Now there's Gen G
First there was Gen X. Then Gen Y. Now, dare I propose Gen G? After a quick scan through the Internet and Wikipidia, I found a ton of materials about Gen X and Y commentaries by marketing groups, psychologists, economists, trend watchers and readers.
The popular names of Gen X and Gen Y stemmed from studying generations born in specific periods defined by specific tastes, lifestyles and core beliefs. In a nutshell, Gen Xers were identified as linked to the US presidencies of Reagan and Bush, Sr. Gen X (also often referred to as the MTV generation) witnessed the end of the Cold War and saw the fall of the Berlin Wall. This generation saw the inception of the home computer and, later, the Internet, as a tool for economic purposes. This was the group who rode through the dot.coms, MTV, and hip-hop. With the proliferation of technology, they use the Internet, beepers, and cellphones as social lifelines. They are technology-savvy, independent, resourceful, and strive for uniqueness.
Gen Y, on the other hand, pushes the use of technology further, being voracious consumers of electronic media. They use rapid-fire communication via the Internet and other peer-to-peer media to build a newly inclusive “one” from their wildly diverse origins. Gen Y-ers are also called the Millennials or the e-generation individuals born between 1976 and 2003. Studies project that they will spend a third of their life online. When asked what their top life goals are, the answer is clear and resounding — to be rich and famous.
While X-ers are ultra-individualist, Y-ers are group-oriented. They are less interested in an “army of one” and more interested in the “watch me become we” alternative. And this is distinguished by the things or “stuff” they own. They pursue this identity through only one way: by climbing up the ladder of financial status to define who they are. While the predominant generation group seems to be all running the rat race to indulge themselves in the lifestyle of the financially wealthy, I see another trend arising. And so, my proposition of the Gen G-ers. I thought I was so original until I came upon a website talking about Generation G, with G standing for “Generous” that I realized, there is a common trend arising for people who are trying to build a community that share the same principles of wanting to nurture and sustain the self, community and planet. We define this sustainable community as people who are environmentally conscious, love Mother Earth, want to stay “clean” inside and outside, and chose to live more consciously due to the many problems brought by a materialistic lifestyle.
Okay, so if that website defined G as Generous, I will go farther. Gen G-ers want to live GREEN (recycle, reuse, plant and eat organic, cut down their carbon footprints, use renewable energy resources) and live GOOD (help the poor, believe in socially responsible actions, and uplift marginalized groups through livelihood, microfinancing, and organization). They are GRATEFUL, aware that they are part of a web of life and are thankful for the connection that links everyone to do more good. They are GIVING and GENEROUS, with many of them so willingly share time, resources, and talent to reach out to help those with less. They are GROOVY, assuming the look and feel of the new hippies reborn from the ‘60s, but now more GROUNDED. They are GROUPIES in knowing that they cannot effect bigger changes alone, but must volt in with like-minded people to make the force greater. They believe in GOD (and GRACE), or a supreme being or energy of life that brings all things into wonderful synchronicities. We can go on and on, naming all the G words we can think of....
In defining Gen G-ers, it’s not about a real generation in the sense of a group of people born in a specific period of time after Gen Y or Z. Instead, Gen G people can be from any age group, of any social or intellectual level. It’s about the consciousness that permeates this group. It is the mindset of wanting to consciously bring about changes that are for the good. It is the heart that is more open and compassionate to share, the desire to work together to make the world a cleaner place to live in and create a more humane society. This, I believe, is what Gen G is arising as.
Gen G is a young child planting a tree, a CEO deciding to start a corporate social responsibility program in his or her company, an employee’s effort to volunteer, a housewife’s desire to start a feeding program, a person’s becoming responsible for his or her own healing, a farmer’s decision not to add pesticides to crops, a consumer who buys a fair trade product, a professional finding ways and means at using renewable energy, a grandmother preparing food the old-fashioned way with no preservatives, or a poor widow bringing other jobless women together to start a cooperative and a livelihood. How GREAT can this all be? Generation G embraces a lifestyle that sustains everything positively.
