Defining the generations.

The interesting but difficult exercise of defining and tracking the various generations and their habits is again manifest in a number of recent press items.

* 'Post-everything generation', a feature by Kate Legge in the Weekend Australian (11-12/6/05, p.21), looks at today's generation of university students--the children of the baby-boomers--and finds evidence that the pendulum is swinging towards conservatism, but the trend is not clear-cut. Legge says the 20-somethings' disdain for ideological labels and party-political alignment, contrasts with the 'slavish devotion many show to brand names worn on T-shirts, jeans, shoes and mobile phones'. She refers to the AIFS Temperament Project, which has followed 2500 children since 1983 and finds them to be quite traditionalist, 'the great majority are working or studying, they rarely argue with parents; most act responsibly, and intend overwhelmingly to marry and settle down with long-term partners'. One student president Legge spoke to said, 'Students may be conservative on one issue and Marxist on another'; another said, 'Young people are not [uncaring] but we're constantly given the impression that we can't change anything'; and another said, 'people are interested in their own life' (which agrees with the Australian Temperament Project finding of high personal interest but low collective participation) and predicted 'a rise in Christianity not yet apparent in the churches' head count'.

* The baby-boomers themselves came into focus again in ABS figures released in August showing the boomers as having more assets than most and higher incomes. The Australian Financial Review (5/8/05, p.17) reports that 'Nearly-one third of households in which the head is between 45 and 54 own their homes outright ... and about 40% had no children in the house draining their finances'. KPMC demographer Bernard Salt says the baby-boomer generation is a big marketing opportunity: 'Anything that can patch up, prop up, hold up or otherwise maintain their ailing bodies will be popular ... it's the reinvention of the 50-somethings as the new teenage years.'

* While the boomers are trying to extend youth, their grandchildren are compressing theirs. The characteristic of children to grow up faster these days now has a term coined by marketers, 'age compression' or KGOY (kids getting older younger). Nick Galvin in The Age (30/7/05, Insight 2) reports that the magazine Total Girl, which features 'totally cool' personalities like Paris Hilton and Delta Goodrem, and statements like, 'Girls rock because we can love lip gloss, cry at movies and shop till we drop', is actually aimed at and purchased by six- to 12-year-aids and has a monthly circulation figure of 274,000. Barbie's core market is now three-year-aids, and, once children are older than 10, they are less likely to play with toys at all, but spend time texting and using the Internet. Parenting educator Michael Grose says, 'Ten is the new 15' and that because children often look a lot older than they are, they are under stress to grow up before they are emotionally ready. This is causing difficulty for parents who no longer know what is appropriate at what age.

* Understanding and defining the various generations seems to be the preserve of the marketing industry. The Weekend Australian (30-31/7/05, p.3) reports that advertisers are getting excited about the fact that the oldest of the Generation Xers are about to turn 40 (the youngest are 28), but they still don't know how to target them. Con Stavros, senior marketing lecturer at RMIT, says Generation X 'have proven extremely difficult to reach' and baby-boomers were 'much easier to sell things to' because their habits were easier to predict. 'Generation X is different. Mum might be at home. She might be at work. She might work part time.

She doesn't watch as much TV. She doesn't read as many newspapers.' Michael Bittman, Department of Sociology, University of New England, says Gen X is 'more committed to their children than boomer parents were ... Boomer dads used to wait until the kids could kick a footy around before they got involved. Now the dads are in from the beginning.' Gen Xers also carry more debt, especially from HECS and credit cards, but, says Professor Bittman, 'their marriages are marked by a more equitable division of labour'.

* This feature provoked a number of letters in the following week. Slattery responded (Weekend Australian 30-31/7/05, p.32) with more comment on 'Theory' and said that texts introducing postmodern theory are being prepared for English studies across Australia, and that some are being published by the Australian Association for the Teaching of English. He also said The Australian's expose on the postmodern classroom should not be seen as part of a conservative political agenda: 'Schools will more affectively fulfil their social justice aims by teaching underprivileged children comprehension, analysis and expression: the traditional aims of literacy.'

* By the following week, Education Minister Brendan Nelson was urging state and territory education ministers to get a tighter grip of the school curriculum, and he welcomed as a 'breath of fresh air' the announcement by Queensland Education Minister Rod Welford that he intended to remove postmodern 'mumbo-jumbo' from the syllabus. The Australian Council of State School Organisations president Judith Bundy called for all education ministers to scrutinise their English and social science curriculums: 'The ministers should look objectively at those curricula and judge whether or not the aims and subject matter are clear, concise and likely to encourage love of literature and the exchange of ideas' (Weekend Australian 6-7/8/05, p.5).