rights movement, environmental movement, women’s movement, protests and riots, Woodstock and similar music festivals, mainstream rock from the Beatles to Jimi Hendrix experimentation with various intoxicating recreational substance.
Aging and end-of-life issues also leads to social change with Boomers
As of 1997, it was reported that, as a generation, Boomers had tended to avoid discussions and planning for their demise, and avoided much long-term planning.The theory behind this report is that Boomers had considered themselves invincible and death or the preparations for end of life were not viewed as important. However, beginning at least as early as that year, there has been a growing dialogue on how to manage aging and end-of-life issues as the generation ages.In particular, a number of studies have shown that Baby Boomers are in a state of denial regarding their own aging and death, and are leaving an undue economic burden on their children for their retirement and care. Research on memory loss has indicated that the Baby Boom Generation has been confronted with increasing loss of memory due to the agitated life they lead, which requires that attention is put on many different things at a time. The current Baby Boomer Generation has had to keep up with all of the social change and to do this have been forced to juggle several things at the same time. Since previous older generations were not faced with this rapid lifestyle, and the newer generations have lived with this society all their lives, it is said that the Baby Boom Generation was the most damaged one in terms of memory loss due to age.
The same Baby Boomer Generation that developed social change as a right are now faced with not being able to remember what the change was all about. The need to be “with it” has increased as they have aged and now the memory loss is beginning to affect their lifestyles. Thus showing them the need to handle the end of life issues and how to manage the multitude of senior related illnesses that they never thought would become an issue.
